THE PROJECTOR

Copyright (c) 2017 by Randall R. Peterson ALL RIGHTS RESERVED This is a work of fiction. All persons, locations and actions are from the author's imagination or have been used in a fictitious manner.

By R. Peterson

            “What the Hell!” Tommy Everett pointed to a cardboard sign attached to the ticket booth at the entrance to the Royal Theatre. “Now it costs fifty cents for kids under twelve to get in the damn show!”

            “I know you ain’t under twelve,” Louise Porter stopped chewing her gum long enough to get angry. “Pay the seventy-five cents or go back home!”

           

            “This is outrageous!” Tommy looked at the movie poster for Viva Maria! showing an almost naked Brigitte Bardot and then reached for his wallet. “If I didn’t want to see the scene where BB invents striptease I’d go down the street to the Main.”

            “The Main is still showing Zorba the Greek Louise laughed. “I think old man Clancy actually bought the film reels … so be my guest!”

            “That film has been stinking up the place for two months,” Tommy moaned as he handed over a dollar bill.

            “Hurry the hell up Everett!” someone yelled from the back of the line. “We don’t want to miss the opening credits!”

Tommy was arguing with the theatre’s owner when Kurt Smith and Jesse Paco walked past the concession stand. “I had to raise my prices,” Mr. Cranston explained to a belligerent Tommy. “This new projector cost a fortune … but wait till you see the picture! It’s so real the characters seem to jump right off the screen!”

            “We’re not gonna have to wear any of them hokey 3D glasses are we?” Kurt joined the conversation as Jesse bought a large-popcorn from Cranston’s wife.

            “No … No nothing like that,” Cranston insisted. “It’s all in the projector!”

            “Film is film,” Tommy argued. “A beam of light just enlarges it on a screen.”

            “Let me show you boys,” Cranston insisted. He included Kurt and Jesse by looking at them. “You’ve never seen anything like this before.”

            “I don’t know,” Jesse stammered scanning the crowd already entering the dark theatre. “We don’t want to miss the movie.”

Cranston laughed. “Who do you think starts the projector?” The boys followed him up a tiny set of stairs.

-------2-------

           

            The first thing Jesse noticed was a metal tag on the side of the technical wonder that read THE PROJECTOR THAT MAKES THE WORLD COME TO LIFE Callahan Industries. Other than a strange box attached to the lamp compartment it looked like an ordinary 35 mm movie projector. “I thought old-man Callahan only built refrigerators?”

Tommy laughed. “He only built a couple of Frostman 419’s before his crummy plant closed down. I heard it was a million bucks down the drain.”

            “Joseph Callahan was a genius,” Cranston said. “He invented more things than Toby Edison.”

            “I think you mean Thomas Edison,” Kurt corrected.

            “No Toby was Thomas’ brother,” Cranston said with a wry grin. “Kind of the black-sheep in the famous inventor’s family.”

            “I heard Callahan used technology he stole from a crashed UFO in the bottom of Palasidies Lake to build the damn refrigerators,” Tommy said. “Is that where he got the idea for this crummy projector?”

Cranston ignored him.

All three boys watched as the theatre owner threaded the first reel into the projector. “Better get to your seats,” he said looking at his watch. “The show starts in three minutes!”

-------3-------

            The lobby was full of kids buying popcorn, soda and candy before the show began. Jesse caught a glimpse of Chloe O’Brian as she disappeared into the right aisle of the dark theatre with one of her friends. Kurt started down the left aisle but Jesse pulled him back. “No this way,” he insisted.

It was dark inside. Interlude Music was playing. Only the shadowy silhouettes of heads could be seen. Most of the seats were already taken. I think there’s a couple of seats in the middle of this row,” Kurt pointed. Jesse had to squeeze past two fat ladies each with half the concession stand piled in their ample laps. Ruben Butterfield had both his bowed legs draped over the seat in front of him and refused to move. He was sitting next to Nancy Benton. Jesse and Kurt were forced to step over him and his gum chewing girlfriend. “Why don’t you two girly boys go around?” Ruben complained from under a ten-gallon John Wayne hat as he yanked at Kurt’s hair.

