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I haven't written in ages, but who can blame me? Cindy wasn't arrested or anything like that about the car, but she's been in a rather sour mood from that day on. That mood got even sourer after I invested in some purple dye a few days ago, gave my hair a trim, and dyed it purple. We almost had a fight over that, but I like my hair purple! The snow's gone, so why should my hair stay the same?
Cindy finally got out of her sour mood yesterday, at least enough to give me a ride to town to do some minor repairs on some of GAIA 9's more fretful computers. She even got Mr Hi out of his office so I could fix his jammed (again) keyboard in peace. I think he plays games on his computer and hammers on the keys too hard. Then she asked if I wanted to go to the movies with her.
"Have you seen any of those new films?" she asked when we met in the lobby, both on our way to get lunch. "The one about the cave women was awful, but some of the others look good."
"Those old films," I corrected. "I didn't know you'd seen any of them yet."
"I went to the opening of the Barton cinema," she said with a shrug. "It was ViP only..."
"And you're a VIP," said a sneering voice behind her. I turned around quickly, and was shocked to see Mike glaring at us. Cindy looked very unhappy, and I coud see why. What was the matter with him?!?
"Well, my face is known to all of Gaia," she snapped back at him, "unlike your ugly mug!" I was speechless, unable to grasp why they were suddenly shouting at each other.
"Well, at least I don't go licking..."
"Mike! Cindy!" Mr Hi was hurrying toward us. I tried to look as if I had nothing to do with either of them, and hurried out the door. Luckily, Mr Hi was too busy telling them off for "arguing constantly" as I heard him say befor I got, mercifully, out of hearing range.
I was sitting at the first table to be placed outsided the Barton Pub this year, digging into a wonderfully sweet teatime, when Cindy flopped down in the chair next to me.
"What bit you guys?" I asked, drawing a loud sigh from Cindy.
"I don't know why, he's just gotten so nasty recently," she said. "Making allusions to the two of us..."
"Do you think it has to do with...well, to be blunt, does he know you...well, you know..." I felt the heat rising up my cheeks, and wondered why I'd even started to bring up Valentines Day. Cindy just looked at me, looking confused, and I finally blurted out, "Does he know you spent the night with someone on Valentines Day?"
I was sure I'd said the wrong thing. Cindy opened her mouth, closed it again, looked as if she was going to cry, looked as if she was going to laugh, and then said, "Dawna, I thought you guessed."
"Guessed what?" I asked. "I mean, men do get upset about things like that!"
"Dawna," Cindy said quietly, "it was Mike I was with that night."
"WHAT?" I nearly dropped my teacup. "If you'd told me that, I wouldn't have been half as upset...oh...no..." I reflected on Mike's behaviour for a moment, and came to the only sensible conclusion. "The creep. That was all he wanted from you and now he's making sure you hate him so he dosn't have to commit to anything..."
"Stop it, Dawna!" Cindy almost screamed at me. "Don't talk about Mike that way! He's not..." She put her head in her hands. "Listen, I know you've got a much more sensible viewpoint of this mess, but I don't want to think about Mike like that right now." She looked up. "You've finished eating, and I'm not hungry any more. How about a film? There's no time for a full one, but we should be able to watch one of those shorts in the time it takes anyone to notice we're not at work... Duck and Cover sounds funny, and we can say we were learning to be prepared for an atomic bomb...if anyone asks where we were."
The new cinema is located in the Arena, and we got into the theater ahead of the crowd. I got us two seats in the front row (I'd seen a few people not bothering to remove their oversized hats and feathers), while Cindy, despite being "not hungry" got us popcorn and soda. A few kids started a tomato fight on the stairs before the film started, and I had a slight scare when someone threw a fireball at me, but I quickly discovered that the fireballs from the snack bar do no harm. Then the lights dimmed, the music started, and people scurried to their seats as Bert the turtle strolled down the road to cheers and laughter from the audience.
The film was funny, but the audience reaction was funnier. From the point when the narrarator asked Bert to come out of his shell and meet "all these nice people" who obligingly tossed tomatoes at him, on to when the screen became a target for fireballs as the narrarator talked about the danger of fire, to the the explosions of popcorn and shouts of "DEAD! You're dead!" at every "bomb" that went off... And then there was the attack of the laser pointers. So funny...
"All that stuff would do some good if it wasn't an atomic bomb," Cindy said as we left the theater. "I mean, it's just common sense to dive under the table if there's an explosion!"
"But the film was talking about atomic bombs!" I pointed out. "If it was an atomic bomb, you'd just be a shadow on the wall, or fried, or die of radiation sickness afterwards. And as for the idea of being able to duck after the flash..." We both started to giggle, as did the girls behind us, who had been listening.
"Well, the film was from about fifty years ago," Cindy chuckled. "Lucky none of that happened..."
"Or we wouldn't be here to talk aout it!" I concluded, sending the girls into fits of giggles again. I hummed the theme tune all the way back to the station, and got a special joy from yelling "Duck and cover!" at Mike when I next saw him.
Only one more sour note soured the day slightly. As we wee going home that evening, Cindy said, "Dawna...Mike said things about us...you don't think peopel think..."
"What?" I asked rather warily.
"Well...the two of us..." She laughed. "It's not like everyone know's I'm your aunt...do you think they might think we're..."
I laughed too. "People will think what they want to. Who cares...Aunt Cindy?"
"Don't call me that!" she said, sounding pleased all the same. "You make me sound old!"