May 18th, 2005
"Do you trust me?"
This question can mean many things, coming from a woman. Especially when addressed to her husband. Whatever it happens to mean at the time, though, there can be only one correct answer.
I took Elly in my arms and said, "Of course I do, hon. Completely and totally."
She said "Good," and reached for one of the many small boxes scattered atop of her bureau. She was sitting on her chair, getting her makeup just right (I would have said she looked beautiful without it, but I'd learned not to raise that point a long time ago) before we got going. As she opened the little box we heard the living-room clock bong once. It was ten thirty. Time to leave.
Elly rose from her seat and smoothed the front of her dress with one hand. The black dress left her shoulders bare and seemed a little light for the foggy night outside. Her legs were bare and her feet were clad in high-heeled sandals. She was dressed for summer, not late spring. New England can be unpredictable but this seemed to be unusually optimistic.
I forgot the box for a moment and said, "Maybe you should bring a jacket, hon. It's probably going to be raining when we leave the theater. Not that you look anything other than delectable, of course..."
"Don't worry about that, Davy." She held out one hand and opened it. Two pills were nestled on her palm, one red and one blue. "It won't be a problem."
Looking at the pills, I snickered. "Elly... just a reminder, we're going to Sith, not a Matrix sequel."
"I knew you'd say something like that. Just swallow the blue pill, okay?"
I was about to ask what was in it, then reminded myself of the "trust" question and took a pill from her hand. "Down the hatch," I said, starting to work up some spit to dry-swallow it.
Elly grabbed my wrist and said, "Stop!"
"Huh?"
"Wrong pill, genius." She took back the red pill and gave me the blue one. It went down easily enough. "Excellent," she said. She popped the red pill into her mouth, bit down, and swallowed twice. "That ought to do it. Let's go."
We saw a lot of traffic on the ten-minute drive to the theater, then it took twenty minutes to cover the last half-mile. I'd thought our arrival time would help avoid the first rush, but it looked like a few thousand other people had the same bright idea. Fifteen showings, all at midnight, times four hundred people per screen, say one car per three people... getting out of here was going to be a nightmare.
"I'm glad I'm taking tomorrow off."
"Is anyone from your department going to be in the office?"
"Tom's going to be there. And maybe Jack."
Elly chuckled. "I bet they both call in sick."
"Want to go for a walk around the mall after the movie, if it's not raining? We might as well- it'll be an hour before we can escape."
My wife smiled as though she had a secret, which she did. I wondered what the pills were for. I didn't feel high or sleepy... it wasn't the first time she'd slipped me something on faith, and the other occasions had been pretty darn enjoyable, but none of them had been just before going out in public, much less driving.
She said, "I'll do some walking tonight, sure." The way she phrased it seemed strange, but I knew asking would just make her smirk again. I'd married the cat who ate the canary...
The theater staff was great, absolutely aces. They had fifteen lines set up outside, one for each screen, and there were plenty of... ushers, I guess they're still called... out helping people find parking spaces. We joined the line for screen number six and, not five minutes later, our line got to go inside.
Our seats weren't perfect, by any means, but we weren't worried about that. If Revenge was as good as the trailer made it look we'd be back many times and have plenty of chances to sit in the prime seats. We were in the right rear section, about even with the top of the wide screen. Elly sat on the aisle and I was next to her.
Over the next hour we chatted with our neighbors and each other, mostly about Star Wars, and tried to ignore the obnoxious ads playing on the screen. Looking down on the front section, I counted four men for every woman- a better ratio than I'd expected. For a man who'd met his spouse at one of these premieres, I thought, I had a pretty stereotyped view of my fellow fans.
Finally, the lights went down and the red curtains at the front of the theater slid from three-quarters to completely open. Everyone cheered, even though we knew we wouldn't see the movie for another fifteen minutes. The crowd went quiet as ads for the refreshment stand and a car played... I was too excited to complain to Elly about the auto commercial this time. Star Wars! The last movie! Any second now!
A green screen told us that the following PREVIEW was unrated, but that the movie it was for was rated PG-13... I let the advertising wash over me, didn't even remember what it was about five minutes later.
Of course, five minutes later I was a little... distracted.
Giantess World
