Carousel Book Six, Chapters 69 and 70

Bobby Gill is The Wallflower.

His Aspect is Recast.

Recast: The Recast slips into minor NPC roles and quietly transforms them into story-critical characters. Armed with targeted background knowledge and uncanny narrative timing, they pull strings from the sidelines, guiding subplots, influencing outcomes, and stepping into the spotlight when least expected. Masters of adaptability, Recasts turn overlooked moments into defining scenes.

Bobby has a Plot Armor score of 35, Mettle of 4, Moxie of 10, Hustle of 8, Savvy of 8, and Grit of 5.

Free Background Trope: “Actually, I'm a Veterinarian” changes his character’s background to being an animal doctor.

Current Trope Limit: 10

“Background Noise” allows him to get background information from NPCs when Off-Screen.

“If You Can't See It, It Won't Bleed” allows him to temporarily mend wounds by covering them from the audience’s view.

“Animal Whisperer” allows him to have a psychic connection with relevant animals in the storyline and grants them Animals Are Psychic.

“No Animals Were Harmed” prevents animals from being attacked and killed On-Screen or Off, but they may be Written-Off by implication.

“Pure” protects the user from enemy targeting if they avoid the storyline's principal “sin,” until they interfere with the enemy's agenda.

"The Unfinished Plot" allows him to rescue downed players by completing a subplot to the original film that was not used by any players. Grants access to the original script.

“The Bickering Duo” assigns Bobby an NPC named Jules, who will assist him while creating a comedic tone.

“Character Notes” reveals general needs from allies until Second Blood, though specifics aren't provided.

“Read the Room” allows the user to see unchangeable elements in NPC interactions, especially those involving character arcs.

“The Understudy” allows the Recast to elevate their character to the main cast to replace the narrative void left by a downed player. They may use one of that player’s tropes for the duration of the storyline and gain that player’s buffs.

Riley Lawrence is The Film Buff

His aspect is Filmmaker.

Filmmaker: The Filmmaker has a comprehensive understanding of the filmmaking process. They can manipulate the game environment effectively, altering the game's dynamics in subtle but impactful ways. Their abilities are a mixture of meta-Insight and meta-Rule tropes. They have higher Hustle, reflecting their ability to stay out of the way, stay alive, and remain unseen as they manipulate meta-movie elements.

Riley has a Plot Armor score of 42, Mettle of 4, Moxie of 11, Hustle of 7, Savvy of 13, and Grit of 7.

Free Background Trope: "My Grandmother Had the Gift…" A background trope that gives Riley’s character some ambiguous connection to “The Gift” through his heritage.

Current Trope Limit: 10

"Trope Master" grants him the ability to perceive enemy tropes, but at the cost of sacrificing half of his Plot Armor.

As an "Oblivious Bystander," Riley remains untargeted by enemies as he convincingly acts oblivious to their presence.

"Escape Artist" buffs his Hustle to help enact plausible escape plans.

"The Insert Shot" makes allies aware of an object the player chooses. The object will be shown to the audience and its use will be buffed in the Finale.

“Just Out of Shot” allows him to see ‘cameras’ when sneaking near an enemy to avoid being seen.

“Quiet on Set” allows the user to listen to the audio of the current On-Screen scene while Off-Screen, depending on Savvy and the information's value.

“Call Sheet” gives him a timer for when he will be On-Screen next.

“Raised by Television” buffs the user to do one big meaningful action if they establish their inspiration from film and television to establish it.

“What Doesn’t Kill Them Makes Them Angry” allows the user to antagonize the enemy into attacking and lowers their Savvy.

“Punch, Punch, Pose” buffs the user’s Mettle when they coordinate and participate in a Fight Scene. Allies in the scene receive the buff as well.

Kimberly Madison is The Eye Candy

Her aspect is Celebrity

Celebrity: The Celebrity aspect treats the player like an actor and the storylines like films they sign on to. Using meta tropes to create hype, fan favoritism, and larger-than-life roles, the Celebrity is the most versatile of the Eye Candy aspects. Using past roles to help their “career”, the Celebrity can specialize in virtually anything if they have long enough to build a career.

Kimberly has a Plot Armor score of 39, Mettle of 6, Moxie of 16, Hustle of 9, Savvy of 1, and Grit of 7.

Free Background Trope: “Obsessed Survivor” gives her character some traumatic past event that keeps her on alert and prepares her for the fights ahead.

Current Trope Limit: 10

"Convenient Backstory" allows her to believably change her backstory to assist with the current task, buffing the relevant stat.

