Read Online The Man In The Seventh Row by Brian Pendreigh - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Brian Pendreigh
Tags: Novels
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the screen and the usherette said nothing, but Johnnie did not dare blow up the other two. After the film Johnnie chased the pig-tailed clipe out of the auditorium. He followed her no farther, but retreated to the toilet where he attached the remaining condoms to the taps. They gradually swelled with water and Johnnie and Roy carried one each, beneath their jackets, out of the cinema.
They climbed a nearby tenement, right to the top, four, five storeys up, and held the water balloons over the banister. Johnnie held his balloon out as far as he could reach and when he was finally satisfied that it was lined up over the desired spot he released it with a shout of, 'Bombs away.' A split second later Roy's balloon followed it. Johnnie let out a yelp of delight as they hit the hard stone floor, one after the other, in quick succession, and water exploded everywhere. He climbed over the banister, so he was standing in the stair well, as if he might follow the balloons to the concrete below. The front half of his foot was on the very edge of the step, on the wrong side of the railings, the dangerous side, the heel supported by nothing other than forty feet of air. Holding onto the railings, he climbed down one stair at a time, moving with the assurance and speed that comes with regular practice. He jumped the last three or four feet and inspected the wreckage of the Durex water bombs. They galloped home through Stockbridge and Johnnie went round saying, 'Fill your hands, you sonofabitch,' for days. He even acquired a black, plastic eye patch like the one John Wayne wore in the film, though Roy thought John Wayne's probably wasn't plastic.
Johnnie and the Ritz are both gone now. Johnnie was killed within the month when he fell from the top floor landing of his own tenement, so Roy always remembered him as a ten-year-old with an eye patch going around saying, 'Fill your hands you sonofabitch,' and letting off slimey balloons into the darkness. John Wayne won an Oscar. Clint Eastwood survived his comedy period, returned to westerns and he too won an Oscar. David asked Alison Westwood out and they got married. Sometimes Roy remembers Alison on those rare occasions he goes to the Dominion. He always remembers Johnnie and the balloons when he passes the site of the Ritz cinema in Rodney Street.
How many of the cinemas he'd visited have gone now? Old cinemas, in which the red crushed velour seats had been blackened and matted by thousands of overweight arses. Fleapits they called them. Roy did not know if they really had fleas. He had never seen a flea, but the ABC in Edinburgh had a cat which often came and sat on his lap. Cats always seemed to seek him out, despite or maybe because of his allergy. The purpose of the ABC cat, he reckoned, was to keep mice away. And in an open-air cinema in Africa he saw a lizard during Chariots of Fire . It ran across the screen and finished ahead of Eric Liddell, which pleased him – Liddell was such a sanctimonious character.
How many cinemas had he been to before he visited Mann's Chinese Theatre for the first time a few days ago to see Spike Lee's Girl 6 ? It's not exactly vintage Spike Lee, not a patch on Do the Right Thing , with its freshness, rich characters and violent energy. The central character in the new one is an aspiring actress, reduced to working for a company offering 'phone sex'. She is Girl 6 . The aspiring actress finally makes it into the movies and the film closes with her walking down Hollywood Boulevard, along the Walk of Fame, where celebrities' names are inscribed on bronze stars on the sidewalk. She is seen making her way towards the Chinese Theatre, where the words Girl 6 are displayed on the marquee.
That was weird. He was sitting in the cinema watching a film and the character in the film is shown approaching the very cinema in which he is sitting. It was as if she might suddenly appear alongside him and watch herself on the screen.
It never happened at the Warner
They climbed a nearby tenement, right to the top, four, five storeys up, and held the water balloons over the banister. Johnnie held his balloon out as far as he could reach and when he was finally satisfied that it was lined up over the desired spot he released it with a shout of, 'Bombs away.' A split second later Roy's balloon followed it. Johnnie let out a yelp of delight as they hit the hard stone floor, one after the other, in quick succession, and water exploded everywhere. He climbed over the banister, so he was standing in the stair well, as if he might follow the balloons to the concrete below. The front half of his foot was on the very edge of the step, on the wrong side of the railings, the dangerous side, the heel supported by nothing other than forty feet of air. Holding onto the railings, he climbed down one stair at a time, moving with the assurance and speed that comes with regular practice. He jumped the last three or four feet and inspected the wreckage of the Durex water bombs. They galloped home through Stockbridge and Johnnie went round saying, 'Fill your hands, you sonofabitch,' for days. He even acquired a black, plastic eye patch like the one John Wayne wore in the film, though Roy thought John Wayne's probably wasn't plastic.
Johnnie and the Ritz are both gone now. Johnnie was killed within the month when he fell from the top floor landing of his own tenement, so Roy always remembered him as a ten-year-old with an eye patch going around saying, 'Fill your hands you sonofabitch,' and letting off slimey balloons into the darkness. John Wayne won an Oscar. Clint Eastwood survived his comedy period, returned to westerns and he too won an Oscar. David asked Alison Westwood out and they got married. Sometimes Roy remembers Alison on those rare occasions he goes to the Dominion. He always remembers Johnnie and the balloons when he passes the site of the Ritz cinema in Rodney Street.
How many of the cinemas he'd visited have gone now? Old cinemas, in which the red crushed velour seats had been blackened and matted by thousands of overweight arses. Fleapits they called them. Roy did not know if they really had fleas. He had never seen a flea, but the ABC in Edinburgh had a cat which often came and sat on his lap. Cats always seemed to seek him out, despite or maybe because of his allergy. The purpose of the ABC cat, he reckoned, was to keep mice away. And in an open-air cinema in Africa he saw a lizard during Chariots of Fire . It ran across the screen and finished ahead of Eric Liddell, which pleased him – Liddell was such a sanctimonious character.
How many cinemas had he been to before he visited Mann's Chinese Theatre for the first time a few days ago to see Spike Lee's Girl 6 ? It's not exactly vintage Spike Lee, not a patch on Do the Right Thing , with its freshness, rich characters and violent energy. The central character in the new one is an aspiring actress, reduced to working for a company offering 'phone sex'. She is Girl 6 . The aspiring actress finally makes it into the movies and the film closes with her walking down Hollywood Boulevard, along the Walk of Fame, where celebrities' names are inscribed on bronze stars on the sidewalk. She is seen making her way towards the Chinese Theatre, where the words Girl 6 are displayed on the marquee.
That was weird. He was sitting in the cinema watching a film and the character in the film is shown approaching the very cinema in which he is sitting. It was as if she might suddenly appear alongside him and watch herself on the screen.
It never happened at the Warner
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