One evening, Derek appeared in Adette’s doorway, wearing a big smile from ear to ear. He had been out for a large portion of the day, but had kept her in the dark as to what he had been doing. “Get your coat Adette, I have a surprise for you.”
“My coat? Where are we going?”
“I’m taking you somewhere.”
“Can you even drive?”
Derek laughed nervously. “It’s been a few years, but I’ll cope.”
So, Adette got her coat and within two minutes found herself perching uneasily on the edge of the passenger seat of her car while Derek whistled and drove along the road.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
“What’s the occasion, then?”
“I found out it’s your birthday. Trying to hide things from me, eh?” he smirked as he glanced at her, chestnut eyes glittering with mischief.
“What? How did you know?”
“Calendar robot.”
“Damn it, I knew I shouldn’t have programmed my birthday into that thing.”
Derek appeared to consider as they pulled up to a traffic light. “Why didn’t you say anything about your birthday anyway?”
“I don’t really celebrate it.”
“Why not?”
“It’s just not my thing. We never did it in my family and I still don’t now. Why would I? There’s not much point in celebrating a birthday alone.”
“Well, happy first birthday, Adette,” he smiled as they parked outside a building Adette didn’t recognize.
“Where are we?”
“Jeez, you and the questions tonight! Just follow me, and you’ll find out.”
So, she trailed after him as they walked into the mysterious building. She glanced around at machines filled with popcorn. The walls were covered in posters. It felt like she should know where she was, but she honestly couldn’t put her finger on it.
“Congratulations Adette, we’re going to see your very first movie.”
“You’re crazy!” Adette exclaimed, but the only other time he’d seen a smile that big on her face was at the carnival.
Adette couldn’t work out where to look first as they sat down in the theatre. Her eyes darted from the seats to the screen to the projectors. Derek fondly watched her amazement.
“Like it here, eh?”
“What? N-no! I mean, it’s okay, I’m just fascinated by the technology, that’s all!” she protested quickly. He just smiled knowingly and looked at the screen as the lights dimmed.
Derek had picked the movie wisely; wall.E, a movie that had recently come out that was about two robots falling in love. He hardly watched the movie; he was too busy watching Adette and the expression of wonder on her face. He felt a tingling of some alien feeling somewhere in his heart as he watched her big, green eyes absorbing every second, transfixed.
“How was that?” he asked when the movie ended.
Adette looked as if she were about to deny any enjoyment whatsoever, but it seemed she could not bring herself to lie that much. “It was amazing! In fact, I think I want to make working models of Eve and wall.E!” she bubbled, her eyes glittering.
For a split second he looked at her with a soft little smile, but then quickly looked away. “Cool.”
Adette drove them back home, but the whole way she wouldn’t stop chattering about wall.E. Derek was barely listening; he was too busy thinking about her.
