The Mystery of the Monster Movie (2 page)

“I wonder why
Shoe Escape
has never been shown on TV,” Cam’s father said as Cam and Eric squeezed past him.

As Cam and Eric walked down the aisle toward the swinging doors, Mr. Jansen called to them, “Hurry back.”

The lobby was still crowded. There were a few people waiting to buy popcorn, candy, ice cream, and soda.

“I’ll wait in line,” Eric said. “I want to test your memory again. Look at me, the way you did the last time.”

Cam stood back and looked at Eric. She was also careful to look at the other people in line. There was a short, heavy man with a gray beard. After him there were a woman with a large red hat, two older boys, a woman in a pink running suit, and Eric. Cam looked at them all. She closed her eyes and said,
“Click.”
Then Cam opened her eyes and looked at the price list and at the woman behind the counter. Cam closed her eyes again and said,
“Click.”
She was walking toward Eric with her eyes still closed when she heard someone shouting.

“I paid for a full bucket of popcorn! This one is half empty!”

Cam opened her eyes. It was the man with the gray beard who was shouting. He was showing the people in line his bucket and asking them, “Does this look full? Does this look full?”

Eric whispered to Cam, “That bucket is almost full. I don’t know why he’s making such a fuss.”

The theater manager came out. He asked the woman behind the counter what the problem was. She pointed to the man with the beard.

“Oh, it’s you, Mr. Bender,” the manager said. “Look, I don’t go to your theater to make trouble. I wish you wouldn’t come here.”

“Well, in my theater,” Mr. Bender said to the people in line, “our popcorn buckets are filled to the top. And people coming to Bender’s Bargain Theater get to see a triple feature—three great movies for the price of one.”

The theater manager took the bucket from Mr. Bender. He gave it to the woman behind the counter. “Please pour some more in for Mr. Bender,” he said.

The woman poured a huge scoop of popcorn into the bucket. When Mr. Bender walked away with it, popcorn spilled. He left a trail of popcorn from the counter to the doors of the theater.

The next woman in line wanted change for the telephone. The boys bought soda and popcorn. The woman in the running suit bought two ice cream cones. Then Cam and Eric bought two medium-size buckets of popcorn. They were filled to the very top.

Just as Cam and Eric opened the doors to the theater, the lights dimmed. The movie was about to begin.

Cam and Eric rushed to their seats. As they sat down, soft marching music started to play. The music became louder, and the screen lit up with a picture of a marching band. At first the screen showed the marchers’ faces. Then it showed their feet and their shoes. Then two words seemed to shoot out onto the screen: “Shoe Escape.”

There were pictures of the movie’s stars: Joe Roberts, Angela Kane, and Robert Allen. After their faces and names were shown on the screen, their shoes were shown.

“I think I’ve seen that woman somewhere,” Cam whispered to Eric when Angela Kane was shown.

“Well, I don’t think she’s the real star of this movie. I think her shoes are,” Eric said.

Cam took a handful of popcorn and looked up at the screen. It was early in the morning. A man was just finishing getting dressed. He was tying his shoes. When the man ate his breakfast, one of the threads holding his shoe together broke. Another thread broke. As the man walked along a busy street on the way to work, threads on both shoes opened up. His shoes were coming apart.

The man stopped and waited at a corner. Other people stopped, too. The threads on their shoes were opening up.

Without looking away from the screen, Cam quickly ate the popcorn in her hand. As she took another handful, Eric whispered, “This is scary.”

“It’s only a movie,” Cam told him. “It could never happen.”

The man was standing in an elevator. Other people in the elevator were talking to him, wishing him a good morning. Then the screen showed their shoes. The threads on the other shoes were breaking, too.

The man got off on the eighth floor of the building. But the doors to the elevator didn’t close. The man sat down at his desk. He felt something move beneath him. It was his shoes. They walked off his feet and ran out the office door. In the hall other shoes were running. They all ran into the elevator. The doors closed. At the seventh floor the doors opened and more men’s and women’s shoes ran in. Then the screen became dark.

“What happened?” Cam asked.

“It’s the shoes,” her father said. “They’re all getting together. The movie gets real exciting now.”

“I don’t mean about the shoes. Why did the movie stop?”

“While we wait,” Eric said to Cam, “let’s finish that memory test.”

Cam closed her eyes. She said,
“Click.”

