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fire.
    I was anxious to discover where the blaze was, to make sure none of my friends’ houses were in danger. And I thought getting away from the set might ease my stage fright. If I had something else to think about, I wouldn’t be able to spend all my time worrying.
    I decided to see if Bess or George wanted to come with me. I knew George was going to be in the editing trailer this morning, working on one of the giant computers that the editors used to process the shots. I headed that way, knocked on the trailer door, and let myself in.
    “George?” I called. “Do you have time to investigate the fire with me?”
    Right away I knew the answer was no. George was working three computers at once—two laptops, and the big editing machine. I’m pretty good at figuring out how to solve my own basic computer problems, and I can find a lot of stuff online, but George is a true wiz. Once she gets going on a computer problem, her fingers fly across the keyboard and pump out computer language so fast that I can’t even figure out what she’s doing half the time.
    This time, she didn’t even hear me. “George?” I repeated.
    She glanced up and gave me a fast smile. “Hey, Nance,” she said. “What’s up?”
    “I’m going to take a drive and see where the fire is,” I told her.
    But George’s eyes had already returned to the screen of the big computer. “What fire?” she mumbled.
    “The one that had at least three fire engines rushing to put it out,” I said. “Didn’t you hear all those sirens?”
    “Uh, no,” George said slowly. I could tell that her attention was focused on the computers, not our conversation. She probably didn’t even know what she was saying no to!
    “Well, it’s a big fire,” I went on. “I’m going to take a drive and make sure it’s not at any of our houses. I think I’ll run past Harold’s cheese shop too. That way I can set his mind at ease so he can concentrate on his acting.”
    “Okay, have fun,” George said. I couldn’t help a smile. She really hadn’t heard a word I’d said.
    “See you later,” I told her. But George wasn’t even pretending to listen anymore. She was completely wrapped up in solving her computer problems. It was time to try Bess.
    I found her in the second soundstage, working on the Rackhams’ cabin set. She was perched high up on a ladder as Luther Eldridge called out instructions. I walked over to join him.
    “What’s going on?” I asked.
    “Oh, Nancy, it’s a disaster!” he cried. “When Bess removed the molding around the top of the walls, we discovered that whoever built this set didn’t put anything behind the moldings.”
    I glanced around. The cabin set looked just like a real cabin, except that it didn’t have a roof. On one side Bess had taken down the molding at the top ofthe wall. Now that wall was about five inches shorter than it had been with the molding. It looked ridiculous. With the carved wooden molding, the walls had given the illusion that there was a ceiling. On camera the room would look like a regular, finished cabin. But now, with the short walls, it would look more like a child’s play fort.
    “It looks like we’ll have to put the molding back up,” I said.
    “But we can’t!” Luther sounded horrified. “A rustic nineteenth-century cabin wouldn’t have such things. Carved moldings were for the large houses of wealthy people.”
    I took a look at Bess. Her cheeks were smudged with dirt, and her jeans and T-shirt were covered in sawdust, but there was a determined gleam in her eyes. “We’ll figure something out,” she said confidently.
    Clearly this was not the time to ask Bess to come for a drive with me. “Well, good luck, you two,” I said, backing out of the set.
    I was on my own. I made my way to the car and started the ten-minute drive into River Heights. To my surprise, I didn’t even see smoke. I drove through the center of town and glanced at Harold’s cheese shop. It was fine. So