Chapter 22

Sean stopped the car at the entrance to the driveway. There was a small sign made of yellow poster board stapled to a small stick that was stuck in the ground. The slight breeze made reading the sign a little difficult. Puzzled, he read the sign aloud, “Grand Opening. Private party. Fred Wilkins is not invited.”

“What does that mean?” Suzie asked turning to look at Sean.

“I have no idea,” Sean said reading the sign a second and a third time.

Suzie said, “Grand Opening? What could your mother possibly be opening?”

Sean said, “I’ve got no clue.”

“Party?” Lily said. She hadn’t been to a party in a long time. The last one had been her birthday party. They had played all kinds of games including pin the tail on the donkey. Rather than a picture of a donkey there had been a picture of man. She didn’t know who the man was, but her mother assured her that he was a jackass and that was nearly the same as a donkey.

Still staring at the sign, Sean realized that the name on the sign was familiar. He asked, “Isn’t Mr. Wilkins the owner of the movie theater?”

“I think so,” Suzie answered uncertainly.

“Why would he want to crash one of mom’s parties?” Sean asked. He eased the car down the long driveway to the house.

“I have no idea,” Suzie answered.

Sean stopped the car and hit the steering wheel in irritation. Any chance of spending some quiet time with Suzie had just evaporated. He said, “I knew it. Their cars are gone.”

“We better get inside in case they try to call us. You know that we’re going to have to bail them out,” Suzie said.

“Are we going to the police station?” Lily asked brightly.

“Probably,” Sean answered. He parked his mother’s car in the usual spot. Getting out, he went around the car to open the door for Suzie. Lily bailed out of the back and headed towards the door of the house at a run.

Suzie said, “Let’s go face the music.”

Surprised by the fact that she couldn’t get into the house, Lily came back to the car and said, “The door is locked.”

“That’s okay. We’ll go around to the back of the house. They never lock the backdoor,” Sean said.

Coming around the side of the house, all three of them stopped and stared at the sight in front of them. There were two cars parked in the middle of the yard so that they were facing the white billboard standing at the far edge of the yard. By the house there was a long table with an old fashioned movie theater style popcorn maker and a soda fountain.

Sean was still trying to figure out why there were two cars parked in the backyard when his mother came up and said, “You’re right on time. Suzie, you run the concession stand. Sean, you run the projector and help Suzie when there’s nothing else to do. Lily, you’re the kid on the swing.”

“Huh?” Sean said still trying to take in the full scene in front of him.

“You’re going to run the projector,” his mother said.

“What projector?” Sean asked looking around.

Turning to point at the VCR that was hooked up to a projector, his mother said, “That one.”

Suzie asked, “What is going on?”

“We opened our own private drive-in movie theater and we’re having a Sean Connery film festival,” Sean’s mother answered as if it should be obvious.

“Why am I on the swing?” Lily asked.

Her mother rolled her eyes and said, “There’s always a kid or two on the swing at the drive-in. They swing until they get tired and then go back to their parent’s car to sleep.”

“Oh,” Lily said wondering why she shouldn’t go to her own bed when she was tired. She shrugged her shoulders and said, “I guess that’s okay. I like swinging on the swing.”

Sean’s mother said, “Sean, why don’t you go over to the concession stand with Suzie. Your father will be done taking pictures for the newspaper article. We’ll start the showing at 8:30 sharp.”

Suzie stared across the yard at her mother. She was draped over a life sized cutout of Sean Connery while Sean’s father was taking her picture. She said, “So that is what mom was doing on the computer all day.”

“What newspaper article?” Sean asked.

Ignoring the question, his mother said, “Suzie’s father is waiting patiently over at the concession stand for someone to fix him some popcorn and drinks. Go over there and concess or whatever it is they do at concession stands.”

“Yes, mother. We’ll go over there and concess,” Sean said. He was pretty sure that ‘concess’ wasn’t even a word.

“Don’t forget, the coming attractions are scheduled to start at 8:30,” his mother said.

He and Suzie headed over to the table. There was a stack of paper cups, popcorn boxes, and two boxes of assorted packages of candies. There were all of the classic movie theater candies including juju fruits, snowcaps, hot tamales, and junior mints. His mother had gone all out to make this as much like a theater concession stand as was possible.

When they arrived, Mr. Emery said, “I thought you two would never get here. I’ll have two popcorns and two cokes; one diet and one regular.”

Sean looked at the soda fountain and asked, “Where did she get all of this stuff?”

