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.m.Friday and Saturday nights were date nights, of course.None of would’ve wished to be caught dead at the Glen on Sunday evening with our families.) The theater was about two-thirds full and everybody, Suzi said, knew the Hearts were there within seconds of their appearance, stealing glances at them, or frankly staring if they were in a strategic position.and Roger who ordinarily slouched in their seats, sort of partially worn-velvet seats in the middle of the row, by now fitted to their buttocks in the strained posture in which they sat for hours pressed together, kissing dreamily, now sat alertly upright and leaned forward to observe the Hearts.It was amazing- “How normal they seemed.I mean, like anybody else,” Suzi said.John Reddy oblivious of eyes snatching at him from out of the semi-dark led the way, carrying a giant box of popcorn and a large Coke, he looked older than sixteen, needing a shave, his hair greasier than usual, slicked to the back of his head but falling down in quills, Roger thought, sure, John Reddy was embarrassed like anybody’d be, seen in public with his family at the Glen, but Suzi disagreed—”John Reddy always had such poise.You could never tell thoughts.” They did note that John Reddy was patient to the point of impatience with his younger sister, the beetle-browed girl of ten or eleven who walked stiffly as if her leg was still in a cast, she was slow to settle in her seat, puffing and fussing, carrying a Coke and what appeared to be a fifty-cent box of M&M’s.Beside her sat John Reddy’s younger brother, a pigeonbreasted boy with glasses and a skeptical look—”Sharp kid, ” Roger said.“My brother Jamie’s in his ninthgrade class.” Then there was Heart, amazing to see her in the role of mother, not that she looked like anybody’s mother, she might’ve been (this was Suzi’s observation) John Reddy’s slightly older sister or even (but this was weird to contemplate) his woman friend, the two glancing toward each other (so both Suzi and Roger noted) from time to time during the movie as if to check How’re we doing?O.K.?Bringing up the rear was old Mr.Heart in his cowboy hat, rumpled and noisy boots, both he and Dahlia had their arms full with Cokes, and popcorn boxes, one of which old Mr.Heart promptly spilled as soon as he sat down.“God damn.” And Dahlia whispered, “Daddy.Hush.”feature began with a burst of Technicolor.Fortunately Suzi and Roger had seen The Sound of Music before, or in any case they’d sat through it, Suzi loved the movie, Roger couldn’t bear it.This time, Roger said, Julie Andrews’s almost too luminous face reflected on as much of Heart’s face as he could see from his seat.Suzi marveled, “It amazing thing.How on the Hearts’ faces, which were such rapt, faces, I could see The Sound of Music like ghost images rippling water.” Except John Reddy must have grown restless, for he slipped away three times during the movie to use the men’s room or possibly to step outside the exit, which you weren’t supposed to do at the Glen, to have a quick smoke though smoking, of course, was forbidden for WHS team during basketball season.Neither Suzi nor Roger dared follow John Reddy to find out what he was doing, nor did Mimi Duncan behind the counter know though she calculated he was out in the alley for “somewhere between five and eight minutes each time.Alone.“) Of all the Hearts, Dahlia seemed the most moved by the sentimental story of children, dogs, nuns and love in the scenic Swiss Alps, she wiped at her eyes during crucial scenes, and laughed joyfully during others, though Mrs.Heart, too, away from her seat several times, to use the ladies’ room presumably, and, as Suzi subsequently learned, by querying Mimi Duncan, to make a call in the manager’s office—”Something Mr.Nordstrom doesn’t anyone do, but he let her.That real pretty blond woman.It must’ve been an important call, huh?” Old Mr.Heart, his cowboy hat in his lap, nodded off frequently during the movie but, when he was awake, could be responding to it emphatically, laughing, muttering, even groaning.And when THE END flashed onto the screen amid buoyant, deafening music, music of happiness, without a cue from Mrs.Heart all five Hearts burst into spontaneous applause.“What a lovely movie!” Mrs.Heart exclaimed, eyes shining with tears.“What a wonderful, true movie!” The Hearts’ enthusiasm was contagious, others in the audience joined in.Filing out of the theater, The Hearts were heard to say to one another, as Suzi and Roger tried not to be too conspicuous about following after them, especially John Reddy’s eye, these remarks, “This was fun!”“This was fun!”“Let’s do this again—soon!”“Would anyone like the rest of my popcorn?”“Would anyone like the rest of my M&M’s?”“Would anyone like the rest of my Coke?”“Would anyone like the rest of my popcorn?”“I love Technicolor, it’s like real life.”“I love Technicolor, it’s better than real life.” tohn Reddy looked his man in the eye.Said lohn Reddy, Time to die! tohn Reddy, tohn Reddy Heart.Evangeline Fesnacht was our chronicler of disaster.Already in school she’d exhibited those strains of precocious morbidity and hyperscrupulosity that would distinguish her, years later, in an adulthood forged beyond the leafy perimeters of the Village of Willowsville as E.S.Fesnacht, a voice of disturbing but penetrating insight into the tragic human condition.In seventh grade, elected secretary of our class, Evangeline insisted upon including in her fastidious minutes not only every minor transaction of our meetings but parenthe ical synopses of events that had occurred the weeks between meetings—accidents, illnesses, traumas, and even deaths as they pertained, however obliquely, to members class [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]