Friday 3 February 2012

The Last Picture Show by Dorothy Davies - February Femmes Fatales

Regular Predictioneers (contributors to my weekly Friday fiction challenge) will better know Dorothy Davies as Antonia Woodville - horror writer extraordinaire and editor of a growing collection of anthologies for Static Movement and Red Skies Press.

Dorothy has supported The Feardom, my writing and that of many others for a long time. It's a privilege to offer not one, not two but six marvellous pieces of her flash fiction in February Femmes Fatales 2012.

Please enjoy this first nostalgic tale from our Dorothy. I am wearing sparkling red shoes in her name - all ready to click together and take me home.


THE LAST PICTURE SHOW

It mattered not that the curtains looked the worse for wear, the hem hanging down a little, the runners showing where the weight of the curtains had dragged holes over the years. The fact remained they were temporarily hiding the reason the building had an existence – the huge silver screen. Fly speckled, marked here and there, it mattered not. The anticipation from the audience in the auditorium was palpable, a hush of unspoken words, a withholding of the rustle of popcorn and other comestibles, that indescribable smell and atmosphere accumulated over many years: bodies clothes, food, sighs, tears, cries, held breath, screams and laughter.

This was the last picture show. At the end of tonight’s performance the doors would close for the last time. In future, films would be shown in the new multi screen complex across town, bright, glittering place with chrome and fine flooring, with carpet and seats that tilted and did not move when you leaned back. Move as in their moorings had come adrift from the floor. It added something to the ambience of this old, much loved building.

I crept in quietly, almost on tiptoe, not wanting to disturb anyone’s breathless anticipation of the curtains gliding open and the screen being revealed in all its tarnished glory. I found empty seats, which I didn’t expect, and sat three in from the side aisle. It was not the best of positions but it would do. There was room for two others if they chose to come and share the rest of the row with me. On my other side someone grunted and shifted, but did not look round.

The music blared, the numbers began rolling, white on black and the pre-feature programme began. I allowed myself to submerge all thoughts in the magical moment, the losing of self in the actions on the screen. Someone crept in as quietly as I did and sat down next to me. We nodded to one another in the darkness, nothing said, eyes swiftly turning back to the screen. A sigh seemed to come from my new companion, one I echoed. Contentment. Filmgoers of the world unite!

All too soon the interval came and music blared out of ancient speakers. There was chatter and laughter, a sense of heightened emotion, anticipation, eagerness, a mixture of so much unclassified, indescribable. My companion, an elderly man I had seen many times before, nodded in time to the nonsensical piece of rhythm which ended and began again, same record. A few people laughed. It ended, it began again. This time whistles and shouts had erupted, there was stamping of feet and yells of laughter. By the time it began again, when it was obvious to all that the impending closure had left the cinema with just one record, the entire audience was in uproar, laughter shaking ancient dust from ancient carvings and light fittings. I smiled; the sense of the absurd was beyond belief and unbelievably funny. My companion was laughing so hard I feared for his heart.

It took a while for the audience to settle down after the nonsense with the record, but the main feature began and the theatre became silent. Clint Eastwood strutted his stuff across the screen many times larger than he actually is –or was – shooting all and sundry, fighting his way out of this battle and that. It was almost a shock when the film finally ended. The credits rolled and we were on our feet, some ready to slide out, others prepared to stand and show respect as the National Anthem was played.

It was then I smelled smoke.

It was then I realized three things, as I did at this point every Halloween. First, the theatre had caught fire, second, judging by the frantic screams and yells of trapped people, the fire doors would not open and third, recalling the local newspapers I had seen afterwards, not one of us survived.

Where we were is a block of flats, ugly, functional, utilitarian and dull. We died because some idiot, anticipating the closing of the cinema, locked the doors. This I knew, this I could accept, if only…

…We were not summoned back from our graves every Halloween.

I just wish that the dead could be allowed to sleep in peace.

_________ The End _________


Dorothy Davies
The first part of this story actually happened, but not on the Isle of Wight where I live. Here there was a very old cinema and someone who used to entertain the waiting audience with a glove puppet around the side of the curtain…

Bio: Dorothy Davies, editor, writer and medium lives on the Isle of Wight, where she writes strange stories and edits strange anthologies and has a wonderful time doing both.

18 comments:

  1. You really do have the ability to transport your reader into another era, Dorothy. I could almost feel myself tripping over the loose, faded carpet runner in my desperation to get down the aisle away from the flames. Excellent.

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    1. thank you! I've been wanting to write the scene of the last picture show for ages, then it all came together in this story.

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  2. Wistful, nostalgic and gentle but with a cruel twist at the end for the eternally doomed captive audience. I agree with Anna, I too was transported by your words.

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    1. coming from someone else whose work I admire, that is praise indeed, thank you!

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  3. "I smiled; the sense of the absurd was beyond belief and unbelievably funny."

    And after the record stopped and the show began the finale heated up. Well told tale down to the tatters of the curtains. CURTAINS? It was certainly curtains for you, dear Dorothy the Antonia. As chatelaine of AT THE BIJOU, I smiled well at the description that made the mood feel so much like home . . .

    . . . til you went and terrorized the joint.

    ~ Absolutely*Kate, wondering if it bugs you when folks put popcorn balls in your Trick or Treat bags?

    Very authentically cool movie poster look Ms Lily.

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    1. thank you! and yes, I agree, the poster is superb!

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  4. For a moment I was in that theatre, I'm glad I'm not stuck there like the poor souls in the story. Wonderful, haunting piece of writing.

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    1. I went for the nostalgia bit big time, didn't I? It felt right. Thank you, Laurita.

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  5. The gentle delivery of this belies the terrible truth of this scenario, and the ghosts of what was, retelling their story, revisiting a moment in the past, is done so well that it completely wrong footed me. That takes skill.

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    1. more high praise, thank you! I had a few false starts and then it all came together so well. It's high on my list of personal favourites.

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  6. A great, detailed recollection turned to true horror. I actually like that the people are resurrected once a year; some events bind the soul forever.
    Cheers, Dorothy!

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  7. thanks, Erin!
    it's an idea I like, I used it in Repeat Performance which I wrote for With This Ring - I Bleed.

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  8. Wow! Very haunting and some great detail and description. I wasn't expecting the sad final twist. Well done, Dorothy!

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    1. Susan May, thanks! I doubt I will ever forget the experience in the cinema that night, when the record came on again and again, it was electric, no cinema visit has matched that for atmosphere! It had to emerge in a story at some time...

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  9. Oh that was a surprise ending! I've been in cinemas like that!

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    1. Helen, thanks!
      I seem to have revived a few memories with that story, which is good.
      I drove by the long gone cinema on the island just this morning, it's a vet clinic now. No glove puppets there any more. The price of change ... no nostalgia left.

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  10. Wow Dorothy, I've been to theatres like this one, and I have to say that you just ... nailed it. There's nothing like the ambience of a small theatre.

    As grisly and sad as the (phenomenal) ending reveals the event to be, I can't help wanting to be there, somewhere at the back, (but in front of the couple that are making out) that Halloween midnight showing.

    Beautifully told.

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Lily Childs is a writer of horror, esoteric, mystery and chilling fiction.

If you see her dancing outside in a thunder storm - don't try to bring her in. She's safe.