“You should know this Cameron. How come you don’t know this?”
“If it happened before the year 2006, it doesn’t count!” Cameron chewed at the end of the tiny pencil. He stared at the blank answer sheet willing the right director to pop into his mind. There was an empty space in his head for this piece of trivia.
“You have until the end of this song to hand in your answer sheets,” the MC said through the microphone. He turned up “Sexy Back” by Justin Timberlake. Justin was about to take it to the bridge once more, and then time would be up.
“Anything?” Ethan looked at Cameron with hope and fear.
Henry pointed his beer bottle at Cameron. “You are supposed to know all movie questions. That’s your role on the team.”
“Don’t remind me.” Cameron squeezed the pencil tight in his fist.
There were never old movie questions in pub trivia. The furthest back a question went was a decade, maybe. Then all of a sudden, out of the blue, they were supposed to know which person received two Best Director Oscar nominations in the same year in the year 2000.
“I think it’s Steven Spielberg,” Ethan said. “He’s been nominated a million times.”
“But twice in the same year?” Henry asked. He peeled off the label of his beer.
“I don’t think it’s Spielberg,” Cameron said. “Too obvious.Schindler’s ListandJurassic Parkcame out in the same year, but that was ages ago.”
“Quentin Tarantino?” Ethan asked. Nay, pleaded.
“He never won a directing Oscar, only screenplay.”
“Come on, Cameron. We’ve never gotten this close. We’re in second place.” Ethan got right in his face. “We could win this. For the first time, we could be champions and beat Brain Trust.”
“You sure it’s not Spielberg?” Henry asked.
“Seventy percent sure,” Cameron shot back.
They glared at the corner booth containing Brain Trust. They seemed like the group who only went to the bar solely for the purpose of competing in trivia, not to talk to anyone. They probably went home to play chess to celebrate, Cameron thought.
Not tonight.
He racked his brain of movie knowledge. He used to soak this stuff up. Did his brain run out of space?
“Justin has officially brought sexy back. We are out of time,” Ethan said as the last bars of the song played.
“Did Walker sex the knowledge right out of your head?” Henry asked.
“We haven’t had sex, only talked.” A light bulb flickered above his head. “It’s not Spielberg. Wrong Steven.”
Cameron scribbled down an answer.
“Are you sure about that?” Ethan asked, looking over his shoulder. “Not like I know any better.”
“Yes,” Cameron said with hesitation. He brought his sheet up to the MC.
“I’m rooting for you guys,” the MC said.
Cameron glanced at the corner booth on his way back to his seat. One of the Brain Trust members gave him a Queen Elizabeth wave with rueful smile to match.
Those bastards.
“We haven’t had sex,” Cameron said again once he returned to his table. “Walker and I.”
“Good to know.” Ethan laughed to himself as he drank.
Cameron thought back to the wide-eyed wonder with which Walker watched the sociology lecture. He was glad he could give him that. Walker seemed to have this dark cloud of adulthood over him, which Cameron was eager to lift.
