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conceded. “It’s just that they’re so ambitious. Operas and ballets! Even their avant-garde stuff shows no concept of working within their limitations. I’m not even talking about the budget.”
    “I never met Thomas,” Mrs. Park said. “Min looks up to him a lot now. It’s funny.”
    I didn’t think that was so strange. What I wondered was when Samantha would get anything grand done in her honor and what it would be. Then I wondered why Min would invite Blake. I thought they didn’t get along.
    We would soon find out.
----
    B lake escorted the four of us into the lobby of the Wonder Falls ballet theater, which had lush carpets and sparkling chandeliers. Most other audience members had opted for full-formal attire.
    “You were right after all,” Bea said to Aunt Astrid while craning her neck. “We aren’t overdressed. Oh, look, there’s Naomi up on the dais.”
    I peered in the direction Bea was pointing and saw that Min Park was standing with Naomi.
    “Well, let’s all go and say hi,” I urged the other five.
    Naomi squeaked with excitement when she saw Bea approaching. They gave each other a quick embrace and air kisses, then went to the side to chat. Min embraced his mother, nodded in greeting to Aunt Astrid, gave me a smile—and signaled at Blake to follow him.
    “What was that about?” I asked nobody in particular.
    “Security matters,” Aunt Astrid guessed. “Maybe some of our less-than-model fellow townspeople haven’t forgiven Tommy for that political article and are prepared to be less than constructive about it.”
    “That must be it,” I said, completely convinced that it couldn’t be it. “I’m just going to go make sure…”
    I followed Blake and Min to an empty corridor, where of course I couldn't stay hidden until they made a turn. A set of double doors down the hall led to a function room, but I wouldn’t be able to see or hear anything if I hid there. I ran forward as quietly as I could in heels but kept myself hidden behind the bend in the corridor. Blake was murmuring, and I heard, to my surprise, Old Murray’s voice objecting.
    “And here I thought you’d talk sense,” Old Murray said to Blake. “Here’s Topher’s ticket, right here. It’s his ticket, but it was mailed to my address. Now are you going to show us to our seats?”
    “But you didn’t reserve or confirm a seat for yourself,” Blake said.
    “You saw all I’ve got to do, Blake! Do you really want to see how Topher gets without me? It’d be better to leave both of us out of this show if that were to happen.”
    Then Min spoke up. “Topher is Tommy’s only family, that’s all I knew. I didn’t know that he—”
    A fourth voice, doleful and trembling with age, yelled, “Alice! I know what you did to my Alice!”
    “Wasn’t lucid,” Min finished.
    Old Murray told Topher to be quiet.
    After a pause, Old Murray spoke again. “So did we come all this way for nothing? Or did you mean what you wrote about being honored to have Thomas’s family watch the show? I’m his family too, you know. Tommy was my grand-nephew. My sister Dolores was a Willis before she became a Thompson.”
    “Dolores!” Topher’s voice spoke again. “Don’t leave us like this! She’s left us, Murray.”
    “I know,” Old Murray said to him. “I’ve known a long time. It’s been a long time, Topher, think.”
    Blake and Min walked back up to the corner.
    “We can wait for the theater to fill up and just count Murray’s seat as a complementary walk-in, if there’s room,” Min said to Blake.
    “Right,” Blake said, “I’ll notify the ushers.” There was static like a communicator coming to life. “Davis, do you copy?”
    Had this all been about seating arrangements? As Blake spoke instructions into his communicator, I risked peeking around the corner and gasped through my nose at what I saw. There was definitely something, a ripple in the air, over Old Murray’s balding head. It was probably an