"Social Awareness" allows her to see the Moxie stat of all enemies and NPCs and intuit relationship dynamics.

“Does anyone have a scrunchie?” allows her to shift Moxie's points into another stat by putting her hair up.

"The Penthouse" The character will get the nicest, safest accommodations in a multiday storyline.

“The Hall of Fame” gives her Center of Attention and will have a heightened role in the story regardless of casting. Meta story elements are more central.

"Contract Negotiations" buffs the user’s ability to improvise after "discussing" their plan with Carousel.

“Compulsive Vetting” makes her aware of exits, onlookers, and potential weapons nearby. It also buffs her when asking characters about suspicious individuals.

“Did You Forget About Me?” allows her to make a flashy and powerful attack after she has been Off-Screen for an allotted time.

"When in Rome" buffs her Grit until Rebirth if her performance matches the tone of the movie.

“Unpretentious Craftsman” makes her less affected by all tropes, abilities, and injuries while Off-Screen if their effect relies on scripting to operate.

Antoine Stone is the Athlete.

His aspect is Health Nut.

Health Nut: The Health Nut is devoted to maintaining peak physical, mental, and spiritual health, highlighting their wisdom and their intelligent approach to fitness and wellbeing. Health Nuts use their high Savvy to make strategic decisions, enhancing their overall endurance and adaptability in challenging situations. Their healthy lifestyle is reflected in their elevated Grit, showcasing their resilience and ability to bounce back from setbacks.

Antoine has a Plot Armor score of 38, Mettle of 11, Moxie of 4, Hustle of 8, Savvy of 7, and Grit of 8.

Free Background Trope: --

Current Trope Limit: 10

"Gym Rat" buffs Mettle and Hustle by revealing an athletic backstory.

Brandishing a weapon is “Like a Security Blanket,” buffing his Grit and soothing his and his allies’ fear.

"Everyone Loves a Winner" the user's character will have some previous success that endears them to NPCs. Failure reverses this.

“Time Out!” allows him to send a fight scene Off-Screen for a set time.

“In Bed By Nine” allows the player to incorporate a restorative sleeping break into the shoot.

“Fight or Flight” buffs Mettle if escape is not possible or Hustle if victory is not possible. Buffs Mettle if neither is possible.

“The Mountain as a Metaphor” boosts allies' uses of Grit and Savvy and allows the user to conquer maladies through metaphor by tackling physical challenges.

“Calm in the Chaos” allows the user to channel Savvy into their next physical feat through a slowed-down shot of them planning things out On-Screen. Time will appear to slow down while planning.

“Blood to the Brain” provides a passive Savvy buff from regular exercise. In a storyline, the player’s Savvy will be highly buffed during strenuous, meaningful activity.

“Gut Instinct” gives him a heads up about nearby danger both in and out of storylines, though he may have to investigate to find the source.

Dina Cano is the Outsider.

Her aspect is Newcomer.

Newcomer: The Newcomer is the audience’s window into the story, an outsider whose reactions ground the horror. They stumble in with their own baggage from another life, but in Carousel, everything is new. Their fresh perspective uncovers details veterans overlook, and their instinctive responses make every discovery land harder for the Audience. When the moment comes, the Newcomer’s perspective might be exactly what is needed to see the story clearly.

Dina has a Plot Armor score of 31, Mettle of 5, Moxie of 6, Hustle of 9, Savvy of 3, and Grit of 8.

Free Background Trope: "A Haunted Past" gives her character some past trauma that haunts her like a ghost.

Current Trope Limit: 9

"Guarded Personality" resists all insight abilities and actions.

"An Outsider's Perspective" alerts her to new, out-of-place, or unusual information.

"Encouragement from Beyond" soothes her when stressed, scared, or in pain and may provide useful information in the form of communication from the beyond.

“Dark Secret” makes her complicit in the storyline’s central conflict, but gives a lot of opportunity to obtain information and redemption. The user’s PA drops to zero when the secret is revealed until they have redeemed themselves.

“Initiation” buffs the user’s Mettle when they protect potential allies.

“They Fell Off” allows her to quickly get out of handcuffs and similar restraints.

"Savvy Safecracker" tells the character how long it will take to pick a lock of some kind. Buffs Hustle in the attempt.

“From the Shadows” prevents the user from being noticed while concealed in shadows, with applicable Off-Screen effects as the audience observes them.

"She’s Owed One" greatly buffs a user’s avenging act in the Finale, but unequips all of her tropes.

