Madeleine pulled the reluctant Jon into the corridor and hurried him along.
"We have to wait! We have to get Simone back. She needs to help Karyn."
"We will. I promise. But now we must return to where we were, and we do not 'ave very much time left."
"We've got all the time we need. No one's moving."
"They are going to begin moving again very soon, so we must get back."
Jon frowned.
"How do you know that? Unless you're behind all of this."
For the first time that evening, Jon found himself wondering how Madeleine knew so much about what was happening.
How was she able to move about when everyone else—including Karyn—could not?
"I know only what I was told many years ago... and it appears I still 'ave much more to learn."
As she spoke, her eyes drifted once more to the small journal she carried in her hand.
"Who told you?"
"An old friend of mine. I will explain what I know to you and your friend later. For now, we must get back."
Madeleine led Jon through the door that returned them to the rear of the stage.
"Why can't you tell me now?"
Jon's impatience was beginning to show.
"Because we must return to exactly where we were standing. We cannot allow anyone to see that anything 'as changed. That was one of the first things I was ever told."
They stepped through the doorway and emerged once again into the wings.
"Won't they notice Simone isn't here?"
Jon deliberately kept his eyes away from the stage.
He knew Karyn would still be standing exactly where she had been when everything stopped.
"I do not believe so. She was not with us when the Pause began. If anyone asks, we shall think of some reason to explain why she is absent. Besides..."
Madeleine hesitated for only a moment.
"...people were not paying very much attention to 'er."
A trace of sadness crossed her face as she gently guided Jon back towards the place where he had originally been standing.
Jon glanced up at the clock mounted high at the rear of the stage.
He had barely noticed it earlier.
It still read:
9:05 PM.
He was certain that had been the exact time displayed when the theatre had fallen silent.
Surely...
It couldn't still be 9:05.
Could it?
Then—
The final notes of the music resumed.
Not restarted.
Resumed.
It was almost as though the orchestra had been playing continuously the entire time.
"Ah... good. We made it."
Madeleine allowed herself a quiet breath of relief.
Jon looked towards the front of the stage.
Karyn and the rest of the chorus rose gracefully from the magnificent flower formation.
To Jon, they had remained motionless for what had felt like hours.
To them...
Only an instant had passed.
"They don't know what's been happening... do they?"
"No. For them, no time 'as passed. As I told you, they were paused. Now they are not. Time 'as begun to move once more within ze Théâtre de la Rue des Roses."
Madeleine continued watching the stage.
Even as the applause filled the theatre once more, her thoughts were already elsewhere.
She needed a believable reason to bring Karyn to her office.
