It was a slow day at the movie theater where Ben worked during the day. It was always slow earlier on in the days, especially week days. Usually, the only customers that came in around this time were older couples. They prefer seeing movies around this time, as it’s the time of day when no teenagers are running about the theater, disrupting their movie. Even so, there were barely enough people there to fill up one theater. Ben prefered it this way, he always savored his morning shifts, mostly since it was his job to sweep the floors after a movie is finished. Less people meant smaller messes to clean up. He’d been sitting in the main lobby for a little while, waiting for the next movie to end, all the while thinking about Amy. The guys were right, they did like each other, a lot. She was the single most amazing human being he had ever met, and yes, he still thought of her as a human being. She loved superheroes and fantasy genre books. Her favorite musicians ranged from Cage the Elephant and Adele, to The Beatles and Elton John. She was beautiful, intelligent, got along great with Mark and Johnny, and she was literally larger than life. All in all, Amy was a fantasy come to life.
The only problem was, this fantasy had to follow the rules of reality. Dating would be difficult. Difficult? That word barely covered it! The only places they could go would be outdoors, like drive in movie theaters, and God knows where they would find one. There had never been one in Allentown. That left the park, and there was only so much you could do in the park. What would happen when the relationship got serious? Instead of a condom, he’d need a diving suit whenever they have sex! It was at that point that he had to end his train of thought before it took him to places he didn’t feel like going while he was still on the clock.
Speaking of clock, the movie he was waiting for had just ended, and people were filling out. Grabbing his small cart, which consisted of a trash can, broom, and dust pan similar to what they use in barber shops, he headed into the theater. The credits were still rolling when he walked in, he had seen this movie before. Just when you think the latest Ghost Rider movie would be the one to end Nicolas Cage’s career, he comes out with another National Treasure movie to save it. Ben grabbed his cart that consisted of a trash can, a broom, and a dust pan with a handle as long as the broom’s. As he walked towards the crowd, he was surprised to notice someone standing in line at the snack bar.
“Johnny? What are you doing here?” he asked.
Johnny jumped in surprise while spinning around, making him look like a bearded ballerina. “Jesus man, don’t sneak up on me like that. What the hell are you doing here?”
Ben looked at him questioningly. “I’ve been working here since a few months before you left. Are you ok man? What are you even doing here this early?”
Johnny nodded as he looked around. “Yeah, yeah I’m fine. I just don’t want to be here. But my sister needed someone to take her daughter to see Frozen 2.”
“Ah!” he said with a grin. Johnny had an older sister who was already married with a three year old daughter. No wonder he seemed like he was dreading something. Most people will agree, even the guys, Frozen was a great movie. But when every little kid everywhere, even Ben’s little sister Katelyn, would not stop singing Let It Go, it became annoying pretty fast. “As much as I feel for your suffering, call it payback for the dick comment yesterday.”
Johnny replied with a laugh that was obviously forced, before looking around. “Don’t you have some bathrooms to clean?”
“It’s theaters for me today.” Ben said as he pat his friend on the shoulder. “But I’ll be praying for you the entire time. Good luck.”
Ben took his cart and left Johnny standing in line for over priced yet under stocked movie snacks. With the theater empty and the lights on, Ben was relieved to see that the mess didn’t look too big. Taking his time, he got out his broom and set his dust pan over to the side where he would sweep all of the trash to.
“Would you be Benjamin Lyons?”
Ben stiffened, and almost jumped, in surprise at the sound of a voice behind him. Standing at the entrance way to the room was a man in a suit. He wasn’t taller than average height and didn’t seem all that important outwardly. He reminded Ben of a teacher on the first day of school, simply just eager to meet somebody. Although, him being here raised the question as to what he was doing in a theater that wasn’t showing another movie for an hour at least.
“I think you have the wrong theater,” Ben told him. “There won’t be anything shown in here for a little while.”
The man grinned. “Oh I know. Except that I have about twenty minutes before I go into theater twelve to witness James Cameron's latest masterpiece. Besides, I’d like to talk with you.”
Now that certainly raised some red flags in Ben’s head. The guy, a stranger, wanted to talk with him personally? So many questions flooded into his head. Who was this guy? How did he know Ben worked here? How did this guy know who he was? Why did the guy drive all the way to where he worked just to talk with him? It was all very unsettling, however, Ben retained a calm outwards appearance.
“Talk? About what?” he asked.
“I’ve heard a lot about you,” he said. “You and that girl Amy. The two of you were all over the internet, what with her kidnapping you and then you saving her. I’d like to know the story behind that.”
Ben relaxed a bit on the inside. He must have been a reporter, or maybe a blogger, or something like that. Just someone trying to find out the story by going to the source. All the same though, he remained a little cautious. You can never be too careful when dealing with nosey bloggers. “What makes you think there’s even a story to talk about?”
But the man just chuckled. “In a town that houses a 150 ft woman, there’s bound to be a story in some form or another. I just want to find it.”
“Mhm. Can I ask why you’re so interested in her?” he asked as he went back to sweeping.
The guy shrugged. “Who wouldn’t be interested in hearing about the exploits of a living giantess. Now, is it true you single handedly saved her from being arrested by the military?”
“Close but not quite like that,” Ben said with an amused grin. “First off, I wasn’t alone, I had the backup of my two best friends. Secondly, we didn’t rescue her from the military, we just talked the town into not sending her away. It wasn’t as heroic as it sounds online.”