~

~

~

I knew that Eternal Savers Club was going to stick all of us into strange roles, that we would converge on the store near the finale so that we didn't interfere with the pre-established footage of the downed players.

I didn't expect to wake up in an office near the center of Carousel.

I looked around and saw lots of newspaper articles and awards littering the setting. There were movie posters from two or three of the storylines we had run, The Final Straw, Itch, and By the Slice, among them. My name was in the credits, of course, and so was Kimberly's.

It was a big office. I must have been a successful person, and I might have only been successful a while ago, because as I looked at my hands, I could tell that I was older. I didn't know how old, but definitely in my thirties if not forties.

On the desk in front of me was a computer, various knick-knacks, and a present wrapped up with a bow and addressed to me.

I looked at the gift tag. It stated simply:

Hot off the press for my favorite director.

P.S. I'll be dropping by the studio later.

—Kim

I carefully unwrapped the present, cognizant that I was Off-Screen. This was purely information gathering. It was pretty easy to tell what the present was even before I had opened it; it was a book.

Last One Alive: The Unlikely Survival of a Fake Final Girl

by Kimberly Madison

The cover was a picture of Kimberly, some glamour shot. The image appeared old, as if it were a picture from a long time ago.

I wasn't sure if I should spend time reading the book or walk around the setting to figure out more about my own story. I settled on reading the back flap just to get an understanding.

It was nonfiction, a story of how Kimberly, years earlier, had survived a massacre during the filming of one of many movies she starred in as a young actress.

Kimberly had equipped her Obsessed Survivor background trope, and it was pretty clear that these events were the thing that she survived.

As I flipped through the pages, I was fortunate to find out that hidden among the paragraphs were what you might think of as Cliff's Notes. Carousel wasn't going to require me to read the whole book. There was a summary. Apparently, the film shoot took place in the backwoods of some far-flung country with a vaguely Eastern European name, which I was certain was made-up. The cast and crew, other than Kimberly, had been killed for some ritual by a cult.

That made sense. Kimberly's background would always reflect the current storyline. Whatever she survived would somehow be relevant to Eternal Savers Club. We already knew it was some type of cult, just from the trailer.

I closed the book.

Apparently, I was pretty high up in the company because I was allowed to wear a hoodie to work. I took stock of my office, and I didn't see anything special there. No trope items, nothing that appeared to be a clue to my subplots, just basic background info.

Looking around the room, it appeared I was once a director of horror movies, and a prolific one at that. But as I opened the door to the building I was in, it became clear that my career had taken a different path.

Instead of directing films, I was in charge of shooting something else altogether.

My office had a window, and when I glanced outside, I recognized where I was. These were the studio lots where movies were filmed back in the classic Geist Carousel days. We must have been on a sound stage.

This was the version of Carousel where movies were made. It was a wealthy enclave created by the Geist family, like a miniature Hollywood from another world.

Yes, Eternal Savers Club was already turning out to be a bit of a surprise.

I walked down the hall. Lots of Non-Player Characters were running about with headsets on.

There was one NPC guy about my size who was carrying some binders. I held up my hand, gesturing for him to stop, and he did.

“Is there something I can do for you, Mr. Lawrence?” he said. He was just a kid, probably around my actual age. He trembled when he talked.

“Yes,” I said. “Can you find my assistant and have her bring my schedule for the day?”

“Of course,” the NPC said. He didn't even have a name on the red wallpaper, just the title Runner. He began to move past me.

“Wait up a second,” I said.

Then I reached out and grabbed his headset and the little black box it was attached to by a wire, and took them from him. I might have had one that belonged to me back in my office, but I didn’t see it. I just wanted to hear what everybody was saying, and somehow I didn’t think I could use my bright orange headphones to blend in around here.

After I got the headset, the NPC left.

As I put them on and clipped the electrical box to my belt, I started to hear what the various employees were saying.

“Mr. Stone has left his dressing room,” someone uttered.

“Craft services, get the hummus out on the table now! Mr. Stone is almost to the stage.”

There were a lot of things like that, but mostly about people I didn’t recognize.

Until I heard a message about someone I did recognize.

“The director is heading to the stage now. Tilly, he's looking for you, and he wants his schedule,” someone said. It wasn’t even the NPC I talked to; it was a woman. It didn’t matter, since it was Off-Screen.

This building was designed like a maze of corners and dividers, little offices completely crammed, belonging to writers and other staff whose jobs I didn’t entirely recognize.

