CHAPTER TEN Z: THE EMPTY CHAIR
Walter reached the library before the others and found an empty chair beside the window.
He had chosen that place because it faced away from the stage equipment and the photographs on the wall.
He wanted a few minutes in which nobody asked him to remember the theater’s greatest performance.
A woman entered the room carrying a canvas bag filled with old playbills.
She introduced herself as Evelyn Saye, a retired actress who had worked under Walter during the theater’s final season.
Walter remembered her voice immediately.
He asked whether she had come to speak at the hearing.
Evelyn said that she had come to listen.
She had received the committee’s invitation but had not decided whether to support preservation.
Walter asked what troubled her.
Evelyn said that she remembered the excitement of rehearsals and the way people stayed late to help one another.
She also remembered the fear of disagreeing with Walter when a production was running behind schedule.
Walter lowered his eyes.
Evelyn said that Peter’s accident had frightened the entire company.
Several workers had wanted to stop the season and review the equipment.
They had been told that cancellation would destroy the theater’s finances.
Walter said that he remembered the argument.
Evelyn asked whether he remembered calling the workers disloyal.
Walter said that he did.
He had convinced himself that preserving the theater justified pushing people beyond reasonable limits.
Evelyn sat in the chair opposite him.
She said that the theater had given her the first serious role of her career.
She did not want that memory erased.
She also did not want the building restored as a monument to a director who had never admitted his failures.
Walter told her that the committee had already chosen new leadership.
Evelyn asked whether the younger members genuinely held authority or merely carried out decisions made elsewhere.
Walter described the argument over the memorial proposal and the vote that had rejected it.
He explained that Hugo had challenged the committee to consider a conditional replacement agreement.
Evelyn listened with growing interest.
She said that the disagreement sounded healthier than the meetings she remembered.
Walter asked whether she would speak to Imani before the hearing.
Evelyn agreed, but she warned that she would not endorse a plan she had not examined.
Walter said that she should not.
Imani arrived with Nora and the others a short time later.
Evelyn asked for the revised management proposal and spent twenty minutes reading it.
She questioned the plan for recruiting younger technicians and asked who would be responsible for handling complaints.
Imani showed her the draft procedures and admitted that some details remained unfinished.
Evelyn said that the procedures needed a way for workers to report unsafe decisions without asking the person who made those decisions for permission.
Peter agreed and suggested a separate safety representative elected by the technical crews.
Imani added the proposal to the document for discussion after the hearing.
Evelyn asked whether the committee would still consider it if preservation failed.
Imani said that the principle should apply to any performance space the community eventually used.
Evelyn folded the document and placed it in her bag.
She told Walter that she would attend the hearing as an independent witness.
She would speak about both the theater’s value and its failures.
Walter thanked her and did not ask for a kinder account.
After Evelyn left, Daniel sat beside his father.
He asked whether Walter felt prepared to hear old colleagues criticize him in public.
Walter said that preparation had little to do with whether criticism was deserved.
Nora looked toward the empty chair Evelyn had occupied.
The room seemed larger now that someone who disagreed with Walter had been welcomed into it.
Outside, the clouds were beginning to separate above the harbor.
Imani checked her watch and told everyone that it was time to leave.
Peter picked up his coat, and Tomas switched off the projector.
Maisie packed the caption controls carefully into their case.
Walter stood and waited while the younger volunteers walked ahead of him.
He did not try to lead the procession.
Nora closed the library door and followed the others toward the hearing.
