Hey, you’re free after school, right? Not a question, actually. Please say you’re available tonight!!!
She replies during class.
ELLIE:
Yeah, definitely! What’s up? Are you coming over?
JACKSON:
It’s a surprise. I’ll come meet you at Amber so we can drive over together.
A little while later, I get an EasyRide back to Amber. This time, I insist to my mom that I go alone to regain some independence. Still, she watches from the door as the car pulls away from the house.
I meet Ellie in the parking lot, and when we hop into her car, she leans over to kiss my cheek. “Where are we going?”
I share the directions to her phone. We arrive at the old ornate Walnut Theater and head inside. Ellie reaches for my hand, but she’s next to the cane. Without missing a beat, she dances around to the other side, running her fingers across my back before lacing them around my other hand.
I show the email confirmation at the ticket counter, and they tell us to wait right there. Ellie gives me a confused look, but I just hold up a finger to say it’s okay.
The manager walks over. “You’re all set for theater nine.”
It’s all the way at the end of the hall, and where the movie title is usually lit up, it just saysPrivate Event.
Ellie raises one eyebrow, getting suspicious. “What’s this?”
I shrug. “You’ll see.”
It’s completely empty inside, and the trailers are already wrapping up. There are no captions on those, however, so I really hope they have this all ready to go for us.
“Where do you want to sit?” I gesture.
“All this,” Ellie says, waving her arms around, “is just for us?”
“Yeah…” I panic, wondering if this was a bad decision.
But she immediately gets giddy. “Okay, let me see what seats are best,” she says, taking off up the stairs, then racing down through each row, before plopping down in the middle of the theater. “How’s this?”
“I don’t know,” I say, smiling as I climb the single step and walk along the railing to our spot. “You didn’t run through the super-close ones.”
She leans back, catching her breath, pretending to observe the seats in front of us. “Nah, I think we’re good here.”
The screen goes dark, and the opening score forHidden Spiesbegins to play. And fortunately, everything is set up correctly, since there’s a caption bar describing the music at the lower third of the screen.
Already having a good time, Ellie lights up with delight. In disbelief, she points to the screen. “What?”
I lean toward her, speaking loud over the movie speakers. “Can you believe we had to get the whole place to ourselves just to get some decent captions?”
“Oh, you didn’t!” She laughs to herself.
“Is this oka—”
Ellie pulls my face forward for a kiss.I’ll take that as a yes.
A character starts to speak, so I lean back. “You’re missing the captions!”
She smiles, sitting back and reaching for my hand.
The movie is fine enough, both dramatic and hilarious, and I’m happy that Ellie gets to experience all the jokes. She bursts out laughing and even heckles the characters since there’s no one around to bother. “What did youthinkwould happen in that tunnel? Seriously!”