“Mr. Lawrence?” a voice came from behind me.

I turned to see an NPC named Tilly holding out a laminated sheet with my schedule on it, just as I had asked for.

I glanced down at the schedule, and there was only one thing on it, which was filming today’s episode of The Doctor Stone Show.

The Doctor Stone Show, I thought to myself. It would seem he graduated from a mere Health Nut, and now Antoine had a degree.

“Hey, Tilly,” I asked. “In your own words, can you tell me what this show is about?”

She was a nervous girl, petite, blonde, as in her hair was almost see-through, she was so blonde. She had a little button nose, and I must have been a real jerk, because she was afraid of me. I felt bad, and it wasn’t even my fault.

“It’s a talk show,” she said. “Bringing on the brightest stars in Carousel and promoting health to the masses.”

She looked at me eagerly to see if she had done well.

“When you say ‘health to the masses’...” I started to say.

“Because Doctor Stone helps promote his supplements and interviews a lot of nutritionists and scientists to give viewers a more holistic view of the medical field,” she added, hoping that it would please me. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t know exactly what you’re asking.”

“No, you’ve done fine,” I said. “Go grab me a coffee, and can you point me toward the stage?”

We were Off-Screen, so it was okay for me not to know where I was.

She nodded her head and then pointed me down a hallway, which should have been obvious, because that’s where everyone was headed anyway.

I followed the action of the NPCs until I got myself all the way to the set, where a bunch of other NPCs looked at me in the same way that Tilly had.

“All right, people, I want a clean show today,” I said, whatever that meant. “No mistakes. You know how Doctor Stone gets with retakes.”

One of the NPCs looked at me funny and then said, “The show is live. There are no retakes.”

“Ah,” I said, and then under my breath I whispered, “Good luck, Antoine.”

I walked toward the cameras, where there was a producer’s chair with my name on it. Oh, how my character had fallen, from director of horror films to producer of pseudoscience health talk shows.

There was a table beside the craft services setup, stacked high with different supplements. Antoine was featured heavily on the labels, both in photographs and drawings. Doctor Stone, it would seem, was a trusted name in snake oil.

I stood around for a while. According to Call Sheet, I wasn’t going to go On-Screen for another forty minutes. I had time to take things in. I listened over the headset but didn’t say anything. Most of what I heard affirmed what I had already observed.

I was in charge of the shoot. It wasn’t a glamorous job, but my employees seemed to fear and respect me, with an emphasis on the former.

Antoine was some kind of huckster, and while I didn’t get confirmation of this at first, I was confident that he was not a medical doctor, as there were posters here and there of him carrying a football, but none that suggested a medical background.

If he were a medical doctor, they probably would have had him in scrubs with a stethoscope. Yes, he was somehow less qualified than Doctor Oz.

After a few moments, Antoine stumbled on set, wide-eyed and nervous. He saw me and quickly walked over.

“Are we in the right storyline?” he asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. “We had better be,” I said. “That storyline switcheroo was annoying enough the first time.”

He shrugged his shoulders.

“So now I have to film another show,” he said. “At least I don’t have to dance around this time.”

“You can’t say that yet,” I said. “Apparently, I’m in charge here.”

He laughed.

“Any idea where Kimberly is?” he asked. “I found this in my pocket.”

He pulled out a wedding band.

“In your pocket?” I confirmed.

He nodded.

“Sounds like you’ve got marital troubles. Or maybe you’re an adulterer. But I guess those aren’t mutually exclusive.”

“Well, I hope they’re not what the movie’s about,” he said.

I reached into my hoodie pocket and pulled out the book by Kimberly, and handed it to him.

“So she’s like a movie star?” he said.

“And you sell overpriced vitamins,” I responded. I could see he was nervous, so I continued, “You just have to read the teleprompter and sound energetic. From what I gather, your character used to be a football player, and now you’re some kind of doctor on a talk show.”

“I have a doctorate in kinesiology,” he said. “I saw the diploma hanging on my wall in my dressing room.”

“I was expecting something like health education,” I said.

An NPC ran up to us and said, “Doctor Stone, you need to be behind the curtain now.”

“You better go,” I said. “I’m gonna go sit in that chair.”

We went our separate ways after he handed the book back to me.

After he left, the large auditorium seating section was filled with NPCs marching in neatly, most of whom were women in their thirties and forties, ready to watch their favorite daytime show. They seemed excited, and they wore clothing and carried signs with Antoine’s name on them.

