Neil had learned later that, in fact, the Executive Board of the Association had appointed the Captain official keeper of the keys. Mary Tuchlein observed, "Just when you think the Association has reached the bottom, they surprise you. They just keep going down."

At the Congregational Church that Sunday, reading from Mark 7:31-37, Reverend Metcalf cried out, "Ephphatha! -- Be opened!" The closing prayer was exceptionally long, touching on the theme of suffering, especially "for people in periods of transition", and "facing tough choices." During the the hymns, Neil sang his heart out. After the service, he took a walk around the town with Mark and Jillian. Wallace Barrow was out front of his funeral manse, clipping the hedges with buzzing electric hedge-cutters. He waved Neil over. He turned off the cutters. Taking his children's hands in his, Neil approached.

"I warned you not to cross me," a stern Barrow says to me fiercely, right in front of Neil's two children. "I will squash you like a bug."

"Let's go, kids," Neil said, and turned away.

"I will crush you like an insect!" Barrow yelled, letting his cutters rip.

"Daddy," Mark said thoughtfully, after they'd walked about a quarter mile. "Does this mean you're going to lose your job?"

"No," Neil assured his son. "It means we're going to get a better museum so I can do a better job without that man to stop me." In the back of his mind, Neil was already composing a letter of resignation:

"I have heard, and do not doubt, it is the will of the Executive Committee of the Museum of the Year 1912 Association that I should no longer serve as Director. I would comply, except I remember that I came to Camperdene for a reason: to be of service, and to be of some value, to this community. I am not inclined to let myself be so simply turned away. Like it or not, we are together now -- whether together or apart -- entering a new phase."

The Superintendent of Schools, Michael Bonaventura, had meanwhile written to Barrow, "While I clearly do not know the complete story, I would like to be on record as agreeing with Neil Wright that the Museum Association Executive Board's hiring of Association Vice President Richard Cunningham is entirely inappropriate -- and, in fact, seems purposefully confrontational. I don't know the Association's By-laws (though I should), but it is certainly considered usual for Boards of nonprofit charitable organizations to stay at the policy (not practice) level, confining their hands-on impulses to approving the overall budget, supporting institutional development, and hiring a curator to run the organization. Explaining the rationale of the crucial division of responsibility and authority between Board members and the curator would be to belabor my point. Suffice it to say this recent action undermines trust, creates barriers, and demeans the Museum Board. This is a matter of principle. I could not let it pass without comment."

In mid-September came powerful headline news, Alice Armour Armstrong reporting: "Seven Million Dollars for The Museum of the Year 2012."

"An anonymous donation of six million dollars has been made toward securing the building of a new museum in Camperdene. Nicholas Wentworth, local bookbinder and President of the Friends of the Museum of the Year 1912 and its Museum Building Support Group, said he yesterday received a direct transfer in that amount from a private account into the only recently created Museum Building account. The donor, rumored to be a long-time supporter of the Museum of the Year 1912 Association, has asked to remain anonymous, stipulating only that the money was not to be used for the building of a new Museum of the Year 1912 but rather for the building of a Museum of the Year 2012. Wentworth has said. the astonishing contribution brings the Museum Building Fund to a whopping seven million dollars.

"Sidestepping the issue of the ongoing conflict between the Museum Association and its Director, Neil Oppenheimer Wright, Wentworth said he hopes Wright will consider serving at the helm of the new museum operation, 'steering a bold, fresh course'."

The news carried Neil into a splendid season of hope and love and friendship. He woke up hungry every morning -- famished! -- and sang in the shower. And sang all day. It was just a season of singing and singing and singing.