Prologue
A hush fell over the audience as the curtains parted, revealing a drawing room decorated in a 1930s style. Wally Morris knew it well, since she had worked on it for weeks, albeit reluctantly at first, as part of the set design team. But something was wrong. The furniture was in the wrong place, in fact, the wing chair was missing, and there was a big hole the size of a trap door in the middle of the floor.
Hillary Parker, dressed for her role as the French maid, came onstage for her opening line to a burst of applause. Before she could open her mouth, though, she spotted the hole in the floor. She looked around, as if uncertain what to do. Then her eyes widened and she screamed.
The missing chair was rising on its own, coming up through the hole in the floor. When the back cleared the stage, the audience on the left side of the theater could see why Hillary was in such distress. In the rising chair was Wade Fuller, and he wasn’t just playing dead.