From my seat, I could actually see the script for the show on the teleprompter machine, and I realized I was fortunate because Antoine wasn’t going to have to film a full episode. It would just be snippets, just enough for a sound bite or two.

I didn’t really have to do anything. I wasn’t On-Screen, but Antoine was, as soon as he came out from behind the curtain at the behest of the live studio announcer, who was in a booth to my left.

He came out with his hands up in a big smile, and all the women cheered. They were absolutely in love with him.

Once the cheering died down, he managed to deliver the first line of his opening monologue:

“Thank you, thank you... You are seen, you are worthy, and you are chemically imbalanced in the cutest possible way.”

Those middle-aged women loved that.

He went on with his monologue, going through a few more jokes, saying:

“Big news from City Hall this week. Mayor Greenbough has officially rejected the Carousel Council on Health’s proposal for a public exercise awareness program. That’s right: no walking clubs, no outdoor yoga, not even a pamphlet with a sad apple on the front.”

He paused for the audience to chuckle.

“When asked why, the Mayor reportedly said, and I quote, ‘I don’t understand why people suddenly need help figuring out how to move their bodies.’”

Another pause, but this one was to build anticipation.

“This from a man who once described putting on his socks as ‘a core workout and a spiritual journey.’”

An image of the mayor flashed on a big screen behind Antoine. He was a rotund fellow.

This got a disturbingly big laugh. For a brief second, Antoine had difficulty keeping a straight face. It wasn’t because he found it funny; it was because everyone else was laughing so ferociously.

“To be fair, he’s not wrong. I’ve seen that man bend over, and it looks like an exorcism.”

More laughter.

“But hey, the important thing is that he’s getting his steps in, even if it’s just walking back from the bathroom.”

I looked out over the audience, and they found that hilarious. I didn’t know exactly what it meant, but it was clearly related to the theme of the story. There’s no reason that these women would be laughing that hard at mean fat jokes.

There was something eerie about the whole situation, sitting there tucked away Off-Screen. Even Antoine was having trouble focusing in that atmosphere. He glanced over at me and gave me a look like, Are you seeing this?

His monologue went on like that. There were a few more mean jokes mixed in with some that were funny, and almost all of them were related to health in some way.

He went Off-Screen as the NPCs started adjusting. We were jumping forward in his show. One of his guests came out and sat on the couch next to his chair, where he interviewed them.

He wasn’t Off-Screen for long. As soon as he went back On-Screen:

“We’re back with my guest, Crystal Dane,” Antoine said, smiling for the camera. “She’s a trauma recovery specialist and the founder of SOMA24,  a holistic protocol designed to help the body release what the mind can’t.”

He paused and looked back at her.

“Is that a fair summary of what you do?” he asked.

“That’s a great summary,” she said. “SOMA24 is about taking control of inner turmoil with nothing but grit and determination. Exercise is like a physical manifestation of the emotional labor it takes to break through grief, to smash sadness, and to be your best person all the time. I’m telling you, I am happy all the time, and it’s because of this system.”

Her tone and her insipid overenthusiasm both came together to create an uneasy feeling.

“That sounds revolutionary,” Antoine said, the words catching in his throat.

The system that she was describing sounded a whole lot like his trope, The Mountain as a Metaphor, which allowed him to mitigate the effects of his trauma through accomplishing physical feats. I could see a fear in his eyes, if only for a second, that this storyline might focus on that.

“I mean, you have a history of trauma and sadness, don’t you?” Crystal asked.

Antoine swallowed hard. “Do I?” he asked. He looked out at the audience. “I think I’m doing pretty well.”

Everyone cheered.

“Well, you cover it up. But I’m talking about your divorce, sweetie. We all know how hard it hit you,” Crystal said.

Antoine did his best to look uncomfortable, but on some level, I feel like he was relieved that she was talking about some fictional trauma of divorce instead of his actual trauma, which would have been really weird and really uncomfortable.

“My divorce was very traumatic. I was in love,” he said soberly. “And I still have a lot of love. I just don’t know what to do with it anymore.”

He gave a shy smile to the audience.

“I can tell you what to do with it,” Crystal said.

“And what’s that?” Antoine asked.

“SOMA24,” Crystal answered. “The only exercise regimen stronger than divorce, stronger than depression, and more resilient than any trauma I have ever seen.”

Antoine was taken aback. He looked at the camera for a moment, and then put his smile back on and went back into character.

“Well, you heard it here, folks,” Antoine said. “Defeat sadness, trauma, and depression with nothing but exercise.”

