The Adventure

I wait in line quietly with my husband outside the main lobby. I secretly watch the people around me. Friends happily chattering playfully like squirrels. Lovers leaning against lovers, speaking lowly. Parents with their children quietly scolding the little ones who suddenly are too excited to keep quiet any longer. We shuffle a few steps closer to the oversized hamster cage enclosures with little holes cut out for the exchange of money and tickets. The thing that links us all together most is a buzz of expectation and excitement in the air. What shall we witness today? Long lost lovers united unexpectedly? The world saved from some certain doom by the flawed, yet handsome hero? Or will we laugh until we cry by some crackpot, weirdo we can’t help but love?

My husband interrupts my reverie with the usual question. “What are you in the mood to see?” It never really matters to me. Whether it’s comedy, action, romance, or some mixture, I just love a good story. So I let him choose. He picks the latest horror flick and we’re on our way to the next step in our adventure for the night.

I absolutely love the smell that hits you as you walk into a movie theater. It’s hypnotic and whether or not you are hungry the popcorn calls and pulls you into line as if being seduced. You can hear each kernel transform itself with each pop. The lights are bright and festive. The lines are a little longer, but everyone is now completely intoxicated by the anticipation. I notice the people are more fidgety and impatient than they were in the first line. I chuckle to myself as I notice the giant popcorn props hanging from the ceiling above the counter with jet trails of neon following them. I laugh to myself because the image I see is a shrine. We are all being drawn to the shrine of popcorn, where we give our offering to have a small taste of buttery divinity. This is the beginning of the grand ritual.

After we have our golden bucket of buttery goodness in our hands, we give our ticket to the tall teenage, boy waiting to point us to our destination. He stands as a guard; a gate keeper. He tells us the direction to our destiny of the night. We find the door. We walk in our steps lively. The excitement in the air has now become thick. It consumes us all. We walk into a room filled with comfy gray chairs and walls that are shrouded in rich, red velvet. Finding the perfect seat and getting situated in them is our final task, the end of our grand ritual. And just as my hand slides comfortably into my husbands and my eyes fall onto the grandiose white screen before me the lights dim. We plunge into darkness. Suddenly the screen breathes into life and the real adventure begins.