“What color shoes was the woman just ahead of me in line wearing?”

“You’re trying to trick me again, Eric. She wasn’t wearing shoes. She was wearing a pink running suit and white sneakers.”

“What color eyeglasses was Mr. Bender wearing?”

“He wasn’t wearing eyeglasses.”

“What color were his shoes?”

“Brown.”

“That’s right,” Eric said.

Cam opened her eyes. People around her were talking. Some wanted to know why the movie had stopped. Others wondered what the shoes did next.

“I think the shoes all go dancing,” a man behind Cam said.

“No. Shoes don’t like to dance. They all go to a shoeshine stand.”

“I think they run to the park and play football.”

Cam’s father shook his head. Then he turned around and said, “None of you is right. But I won’t tell you what happens. That would ruin the fun.”

“Dad,” Cam said, “can I get some soda? All that popcorn made me thirsty.”

Mr. Jansen gave Cam some money. She and Eric squeezed past Cam’s parents. They were just about to walk into the lobby when the theater manager walked in.

“Let’s wait and hear what he says,” Cam told Eric.

The theater manager walked onto the stage. He buttoned his jacket, straightened his tie, and waited. A few people in the theater saw him standing there. They stopped talking. Then others saw him. Soon the theater was quiet.

“We seem to be having some trouble with our film
Shoe Escape.
I am sorry for the delay, but I do promise that the film will begin again shortly.”

The theater manager started to walk off the stage. Then he stopped, smiled, and said, “And I can tell you, this movie will be worth the wait.”

“Come on,” Cam said to Eric. “Let’s get our soda before the movie starts again.”

Cam and Eric rushed into the lobby. The theater manager was right behind them. There was a line of people waiting to buy refreshments. Cam and Eric stood at the end of the line. The theater manager walked past them and up a dark, narrow staircase in the corner of the lobby.

“We’re next,” Eric said.

“Can I help you?” the woman behind the counter asked.

“We’d like two small cups of soda, please,” Cam said. “I want cola.”

“And I want orange,” Eric told the woman.

The woman took two cups from a large stack of cups on her side of the counter. She filled each with soda and held them out to Cam and Eric. Cam put the money on the counter and reached for the soda. Just then they heard some yelling.

“It’s from up there,” Cam said. She pointed to the narrow staircase.

Cam ran to the staircase. Eric followed her.

“But what about your soda?” the woman behind the counter called out.

“They’re arguing about something up there,” Cam told Eric. “But I don’t know what they’re saying. Come on. Let’s go up there and listen.”

“Maybe it’s none of our business,” Eric said.

But Cam was already halfway up the stairs. Eric followed her.

The staircase led to a narrow door. The small plastic sign on the door said: PROJECTION ROOM. KEEP OUT. The door was partly open.

“How could you let something like this happen?” one man said. It sounded to Cam and Eric like the theater manager.

“I didn’t let anything happen,” another man said. “I showed the first reel, just as I always do. But when I looked for the second reel, it was gone.”

“Look at this mess. I’ve asked you to clean it up. It’s probably buried under all these coffee cups and newspapers.”

“It’s not buried anywhere. I put it right here on the table. I didn’t lose it. Someone took it.”

“Did you hear that?” Eric whispered. “Someone stole a reel of film.”

“Sh.”

“It’s your job to make sure that there’s a movie showing on that screen,” the theater manager said.

“I know,” the other man answered. “I was here just about the whole time.”

“Start showing the second movie. Then we’ll both see if we can find the missing film.”

“Come on, Cam,” Eric said. “He’s coming out.”

Cam and Eric raced down the steps. Just as they reached the lobby, the theater manager started down the steps.

“Oh, there you are,” the woman behind the counter said to Cam and Eric. “Take these sodas before they spill.”

Cam and Eric took the two cups of soda. Then they followed the theater manager into the theater.

“What took you so long?” Cam’s father asked when Cam and Eric came to their seats.

“Sh,” Cam’s mother said. She pointed to the theater manager. He was standing on the stage.

“I must tell you again that I’m sorry,” the theater manager said. “We have a problem with our first feature. While we try to work on that, we hope you’ll enjoy watching our second feature,
The Monster Spiders.
It will begin in just a few minutes.”

Cam whispered to her mother, “The second reel of
Shoe Escape
is gone. Someone stole it.”