Previews

We were thirty minutes early, my little brother and I, at the movies. We stood in line quietly. Everyone was quiet. The only people in line were alone and had nobody to talk to. It was a sad thing to reflect on.

 

"Y'know," I said to my little brother, "For some reason, wearing these steel toed boots gives me the urge to start kicking people."

 

Everyone turned and stared at me. There was an emotion in their eyes to which no word is assigned. They couldn't tell if I was joking or being serious. They were brought to the edge of both panic and laughter. It's an emotion too brief to be assigned a word. I love to incite that reaction. For a fleeting moment I can see them try to decide whether to laugh or to step away, I can see them in a moment of decision, I can see them thinking.

 

Previews.

 

We had taken our seats, were watching the previews. A larger crowd had formed now, the people with dates were there.

 

Preview for a typical horror flick. The guy in front of me made some tough guy remark to his girlfriend; "horror movies these days are so stupid. They're not scary at all." Something of that nature.

 

Suddenly, an eerie note struck and a quick image flashed on the screen, and the kid jolted back in fear in his seat. I could feel him jolt back because my foot was wedged under his chair. Even through my steel toes, I felt the jolt. Sure, he tried to play it cool--act like nothing happened, started figiting around, to make it look like he was merely adjusting himself to get comfortable, but he wasn't fooling anyone.

 

The guy sitting behind me made a remark that pissed his girlfriend off, I didn't catch what it was, and she said to him, "you're not going to get head tonight." The guy laughed nervously and, with nothing else to do in the awkward silence between them, he pulled out his cell phone and started talking with his roommate. "Yeah, well, movie is starting at ten, so I'll be back around 12:20ish..."

 

Preview for a typical comic flick. Images of Adam Sandler flashed through the screen, the annoying comedy announcer voice explained the plot of the movie to us, as if we were too stupid to figure it out based on the imagery. "He's an Isreali soldier who wants to be a hair stylist! Isn't that funny? Haha! Yeah! Please watch this movie..."

 

People laughed, the woman to the side of me said to her man, "I'll have to write that one down!"

I guess she finds something funny about the serious issue of hair styling.

 

The movie started. A typical superhero flick to entertain my inner child. I couldn't quite get into it. Suddenly it occurred to me that I was more interested in the stories of the people around me than I was in the pictures on the screen.

Author's Note

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Reviews

[lark]

my sister also says this: previews are nice *smiliefaceforreal* { :) }


you make me laugh... or at least snort and then smile quietly to myself (can you smile loudly?).