Page 19 of Summer at Croftwood Cinema
After a few sips of her drink, she decided that she’d give Ed one more chance to make his move and then, if there was another opportunity like there had been today, when she thought he was going to ask her out, if that happened and he passed it up again, maybe she’d put on her brave pants and ask him herself. What did she have to lose? Getting turned down by a computer science lecturer wasn’t the worst thing that had ever happened to her. It was a long time since she’d taken any kind of risk in her personal life, a long time since anything had happened in her personal life at all, and the very fact that she was considering asking someone out told Patsy everything she needed to know about how perhaps finally it was time to move on.
9
EVERY FRIDAY AND Saturday night, the Worcester University Film Society put on a film for its members. It was as much about the running of the whole thing, from selling tickets and refreshments to the projecting of the film and Ed was one of the members of staff who could be called on by the students for help with the technical side of things. This Friday, he was filling in at the last minute for a student who was ill although he suspected that it was more likely because of a party that they didn’t want to miss. At the start of term when everyone committed to the rota, there were huge amounts of enthusiasm but when it came to it, the idea of missing a night out to soberly project a film by yourself, wasn’t that appealing. Ed could understand that and he didn’t mind doing the odd shift to keep his hand in anyway. What else would he be doing on a Friday night?
He left the house and walked along the alley which skirted the edge of the racecourse, crossed the river at the Sabrina bridge and took the path on the opposite bank of the river towards the campus. He had a bottle of wine stashed in his bag; once the film was on, the hard work was over and it was fine to relax and watch from the back corner seat which was always reserved for the projectionist. It was quite usual for the students to bring their own drinks with them, so no-one would bat an eyelid.
As he walked, it occurred to him that he could have invited Patsy along to see him run the film. He wasn’t sure how interested she was but it was a genuine reason to have contacted her and if it hadn’t been such a last minute commitment he might have thought of asking her. Although, there was still over an hour before the film actually started. He needed to get there early to open up but maybe it wasn’t too late?
He paused to pull his phone out and typed a quick message.
It’s short notice, but if you’re not busy I’m running the film tonight if you want to see how it’s meant to work :-)
He carried on walking but was almost holding his breath in anticipation of Patsy’s reply. It was the best opportunity he’d had so far to ask her out without having to be too obvious about it. Now that he had his own key to the Croftwood cinema there was no need for her to be there with him anymore and he’d been wondering when he would see her again.
Sounds great! When and where?! X
With a huge grin on his face, Ed texted her directions and then carried on his way with a spring in his step.
Patsy hugged her phone to her chest. Ed had asked her out. Kind of. She knew she shouldn’t read too much into it because it was almost a work thing. A demonstration of how an actual film gets projected was almost like a training session and although, to her surprise, she had become quite interested in the technical side of the cinema, she hoped it was more to do with Ed wanting to see her than him being desperate to impart his projectionist knowledge.
She had ten minutes to get ready and still be able to make the next bus to Worcester. She was changed into her leggings and a sweatshirt for a night in front of the television so she ran into the bedroom and picked up the dress she’d worn that day. It was navy-blue with a bright floral print, had a round neck, long sleeves and a tie-belt but Patsy’s favourite thing about it was the skirt which was long and gathered in three tiers. She pulled on some bright pink tights and her battered black biker boots and she was good to go. Luckily all she needed was a refresh of mascara and some lipgloss and she was happy with herself. She grabbed a bar of her favourite sea salt dark chocolate from the cupboard — the only sweet treat she kept in the flat — and skipped out of the door.
Ed’s directions were pretty thorough and when Patsy arrived, the lecture theatre which doubled as the cinema, was a hive of activity. She queued with the students and paid three pounds for a visitor ticket, realising that she had no idea what film they were showing.
‘Hi, I’m looking for Ed?’ she asked the girl who was manning the door into the auditorium.
‘The projection box is round the corner.’ She pointed Patsy in the right direction.
The door was closed, so Patsy knocked and then opened it and tentatively peeked inside.
‘Patsy! You made it, come in.’ Ed looked so pleased to see her, it gave her hope that maybe there was more to it than a training session.
The projection box was small, only around five metres by three and was dominated in one corner by something that looked like a giant tiered cake stand, with three stainless steel discs, maybe over a metre each in diameter. In the opposite corner to that was the projector which stood taller than Patsy and was a good deal smarter than the one at Croftwood.
‘Wow, this is amazing. Quite a bit fancier than our set-up.’
‘It’s a bit more modern,’ admitted Ed, ‘but it does the same job. I haven’t started yet, I wanted to show you right from the beginning.’
Patsy looked out at the auditorium through the window next to the projector. ‘It looks like it’s getting full already. Have you got time to show me?’
‘It only takes a couple of minutes and we’ve got a bit longer than that.’
He went over to the big contraption in the corner where Patsy could see that a huge reel of film was lying on the top disc. Ed picked up the end of the film from the middle of the reel, looped it around a plastic roller and then pulled it over his head and across the room to the projector.
‘Oh my god, it’s going to be like that the whole time? Stretched across the room?’
‘Yes,’ Ed grinned. He was clearly in his element and Patsy wasn’t sure it was about her after all. This was something he was passionate about and he was enjoying sharing it with her. ‘Yours won’t be like that because you’ve got the tower which is instead of this kind of platter system. Your film will be behind the projector. Come round here.’
Patsy squeezed into the space between the side of the projector and the wall and watched Ed weave the film through the projector, from the top to the bottom, around all the sprockets. They were exactly like the ones she’d carefully laid out on the floor in the cinema only these were bright and shiny and she couldn’t imagine that theirs would ever clean up to that kind of standard.
‘Come here and look through the gate.’ He pointed to where he meant. It was almost the only place inside the projector where the film was flat; everywhere else it was in loops around the sprockets. ‘This is where the light is going to shine through when we switch it on. You have to make sure that a whole frame of film is in here when you lace up, otherwise when you start the film, the picture will be split.’
There was a lot to take in and Patsy was a little overwhelmed by all the technical information but she leaned in to see what he was talking about. In the close quarters of the projection box, it was the closest she’d ever been to Ed and she could smell him. It felt so intimate and made her catch her breath. Examining the film gave her a few seconds to compose herself. ‘No pressure then,’ she said, aware that she sounded breathy. ‘Has that ever happened?’
‘No, it’s the first thing you learn and, touch wood, no-one forgets it. There are other things that are more likely to go wrong.’
Once she’d moved out of the way, he went back and checked the projector while Patsy stared at his side profile, feeling like she’d discovered a secret. She knew what he smelt like and it wasn’t aftershave wafting all around the room, it was him and it gave her butterflies.
