28 June 2005

A Prelude to Bewitched

We sat down. Dad balanced the popcorn on his lap, and I handed him his soda. I poked a straw into my rootbeer and set it in the cup holder.

"These seats are small, aren't they?" Dad commented.

"Yeah." I've seen many movies on various screens at this theater, but this was the first time the seats had seemed this narrow. I felt claustrophobic. To reduce my width, I pulled out the water bottle I'd smuggled in from the side pocket of my khaki cargo shorts.

Maybe it was my imagination, but the seats in front of us looked wider. I pulled out my keys, stretched my pocket measure from armrest to armrest, and then leaned forward to measure the seat opening in the next aisle. The armrests taper in to the seat back, so I measured both again making sure to measure at the same point just in front of the cup holders.

"They seem a little wider," said Dad.

"They are wider. Over an inch." I scrutinized the rows ahead and observed, "Every other row has smaller seats."

"Weird."

"Yeah. Get up."

"I'm not moving, I just got settled in. They just seem wider," argued Dad.

"No, they are wider. Get up." I put my water bottle back in my pocket and picked up my rootbeer. Dad reluctantly wiped his buttery fingers on a napkin and picked up his drink and popcorn.

Since there were people in the row in front of us, we moved up 3 rows. We sat down.

"These are wider," Dad conceded appreciatively.

"Yeah, I know," I said with a grin.


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5 comments:

  1. that's pretty funny.
    i have a screwdriver thing on my keys.
    and a bilo thing that me and my friend signed up for so we could get discounted marshmellows for camping out/cooking out.

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  2. Discount marshmellows? My keychain needs one of those. :)

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  3. I have a tiny little tape measure on my keychain. It only measures up to 3 feet but it is really handy. You never know when you're going to need it. :)

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  4. Exactly. It's just long enough to make sure you aren't imagining things, and to make sure furniture will fit through your doors.

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  5. Although I disapprove of your flgrant water-bottle sneaking, your story rings true. I worked in a movie theatre, and you can't imagine the number of sneaky tricks we pulled to get customers to buy concessions. Since the theatres themselves rrely if ever make money on the actul film (most of that goes to the studio), every single thing they do is aimed at concession sales.

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