The Movie...

The movie...

You know, the movie has been playing long before you came in, and it will play long after you leave. You are in your seat, you have your popcorn, and soft drink, you are trying to take in the action on the screen. You think you know some of the actors, you kind of think you know the gist of the plot, but really, it's all guesswork. There are long stretches where you have no clue what's going on. You find yourself closing your eyes and dozing in the slow parts. You wake up and are on the edge of your seat for some of the tense parts. You find yourself trying to lay down in the aisle, but it's too constricted. You'd like to hide under your seat, but you won't fit, there's old candy wrappers, and empty popcorn containers under there. It's sticky too. Your shoes sometimes stick to the floor. You are stuck in your seat for long stretches. You do take bathroom breaks. You slink out to the lobby, it's bright and empty. The bathrooms are shiny and clean. Antiseptic. Someone has been working hard to keep things clean. You want to figure out what's going on. You'd like to know, is the movie an action flick, a mystery, a comedy, a romance, one of those weird, foreign flicks that you'll never get? There is no one around to ask. You realize that the movie will run long after you are gone. So you really won't know  how it all turns out, you won't find out if it's a "feel good" flick, you know, life affirming, or a sad film, a multi-hanky, tear-jerker, or inconclusive, or mysterious, or maybe a cliff-hanger, a first in a series of movies, maybe it's franchise film and there will be a sequel, a prequel, or a later reboot? I mean, "only the Shadow knows..." So, back to your seat. Sometimes you zone out and just watch the colors on the screen, the soundtrack washes over you like water over a rocky shore. You can't make out anything specific, it's all just sound, color, fury & thunder...