The guy nodded with a grin of his own. “Don’t sell yourself short there, I’m willing to bet that it was a bigger deal than you’re making it out to be.”
Ben shrugged while he continued to sweep. “I guess you’ll never know then, everyone’s got their own version to tell.”
“Then I’d like to hear Amy’s version,” he replied. “If it isn’t too much trouble, could you ask your friend if I could speak with her in person? It’s very important.”
Ben considered the guy for a second as he dumped the swept up trash into his trash can. “I could try and ask her. Why so interested?”
“Because Amy holds the key to a future of miracles,” the man answered. “Discoveries that could literally mean the difference between life and death.”
Now this was something that gave Ben pause. This guy, whoever he was, was definitely no blogger. So now he was back to square one: who is this guy? Before he could say anything, though, the man stood up and extended a business card to him. “Call this number if you ever need to reach me.” Ben took the card but he still held his hand out. “My name is Patrick, by the way.”
Ben shook his hand. Once Patrick had left he read over the business card. It said: EtherealTech, making science out of science fiction.
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BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
It was a good thing there were no cars parked on the sides of the street, because the vibrations from Amy’s footsteps surely would have set off a few alarms. The streets were mostly empty at this point in the day, as everyone had already left work for the day and made it home. Amy, on the other hand, still had one last job to complete for the day. In her cupped hands she held dozens upon dozens of crates, to be delivered to the local GIANT food store. When it came to her community service, GIANT was one of the first places to request her help. She thought the store manager must appreciate the irony of having a real life giantess make deliveries for them. It certainly made her giggle a little. Never the less, it was a job she enjoyed a little more than others. Transporting produce and other foods required for Amy to walk to the adjacent town and pick up deliveries from there. Before her community service, Amy rarely left Allentown. Now she had the chance to really stretch her legs and see the sights outside of her home town. For the first few months it took everyone in the next town some time to get used to seeing her, but now the shock had finally faded.
With the green and red supermarket in sight, Amy slowed down her pace and stepped a little lighter, so as not to disturb the people still shopping. She went around to the back of the store where Mac, the employee in charge of unloading goods, was waiting for her. Amy smiled at him as she knelt down and lowered her hands to the unloading platform.
“What’s up Amy?” Mac asked as he, and a few other co-workers, walked onto her fingers to grab a box off of her palm. “How was the walk this time?”
“I think they’re starting to get used to me over there,” she said.
“Is that so? How come?”
She sighed. “Because, this time, the only people that screamed were an old lady, and a stoned teenager.”
Seth, another unloader, waved a dismissive hand. “Ah they’re all a bunch of losers.”
“They’re the ones missing out on living in the same town as you,” said Harold.
“Awwwwww, thank you. You’re all sweet guys.” Amy said with a slight blush. “Here, allow me to repay you for that.” Now that they had taken care of the crates on her right hand, she was free to use it to scrape the crates on her left hand gently onto the loading dock.
“There you go.”
Mac shook his head with a smile and looked up. “You have no idea how much we needed a break. Thank you.”
Amy stood up and stretched. “Ah, it was nothing. Now I need to get home. Good night guys.”
“Night Amy,” they called after her as she walked away.
As she walked Amy allowed her mind to wander a bit, losing itself in thoughts of Ben. She’d been thinking about him a lot lately, ever since Mark and Johnny asked them the serious question: What were they going to do with each other. It was a question that sometimes would bring tears to her eyes. Finally, she had found a guy that she could be completely honest about herself with, and the only thing keeping them apart was herself. Times like these, Amy didn’t know whether to think of herself as the princess locked in a tower, or the dragon that guarded it. It was all so frustrating she had to stop her thoughts before she began to let loose some steam.
It was then that she heard some snickering. Amy stopped to get a look around at where the noise was coming from. To her left was an alleyway between a 7/11 store and an insurance office building, neither of the buildings were even tall enough to reach her calves. In the alleyway were two teenagers, a guy and a girl, and both were decked out in traditional goth wear. Each one had a can of spray paint in their hand, most likely about to write something on the 7/11. Which means I’ll probably have to scrub whatever they write off of the walls tomorrow.
So Amy loomed right over the alleyway, allowing her enormous shadow to fall over them. Needless to say, once the two of them saw her staring down at them, they dropped the paint cans immediately. Amy leaned in closer to them, smiling so that she could show off her teeth.
“Aren’t the two of you out past your bed times?” she asked in an overly sweet voice.
The two goths froze up in the face of the towering beauty. Neither of them could think of anything to say. The guy merely held the girls next to him, both to protect her and to comfort himself. For a moment his face reminded her of Ben, and the girl’s face became her own. She frowned for a moment as she thought about it. After a second or two, though, she smiled a genuine smile this time.
“Tell you two what. You are going to walk your lady friend home right now, like the gentleman that you are. After you two kiss good night you’ll both go inside your own houses, you’ll finish up whatever homework you chose to ignore, you’ll tell your parents that you love and appreciate them, and then you’ll be in bed no later than 11pm.” She took the opportunity to show off her pearly whites again. “Understood?”
The two of them nodded so vigorously that Amy thought there heads would fly off of their necks. Then they took off running down the other end of the alley. As Amy stood back up she watched them go for a moment as she sighed. Eventually she turned away and kept on walking back to her house, all the while humming Somebody to Love by Jefferson Airplane.