Flowers For A Gardner

Chapter 8

Gardner and Flower Girl arrived at the auditorium where the movie was showing well in time to for him to treat her to some snacks (she chose Junior Mints, Gardner picked Skittles and they shared a bucket of popcorn) and to nab the best seats in the house, which for Flower Girl meant an aisle seat near the back next to an exit (just in case).

Since Flower Girl was going to sit on the aisle, Gardner was assured of sitting next to her, a strategic victory he was crowing about inwardly. Even if Eve happened to sit next to him now, there at least was no way Derek was going to get a crack at moving in on Flower Girl. That made it well worth the annoyance of having to put up with Eve if it kept Derek at a distance even further removed. And just to make sure Eve didn't try to steal his seat, he put his jacket down on the seat and his drink in the cup holder. He wasn't taking any chances this time.

Eventually, Eve and Derek arrived. As he feared, Eve plopped herself into the seat next to him and quickly insinuated herself into his personal space on the pretext of wanting to chat with Flower Girl. In fact, she did ask Gardner if they could switch seats so the two girls could "catch up on some gossip," but Gardner gave her a firm but polite "nope." Flower Girl discreetly tickled his side with her finger while he attempted to hold back a gurgle of laughter.

Finally, the lights dimmed and the movie started. Gardner was immediately bewildered. Instead of the stylized skyscrapers featured in the opening to North By Northwest, the screen was full of squawking black birds silhouetted flying against a grey background. With abject horror, Gardner realized that instead of a stylish, lighthearted romantic thriller, they were about to watch The Birds, an intense, scary, gory horror movie.

Unhelpfully, Eve yell-whispered "Oh my God, it's the wrong movie! But I love this one, too! It will keep you on the edge of your seat for the whole two hours! It's so over the top frantic!"

Flower Girl, who had never seen the movie, gasped with surprise then began to quietly whimper. Her fingers gripped the arm of the seat divider between her and Gardner and he could see panic already beginning to set in.

"I am so sorry, Leah!" he whispered to her. "I totally messed up! I must have read the schedule wrong. I got the wrong night. They must be playing our movie on another night. This movie is really good, but Eve's right – it's pretty intense. Do you want to stay and watch it, or do you want to go?"

Flower Girl paused to consider her options. "Is it really as horrible as Eve says, or is she exaggerating?"

"Well, it's intense, but – . Listen, if I had a ten-year-old child, I'd let him come and see this movie with me. You know I told you about Rufus from Good Time? I'd bring him with me to see this movie. He'd love it. It's suspenseful, but in a good way. Hitchcock is a master of suspense, but he never goes too far."

Flower Girl gave it some thought. "Okay," she agreed. "Let's stay. We can always leave, right?"

"Right. Just say the word, Flower Girl." He smiled at her and she smiled radiantly back at him.

By now the opening credits were over and the movie had begun. The first scene was very light-hearted and amusing, and it put Flower Girl at ease. She managed to get almost through the first hour of the movie before she started feeling uneasy. Suddenly, chaos erupted during a scene involving a children's birthday party scene where birds began dive bombing the children, and the whole audience started screaming along with the children on the screen.

It was a cliché of Gardner's dreams to hold a girl who was frightened during a horror movie. But Flower Girl's distress took on a different level of discomposure. She wasn't just scared of the images flashing in front of her. She was reacting badly to the stimulation of the high-pitched voices around her. It was the crowd's reaction to the movie that was upsetting her. The collective cacophony of the audience's screams and their close proximity to her was triggering her panic response. She began to clutch Gardner's arm fiercely and started to hyperventilate.