At the ticket booth,
Orlando bought all the tickets as Hannah read a magazine in the
small sweet shop. She looked at a few interesting articles: 'My
husband left me for a pig' and 'Smelly feet drove me to suicide'
among others then put the magazine down and scanned the stand for
another interesting one. Suddenly she met a pair of eyes staring
at her on the other side of the stand.
"CHRIS!" She gasped.
Chris tried to hide behind a stack of peanut boxes but failed.
"You're SPYING!" Hannah said. "Who sent
you?"
Chris cowered. "Um…er…"
"WHO?!" Hannah held her handbag threateningly
above her head (it was sure coming in use tonight).
"D…D…Daniel! Please don't hurt me!"
"Aww, well that's ok, I won't hurt you…I'll just
backfire his plan! Do you want to watch a film with me?"
"Well, I'd already bought the same ticket, so I guess
so."
Hannah smiled and fluttered her eyelashes.
As the film started, Hannah
looked from her left to her right and grinned. Left…Orlando.
Right…Chris. Life was GOOD.
Jess, meanwhile, was sitting at the end of the row next to Dom,
who kept reminding her that if there was a scary bit he could
cover her eyes with his coat. She felt patronised, confused and a
bit freaked out.
Someone leapt out of a cupboard on the screen, making everyone
jump. Billy screamed, piercing the air like a big…piercer.
"You big girl's blouse," Laughed Elijah, as Sean, Dom
and Orlando chuckled too – it was clearly an 'in' joke.
Hannah was no longer paying attention to the film but was
wondering whose knee to grab first…hell, she had two hands, so, losing
all Austin Powers quotes – two at a time (no baby). Both
looked around at her and now she had the problem – who to
grab ahold of?!
Billy, to distract himself from the movie, threw some popcorn
around. In the film someone picked up a pick-axe and burst
through a door to meet an eight-foot super-ghoul.
Billy's popcorn went up in the air and landed on Orlando's head.
Well that solved Hannah's problem. She leapt onto Chris and hung
on for dear life. Frankly, she was quite enjoying this film. Most
fun she'd had since 'Lord of the Rings'. And hey, she was now with
the cast! Oh, the irony. Jess, please, continue…
Sure thing.
Jess got up and started to walk up the aisle.
"Where are you going?" Asked Dom as her seat sprang up
and folded away.
"Not that it's any of your business, but the
toilet." Jess said.
"Do you need any-"
"NO!"
Hannah pretended to be frightened and buried her face in Chris'
neck.
"ARRGH! It's terrifying!"
"Hannah, he's the good guy – the policeman."
"Ooh." Hannah withdrew her face to look at the screen.
"Still…" She turned back to Chris.
"ARRGH!" She snuggled back up to him.
Jess reappeared.
"Ok?"
"Leave me alone, Dom."
The film finished.
"That wasn't very exciting." Said Hannah.
"You had your head up his arse for most of it," Orlando
indicated to Chris.
Hannah blushed.
Billy was a very white
shade of white. "Ooh. That was not so bad!"
"Billy, you screamed like a girl." Jess said.
"He always does that." Elijah said.
"Let's go." Said Jess, fed up of her now fifth father
trying to help her put her coat on.
"Do you want to come back to my place for coffee?"
Hannah asked a shy Chris.
"HANNAH! We've got work at 7 tomorrow morning!" Jess
dragged her up the ailse towards the door.
Hannah looked back at Chris. "I know what you have for
breakfast!" She disappeared round the corner, out of the
door. "Tell Daniel everything…!"
"Wouldn't it be nice
not to have to work?" Hannah said, putting 5 rashers of
bacon, 4 sausages, 3 eggs and some baked beans (Ben's breakfast)
onto a plate.
"You'd either have to inherit millions or marry someone
extremely rich."
"Ooh!" Hannah's eyes lit up. "We should do
that!" She walked off and sat the plate down in front of
Ben. Hannah snatched up his knife and fork quickly to gain his
attention.
"Where's Chris, this merry morning?" She asked him.
"Get it Dom?!" She called across the room. A faint 'Ha
ha' came floating back.
"I don't know. I'm not his keeper." Said Ben sulkily.
Daniel suddenly came in dragging Chris on a chair. "See?
DANIEL'S he's keeper." Ben finished. Hannah was confused but
kept quiet.
"There you are! Your muesli will be ruined!"
Jess muttered, coming over to Daniel. "You certainly TOOK
your time!"
"Jess, it was only funny the first time." Billy
shouted over at her. Jess scowled.
Hannah had started arguing with a guy on table 17 who looked a
bit like Michael Jackson.
"You CAN'T eat your breakfast in an oxygen tent, sir, I'm
sorry."
Jess walked past her to fetch more soya milk for Daniel.
"Are they working you too hard? 'Cos I can have a word with
your boss if they-"
Jess paused and gave Dom a stern look.
"Dad – I'm a grown woman. I can cope."
She scuttled off to the kitchen.
"I don't
know…" Dom looked at Ian McKellen sitting next to him.
"I try to give her the best quality care I can…and what
do I get? It's thrown back in my face."
"So do all who live to see such times but that is not for
them to decide. All we must do is decided what to do with the
time that is given to us." Ian replied.
"Thanks, Ian." Dom felt suitably comforted.
Suddenly a burst of flames erupted from the kitchen followed by
most of the kitchen staff, their white outfits blackened legging
it out.
A man who looked like the famous director Martin Scorsese who had
been sitting close to the door jumped up screaming: "My
eyebrows! My patented eyebrows!!"
"What happened?" Hannah asked, running over to Jess,
who's already slightly mad hair was now sticking out in all
directions from her blackface.
"Daniel's soya milk exploded!" She squeaked.
"Don't be ridiculous. Soya milk isn't in the least bit
flammable. Tofu, on the other hand-" Hannah was cut off as
the facilities manager came over in a hurry.
"Sabotage!" She hissed.
"What?" Asked Hannah, confused.
"Something in the kitchen was sabotaged!"
"Rubbish! Who would do that?" Jess said, still
clutching an exploded carton of soya milk.
"Well, we have a lot of important and influential guests
here. We've had bomb scares before, but never…" She
looked at Jess. "Soya milk scares."
"This is
pathetic." Said Hannah, walking into the kitchen and
grabbing another carton of soya milk, she came out and threw it
at Daniel from across the room. "Open your own."
Daniel reached for the pull but the facilities manager dived on
him before he could go any further.
"Don't do it!" She screamed at him. "Are you
insane, Hannah?"
"Why yes, thankyou for noticing!"
"Putting his life in danger!"
"I know."
"You know?" The facilities manager screamed.
"I just wanted to free an innocent animal!" Hannah
looked at Chris.
"I just wanted my breakfast!" Daniel said, innocently
stirring up trouble. "Two can play at the happy-vegan
game!" He hissed at Hannah.
"There's nothing to be scared of." Hannah concluded,
reaching for the carton. "Look!"
There was a boom, a crunch, and then nothing.
� Jess and Hannah 2002