Rialto

Barbara, you are a trooper! The iguana episode has all the characteristics of an entire chapter. Or most of a chapter. I like the gently ironic (satiric?) sociology. I get from it a real affection for the characters. Here's something I came up with yesterday.

When the movie was almost over Kyle took up his customary place in the lobby. Movie-goers pushed through the doors, moving past him in a steady current and out through the front door. There were the people who joked about the movie. Or talked about what they had to do next. Or just looked around the lobby as their eyes got used to the light. Kyle stood there next to the potted palm, waiting until everyone had filed out. Then he got the broom and a hinged dustpan on a handle from the store room and headed in.

There were always a few stragglers, though; couples, usually, who stayed to watch the credits. Who were these people? Was it the music they stayed for, or some obscure technical information in the credits? Or was it the dark itself, and the effort of actually getting up that they were putting off until the moment when the house lights came up. Then they got up, stretched, and walked out, wobbling slightly on their feet. It was a plain, high-ceilinged box, this room, put up maybe a generation before the movie-palace vogue. Every sweep of the broom and every whack of the dust pan against a hard surface hung in the air a fraction of a second too long. He wondered what Janice was doing at that moment. They had plans for later on, once his shift was over.

See you and Jenny tomorrow.

Bob;-)