Where’s the Fire?

Three people sat in the ancient Wilmington, Delaware theater. Gas lamps lit the place. The multi-billionaire Kellia “Sellz” Millken had rented the movie house to have a private oasis with her boyfriend rapper James “Hark” Wesley. They both had an affinity for silent movies. On this day, they watched a classic from 1927 titled Away, Away.

The organ began before the picture illuminated. The sound enveloped the couple. The third person in the theater, their bodyguard Montgomery “Monty” Gardner, just sat a few seats behind them stoically doing his job.

The music continued for another fifteen minutes, then, the candles dimmed.

The lights came up on the screen. The organ swelled as the grainy, gray picture revealed a ship on the horizon, sailing far away, sails billowing like bed sheets drying in the wind on a clothesline. Suddenly, the viewpoint shifted to the actors’ faces, as dark as soil beetles. And it wasn’t grease paint. These black actors displayed their talents well.

The singer and her boyfriend just wanted to enjoy the movie, to shelter from the media circus and fanatics fawning over them.

Hark had been in a rap feud for the past few months over one of Kellia’s past boyfriends, they tried to regulate their breathing and enjoy this rare gem of cinematic brilliance in spite of it.

The organ stopped abruptly, and the gaslights went completely dark. The screen blackened. The room went midnight like space without stars.

The singer and the rapper sat still. They heard Monty’s gun cock. They turned on their phone flashlights and saw Kellia’s previous boyfriend Darryl “Duck Sick” Bortles training the gun on the projectionist and tying him up. Darryl stepped to Monty. The organist turned on his phone flashlight and put his hands in the air.

“Get the hell out of here,” Duck Sick said in a gravelly voice. The organist hurried out the emergency door, setting off the alarm. Duck Sick panicked. Sweat trickled down his cheek. Monty sensed the rapper hesitating. He made a knife hand and knocked the firearm from Duck Sick’s grip. Monty restrained his movements as the singer and rapper inched closer to their bodyguard.

“Goddamanit Daryl,” Kellia said. “Now, you’re going back to prison.”

“I’ll be out and I’m going to get you both,” Duck Sick said.

The fire department descended on the scene. Kellia called the cops as Monty put his knee in Duck Sick’s lower back.

“Where’s the fire? Is there an emergency?” a fireman asked.

“There was,” Hark said. “It’s been contained.”

The fireman, Heston Coll went up to the projection room and untied Steve Norton. The gaslights blazed once again like a large group of little lightning bugs along the walls.

The police arrived, and carted Duck Sick off to jail. Having now violated his parole, he would get at least twenty more years behind bars.

“You tried to destroy me, Darryl. But you’re on your way to jail. Live with that,” Kellia said.

Hark looked at Duck Sick as Monty released his grip on the future inmate.

“You tried, but you couldn’t muster up enough manhood to leave well enough alone. You’re less than nothing.”

His pinky ring glistened in the light, and caused Duck Sick to squint his eyes from the near blinding reflection.

Norton started the projector and dimmed the lights. Kellia and Hark continued watching the film after the emergency units exited the building. They watched the vessel sail into the foreground of the picture. Monty filled out a report for the police. The organist returned to his instrument, and provided the sound to the picture. The couple kissed just as a swashbuckler withdrew a sword.