Becoming
a Trekkie
About two weeks later give or take, Parker showed up
unexpectedly at the mall on a Friday night a little before 9:00. He came to visit me first because the store
where I worked was closer to the main mall doors. He snuck in behind a floor rack and tried to
scare me. Unbeknownst to him, I was
following his every move in one of the wall mirrors. When he got close, I said, “Hi, Parker!”
“Aw, how did you know?” he said
as he popped up from behind the rack.
“Mirror, mirror on the wall…” I
said as I pointed to my not-so-secret weapon.
I noticed he was wearing the
green army jacket from the first time I saw him in the mall. There was a name patch on the front that fittingly
said “Parker.” I didn’t even bring it up
because when you’re in an Army/Navy store and a jacket coincidentally has your
name on it, you buy it.
He went on to tell me his plan
that night was to try to persuade Barbara to see the new Star Trek movie with
him after work. The movie had been out
for a while and was nearing the end of its run.
The only problem is that Barbara hates sci-fi movies.
He explained,
“She has never seen any of the Star Wars movies…or even ET. God, that’s just so un-American! If I can’t convince her, I guess I’ll just
have to go alone.”
“Well, if she
hasn’t seen any Star Wars movies yet, Star Trek will be a tough sell,” I
reasoned.
“Yeah, I
know, but I’m not too proud to beg,” he said with a grin.
Then an idea
from out of the blue hit me...a devious, yet brilliant idea.
“You know
what…I think I may have an easy solution for you,” I began. “I’ve been wanting to see that movie too, but
the friend who usually goes to those movies with me has already seen
it…twice. I could wait for video, but I’d
much rather see it on the big screen. I’ll
go with you if you could use some company.”
“Gee, I
appreciate the offer, but you don’t have to do that,” he said.
“You’d
actually be doing me a favor,” I
assured him. “And I have no problem
driving you home after.”
“Really? Are you sure you don’t mind?” he asked.
“Not a
bit. Now I’ll have something to do
tonight, and you won’t have to put the hard sell on Barbara,” I stated. “But you might want to avoid telling
Barbara. She might get pissed at me for
stealing you away from her tonight.”
“Yeah, that’s
probably a good idea,” he replied.
“Maybe I shouldn’t go by the record store at all, so I don’t blow it.”
“Well that’s
up to you. So what time does the movie
start?” I asked.
“At 10:20.”
“Perfect. This store closes at 10:00 and the cinema is
right across the street. We should be
fine,” I said. “Can you meet me out back
at 10? Just look for the green door next
to the big trash compactor. That’s the
employees’ entrance.”
“Yeah, sure
thing. See you then,” he said.
Well he did
go to the record store, after all how was he going to kill an hour? But he made up a story that he had something
going on that night, so Barbara didn’t offer an after-work activity. I kinda think Barbara might have said “yes”
to the movie that night just for the privilege of being with him. But ha ha, I got to him first.(c) 2014 Rip Skor
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