Was that thinly veiled sarcasm?

“And our proprietary diet regimen and supplements,” Crystal added.

“Yeah, what she said,” Antoine said.

The show went on for a while longer, but most of it wasn’t On-Screen. And finally, none of it was.

The NPCs filed out of the room, except for those who had to hit their marks as background characters for the next scene, which would finally involve me.

I stood up to greet Antoine as we both went On-Screen.

“Another great show, Doctor Stone,” I said.

“I don’t want that woman back. Not ever,” Antoine said. “They are not supposed to talk about my divorce.”

All business, apparently.

“We told her that. We tell all of your guests that. But there’s nothing we can do; this is a live taping. You’re just going to have to roll with it.”

“I want that part cut out for the reruns,” Antoine said. He was tapping into his actual emotions. “She’s not going to use my divorce to hawk her product. No one is.”

I’d seen enough of the various ephemera with Antoine’s face and name on them, from magazines to posters, to know what his character was about. And since my character was supposed to be mean, I could think of something to say.

“Antoine, you got famous marketing your love life. Everyone followed your relationships, your marriage, and then they followed your divorce. The country is more divided between you and Kimberly than it is between the political parties. You got rich sharing your happiness, and now you’re getting richer sharing your sadness. I don’t know if that’s right or wrong, but it’s the bed you made, and the pillows are made of gold. So man up.”

Maybe I was getting too much into character.

“Just be clear to them in the future that if they bring up my divorce, they will not be invited back on the show,” Antoine said.

“We’ll put it in bold letters in their contracts. All right? We want to keep you happy here, Doc.”

The only way I knew that Antoine and Kimberly had once been married was from one of the signs an NPC was carrying, with Kimberly’s face scribbled on and little horns drawn on her head.

“Antoine, I didn’t know you still cared,” Kimberly said from behind me.

I hadn’t even noticed she had arrived.

He looked at her sternly. “Kim,” he said.

She looked at him, but then moved her eyes to me. “Did you get my book?” she asked.

“I did,” I said.

“Did you read it?”

“Front to back,” I answered.

She gave me an intensely skeptical look and smiled.

“No, actually, it was front and back. I’m sorry, I messed that up.”

That must have been funny, because even Antoine couldn’t help but laugh, even though his character was supposed to be having an emotional moment.

“I signed it,” she said.

“I saw that, thank you,” I said. “Really ups the resale value.”

She laughed at my joke, and then Antoine said, “I guess you’re here for alimony, huh?”

He clearly meant it as a joke, to show how wealthy his character was and to try to create a dynamic of spite.

Kimberly was quick with the response. “Yes. Let me grab my checkbook.”

Her answer surprised Antoine, because now he was the one taking alimony, not her.

She reached into her purse, pulled her checkbook out, and started filling out a check for him.

I could barely contain myself from laughing at her response, especially since she had improvised the existence of her checkbook altogether. That was bold.

Most of the time, when we improvised, we tried to change things far in the future, where there would be enough time to pull the thread and coax Carousel into changing reality.

Improvising small changes to a scene was theoretically supposed to be pretty easy, but it was strangely scary, because what if you said you had a checkbook and when you reached into your pocket, it wasn’t there?

Maybe that wasn’t the best example; you could just say you lost it, but still, trying to add things to the scene through improv was stressful.

“Riley,” Kimberly said as she ripped off a check and handed it to Antoine, “we still have our meeting tonight, right?”

“As far as I know,” I said, grabbing my laminated schedule from my pocket.

I had only paid attention to the work-related items, but there was a small note there for the day. It simply said “Group Therapy.”

I was pretty sure it hadn’t been there. It must have been something that Kimberly found out about.

But there was another entry, one that had been there before but was so far down on the list that I hadn’t paid much attention to it.

It simply said “Party.”

I didn’t know what it meant, and Carousel must have saved the news until that moment.

My assistant Tilly walked up to me and said, “Mr. Lawrence, this was dropped off by a courier earlier today.”

She handed me a ticket. It was purple and gold and had nothing but an address on it, with a time and date that lined up with my schedule.

As soon as my assistant had left, Antoine asked, “How did you get an invite? It’s supposed to be exclusive.”

“Hey,” I said, “my name still means something in this town. Actually, that depends… what year is it?”

Antoine reached into his suit jacket pocket and pulled out a similar golden and purple ticket. Kimberly likewise reached into her purse and produced one of her own.

It looked like we were going to a party.

But first, group therapy. Oh boy.