“Turner and Hooch!” someone else calls.
“Marley and Me!”
“I had a cat named Marley once,” a man says. “Smartest cat I ever met.”
“I love cats, but I have birds now, and I’m telling you, they aresosmart,” a woman behind him says.
“Birds really are smart,” Muriel says. “Did you know, if you feed crows, they’ll bring you gifts as a thank you? Like beads and rocks and stuff.”
“Oh! I had a raven that did that once!” someone says excitedly.
“Well, obviously, I feedmybirds,” the woman who started this says. “I wouldn’t not feed them!”
“No one said you didn’t feed your birds, Natalie!” Muriel says.
“Why did you bring up wild birds? We were talking about pets!”
“I had a chinchilla once. Very cool pet.”
I’ve lost track of who is saying what. Things are being called out from all over the collection of chairs and blankets in front of the “movie screen” that is now truly just a white sheet between two wooden poles.
“Do they talk?”
“The chinchillas?”
“No, the birds!”
“I don’t think crows talk.”
“I mean Natalie’s birds!”
I’m watching this with wide eyes. What the actual fuck is happening? “They’re talking about birds now,” I tell Nora, unnecessarily.
“Yep.” She nods happily. “And chinchillas.”
“You’re losing control.”
“Control of what?”
“The…movie night.”
“Am I?” She turns to face me.
No one is paying attention to us anymore.
“Aren’t you?” I ask. “They’re not watching a movie, they’re not talking about the movie, they’re not talking about any movies at all.”
“Do you want to talk about the movie some more?” she asks, handing the mic to me. “Go ahead. They’d love to hear from you.”
I quickly put up a hand. “No. I didn’t mean that.”
“Then why do you care what they’re talking about?”
“It’s just…it’s movie night.”
She laughs. “Well, that’s what brought everyone here,” she agrees.
I shake my head. “You can’t honestly thinkI’mwrong for showing up here onmovie nightexpecting to sit in the dark, watch amovie, and make out with you.”
