I really couldn’t see any way around it. My plan, clearly, was spectacularly stupid, and I couldn’t imagine living with the humiliation of being turned down, universal redemption or not. Grace was late, which made me panic and think she wasn’t coming, which actually would’ve been a good thing. I considered bailing, but then the door at the back of the auditorium creaked open and she was moving down the center aisle between rows and rows of seats, leaning heavily on her cane. She looked so small in the vast, empty space, her long shadow cast up behind her. Like a miniature figurine in a diorama. “What’s this?” she said when I jumped off the stage and jogged up the aisle to meet her. “A grand gesture I’m going to regret in about five minutes.” “Oh.” I clicked the power button for the projector and the title slide glowed to life on the screen. “You’re a ridiculous human being,”
