Caught in the Car

My best friend, Julie, and I used to love going to the drive-in movie theater. In our last summer before college, we went quite a few times. On one of these occasions, we had decided to take our younger siblings along with us and because of that, we drove separately. It was wonderful. We parked directly next to each other so that we still got to watch the movies together. The first movie, Finding Dory, was great. I went to concessions with Julie to get more popcorn and another drink during the intermission between the movies. Back at our cars, we goofed around until the second movie was being introduced over the radio. So we turned up our radios and prepared for the next feature getting cozy in our respective cars. Then not even halfway through the second feature, Alice Through the Looking Glass, it happened.

The first movie at the drive-in has to wait for the sun to go down for the projection to appear properly. This also means that the second movie starts roughly 2 hours after sunset, making it a pretty late start. A couple of minutes in, I turned to the back seat of my car to where my younger brother was enjoying these films from. “Elijah, pay attention to this part…” My sentence had trailed off after realizing he had already fallen fast asleep and wouldn't be paying attention to any parts. I turned back around, took a sip of the large Dr. Pepper we were sharing, reclined my seat, and turned up the radio to enjoy the showing on the big screen for what would be my second time.

It wasn’t too much longer until I got comfortable in the perfect heat blowing from the vents of my car that I too felt my eyelids start to droop. Since I had already seen this movie, I figured it wouldn't hurt if I closed my eyes for a few minutes. It really wouldn't have been a big deal if I missed a few details here and there.

Before the movie ended, Julie had gotten tired and decided it was best to take her sleeping sisters home before she was too tired to drive. Others parked around us left as soon as the screen hinted towards the end of the movie and the names started scrolling up. At this point, my few minutes of shut-eye had turned into a full-on slumber. Everyone else who was at the drive-in theater also made the obvious decision at whatever late hour it was by the finish of the features to go home.

Then in my deep slumber, I hear “knock knock knock,” unsure of whether it was a dream or something from real life. Confused by this, I probably just shook my nose a bit, maybe readjusted my shoulders on the leather seats, and continued to sleep. The knocking intensified and finally woke me up with a flashlight to the face. I squinted my eyes to look up to the drive-in attendant and turned around to look at my little brother who was still deep in his dreamland. I peered out of my windshield at the rest of the vast empty field. My car was the last car in the entire drive-in.

I was too embarrassed to roll down my window to talk to the attendant, so I just waved with a bright red face and turned my car on. My ears were burning with my humiliation. I cranked the air conditioner as extreme as I could and the pumped music up loud to keep me awake until we arrived safely at home.