            Kurt turned and bent back the pudgy fingers on Ruben’s hand. The scruffy cowboy roared in pain. “The Butterfield Ranch, where men are men … and the sheep are scared!” Kurt chanted.

Ruben clambered to his feet and took a wild swing. Kurt ducked and Jesse had to drag his ready to fight friend away so there wouldn’t be a scuffle. “Not now Cassius! We don’t want to get kicked out!”

Mr. Cranston’s wife was already walking down the aisle with a flashlight in her hand sweeping the rows looking for the cause of the disturbance. Ruben sat down swearing under his breath. “This ain’t done you bastards!”

Kurt and Jesse moved three more spaces over and slipped into the first seats available. Jesse’s nose picked up the delightful scent of Chanel No. 5. He was almost afraid to turn his head and look. When he did he was sitting next to Chloe O’Brian.

-------4-------

            Chloe’s smile was dazzling in the light from the projector as the movie previews started. “Hi,” she said.

            Jesse felt like someone had poured a bottle of Elmer’s glue into his mouth and it was setting up fast. All he could manage was a distorted “mmmmeeeeeeyaaakk” sound.

            “Hi, Kurt responded. “You’ll have to excuse my friend. A baby bird fell out of a tree and he’s still looking for the nest.”

Chloe and her friend Susan McKinney both laughed. “I like guys who are kind to animals.” Chloe gave Jesse’s hand a squeeze.

            “Yeah,” Kurt said. “Jesse wouldn’t hurt a fly!” He replicated the pulsing screech from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho almost perfectly and made both girls jump.

Someone on a back row didn’t like Ruben’s  oversized cowboy hat. “Hey Ruben! Take off your damn hat!” a voice called. It sounded like Tommy Everett.

Ruben turned around and raised his middle finger.

He had just turned back toward the screen when a half-full box of Junior Mints struck him in the back of the head knocking off his hat. “Thank you,” the same voice called out.

Jesse finally got his tongue untangled and was about to say something when the movie started. To say the Royal’s new projection system was mesmerizing was a vast understatement. The characters looked so real they appeared to almost jump off the screen. “Wow!” Jesse gasped as Brigitte Bardot and Jeanne Moreau, both named Maria, met in a South American country and then start to sing and dance together in a nineteen-twenty circus. Brigitte tears her skirt during the performance and finally removes it so Jeanne takes hers off too. Brigitte flings her skirt into the audience and Kurt feels the material brush past his cheek. What follows is two breathtaking women undressing to out-do each other as they sing and dance.

            Jesse is unaware that Chloe has been trying to talk to him until she punches his arm. “Me and Susan are going to get a Coke … do you want one?”

            “Do I want what?” Jesse’s eyes were spinning in his head and he couldn’t peel them away from the screen.

            “Forget it,” Chloe snapped. She and Susan both stormed up the aisle.

Jesse felt like it wasn’t so much that he was being drawn into the film world it was the film being drawn into theirs.

“Wow!”

“Damn”

“Oh my God!”

An hour later Brigitte and Jeanne are captured and their Catholic inquisitors decide to tickle-torture them.

            Kurt and Jesse stared transfixed as a giggling Bridget escaped her captors and then bolted right off the screen. Jesse felt the sex Goddess’s delicate hands on his shoulders as she vaulted over him and then caught a whiff of Intimate perfume as she ran up the aisle.

The audience exploded in mayhem as the film broke and the screen was suddenly a huge wall of flashing white light.

           

Mr. Cranston’s voice came over the sound system. “I’m sorry folks. Our equipment is new and we seem to be having some technical problems. Please hang on to your ticket stubs and you can see the film’s ending tomorrow.”

The lights came on and Kurt was one of the first ones on his feet. Snorting like a rodeo bull Ruben Butterfield spied them and was pushing people out of the way as he charged forward. “Let’s get the hell out of here, Paco!

Kurt and Jesse ran from the theatre weaving around people on the sidewalk and didn’t stop until they were safely inside Cloverdale City Park.