“I rented it,” Mr. Emery answered.

“You rented it for one night?” Sean asked while fixing a coke. He noticed the lids and straws for the cups. There were even carry trays for the items. He couldn’t believe it.

“No. This is a weeklong film festival with a double feature every night,” Mr. Emery answered.

“Oh,” Sean said realizing that his nights for the next week were going to be spent in the backyard of his house. He glanced over at Suzie and realized that she’d be there with him. He considered the idea of that and then muttered, “That’s not so bad.”

While Sean started a second coke, Suzie fixed two popcorns. She asked, “What’s showing tonight?”

“Dr. No and From Russia With Love,” her father answered.

Not entirely surprised by the choice of films, Sean said, “Mom loves those two films. She says that Dr. No is the film that got her interested in Sean Connery.”

“Mom loves From Russia With Love. She says that it makes her weak in the knees,” Suzie said.

Her father looked over at his wife getting her picture taken with the Sean Connery cutout. He said, “I know. I’ve got a feeling that I’m going to get so lucky tonight. You can see that her nips are stiff all the way from here.”

“Too much information,” Suzie said making a face. She set the boxes of popcorn on the little tray Sean had used for the cokes.

Suzie’s father walked off laughing. A few minutes later Sean’s father stepped up to the table and said, “Two cokes and two popcorns. The movie is going to start soon and I don’t want to miss the coming attractions.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Sean said, “According to mother I’m running the projector.”

“Shouldn’t you be over there?” his father asked pointing in the direction of the VCR.

“If I’m over there, then you’ll miss the beginning of the film,” Sean said. It was just getting dark enough to show the movie.

“I know, but that’s all part of going to the drive-in,” his father replied.

“I didn’t know that,” Sean said while putting the lid on the first drink.

“That’s right. You’ve never been to a drive-in movie,” his father said. He wondered what kinds of things kids did on dates now that drive-ins had closed down.

“What else is part of going to the drive-in?” Sean asked.

His father answered, “Fogged up windows. That’s the best part of going to the drive-in.”

“I didn’t want to know that,” Sean said. His mother honked the horn. He looked over and saw that she was in the car waiting for the movie to begin. She held down the horn for a full five seconds.

“The coming attractions should be starting now. It is eight-thirty,” his father said looking at his watch. He added, “She’s going to honk her horn until you start the show.”

Shaking his head, Sean went over to the VCR. There was a stack of video cassettes beside it. The one on the top was labeled, ‘Coming Attractions.’ He looked at the VCR and noticed that there were wires leading off towards the cars. He shook his head when he realized that there were speakers hanging off the windows of the cars.

His mother continued honking the horn while he turned on the projector. He slid the topmost cassette into the VCR and hit play. When nothing happened, he looked around to find out what was the matter. It took him a minute to realize that the lens cover was still on the projector. He took the cover off and watched the image projecting on the screen. His mother stopped honking the horn as soon as the show started.

Once he was satisfied that the projector was working correctly, he went back over to Suzie. He noticed there was a speaker there so that they could hear the movie. Shaking his head, he said, “If you’re going to do something weird, then do it well.”

“Is that the family motto?” Suzie asked with a smile.

Sean laughed and said, “Yes it is.”

Suzie glanced over at the screen in time to see a list of the movies that were going to be shown. Impressed, she said, “She’s picked out all of his best movies.”

“She put a bit of work into it,” Sean said knowing that his mother had a tape of every movie that Sean Connery had ever made. She must have spent hours making the coming attractions tape. Maybe staying around the whole week wouldn’t be that bad. He laughed and then said, “It is a lot better than putting up a billboard across from the theater.”

Sean watched Suzie swipe up some spilled popcorn. She was so pretty that it was hard to keep from touching her. The sound of a pair of horns being blown interrupted his thoughts. He looked up and realized that the tape was over. He rushed over and ejected the tape. Grabbing the top tape, he put it into the VCR. The whole time he was working, his mother was blowing the horn. He shouted, “Alright, already!”

Once the video was playing, he returned to the concession stand. Suzie said, “They are both a little quick on the horn. They could just roll down the window and yell.”

Sean sighed and said, “I guess that is just what you do at the drive-in.”

“I’m bored. You’ve got the neat job. I’m just the swing kid,” Lily said coming over to them.

“Would you like some popcorn and a soda?” Sean asked.

“Is that allowed?” Lily asked suddenly interested.

Suzie laughed and said, “I think having popcorn and soda is part of the job description for the swing kid.”