            “Those muscles on that rodeo ape are good for pounding fence-posts into the ground,” Kurt gasped. “But Ruben can’t run worth a damn!”

Both boys burst out laughing and finally got over the giggles when they heard a noise.

            “I don’t believe this,” Jesse gaped. Moonlight slipping from behind dark clouds illuminated the open space between cottonwood trees almost like a movie screen. They walked forward with slow steps … suddenly terrified.

Brigitte Bardot was sitting on a picnic table with her head in her hands … crying.

-------5-------

           

“You’re real!” Jesse gasped.

“Je suis perdu et je ne peux pas trouver mon chemin du retour,” Brigitte moved her hands from her face and looked at the two boys hopefully.

“On the film she spoke our language almost perfectly!” Jesse looked bewildered. “Your mother was born in France; what did she say?”

“The film was dubbed in English you moron,” Kurt told him. “I think she’s lost and wants to go home.”

“Où habite-tu ?” Kurt spoke the French hesitantly.

Brigitte smiled. “Tu parles comme un chien... J’habite à Paris.”

“What did she say?”

“She says you remind her of her dog in Paris,” Kurt said.

Brigitte shook her head and then began to cry again.

            “Tell her as soon as Mr. Cranston gets the film spliced back together I’m sure she’ll go back to where she belongs.”

            “That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard of”

            “We have to tell her something!”

            “Nous devons seulement attendre ici un peu de temps, et alors tout sera fixé.”

Brigitte wiped her eyes and then smiled at both boys. “Peut-être nous pouvons être plus que des amis!” She moved to the center of the table and motioned for both boys to sit beside her.

            The moon slipped slyly behind some more clouds as Brigitte shivered and then put her arms around both boys drawing them close. “Je suis tellement heureux que j’ai trouvé des amis !”

Warm!

Wonderful!

Strange sensations!

            “What did she say?” Jesse whispered.

Brigitte was brushing her pouty lips against Kurt’s cheek. Both boys realized that the best part of their lives might be in their dreams as their eyes closed. The trees seemed to be singing. To everything … there is a season … and a time to every purpose … under heaven …

            “Who cares … I think I’m falling in love!”

-------6-------

Kurt and Jesse both felt a chill like someone had pulled away a warm blanket; they both opened their eyes; Brigitte was gone. “Was that real?” Kurt gasped. “I’ve got a hickey on my neck … it must have been.”

Jesse and Kurt wandered through the park making sure she was really gone and then walked with great sadness down Townsend Avenue. The lights were on in the Royal Theatre and when Mr. Cranston saw them on the sidewalk he opened the door.

            “Sorry about the film,” he said. “This new projector uses a tremendous amount of power and I had to install a large cooling fan to keep the film from burning.”

            “You fixed the film and ran it to the finish about twenty minutes ago didn’t you?” Jesse was smiling at Kurt.

Mr. Cranston looked at his watch and then looked bewildered. “I spliced the film back together and then ran it to the end to make sure everything was okay.”

            “I told you so.”

Kurt glanced at his best friend and then shrugged his shoulders.

            “I won’t be able to show the rest of the film tomorrow,” Mr. Cranston apologized. “It was already rented to a theatre in Missoula so I’m handing out free passes to next week’s show.”

            “You sure everything is going to be fixed this time?”

            “With any new technology there are always glitches … but I hope for the best!”

Kurt and Jesse thanked him as he handed them each a ticket and then locked his doors.

            “The next show should be even better. I made some adjustments and if you think my new projector made this film came to life … just wait until next week!” He waved as he walked toward his ride, one of the only cars left on the street.

The boys were halfway home when Kurt finally got a chance to look at his ticket. Ruben Butterfield had been secretly driving up and down the empty streets in a smoky old Ford pickup with a bent tailgate and he had chased them down several alleys before they finally ditched him. “I think we’re in trouble,” Kurt gasped.

            Jesse looked up and down the street but he didn’t see the angry cowboy. “We always go to the Friday night show and we’re always in trouble,” Jesse was trying to catch his breath. “So what else is new?”

Kurt held up his ticket. “Ever heard of a movie called The Exorcist?”

TO BE CONTINUED …