Clark strolled into the kitchen, whistling a tune to himself, as he made his way over to the coffee pot. His wife, Alice, joined in and helped him finish off the song.
“What’s got you in such a good mood?” she asked.
“Almost finished with the chapter I’ve been stuck on in my novel. What’re you up to?”
“Making the kids a quick snack,” she held up a plate of celery smeared with peanut butter and topped with raisins. “They’ve been down in the basement all morning searching through the storage room. Who knows what they’ll find down there.”
“Remember when Brendan used to be afraid of even looking at the stairs leading into the basement?” He took a sip of his coffee. “To be six again, or even Jessica’s age, almost a teenager. Can you believe we almost have a teenager?”
“Coming from a man who spends his days making up stories I find it hard to believe you can’t grasp the passage of time.”
“A story could take months to write and only encompass a few days.” He set his mug down on the counter. “I think I understand fiction better than the rest of the world.”
“Would you mind calling the kids up for their snack?”
Clark called into the basement and then took a seat at the table. When the kids emerged each of them had a VHS tape in their hands.
“What do you have there?” asked Clark, pulling his son in for a hug.
“We found these in the basement,” said Brendan. “This one says, ‘Clue Squad’. Jessie has one too. What are they?”
“Oh wow,” said Clark. “Alice, do you remember these?”
“Of course I do,” replied Alice, placing the snack in the middle of the table. “We used to make those movies every summer when we were kids.”
“You knew mommy when you were kids?” asked Jessica, staring at her father from across the table. She crunched into a piece of celery and wiped peanut butter from the side of her mouth.
“Your mommy lived a few streets down from me. I didn’t meet her until middle school, but when I did I invited her over to make funny movies with my friends and I,” said Clark. “Which one did you find, Jess?”
“It says, ‘Indoor Theme Park Adventure’,” said Jessica. “These are movies?” She rotated the tape in her hands. “Can we watch them?”
“That’s a good question,” said Clark. “Let me take a look in the basement to see if we still have our old VCR.”
Clark looked through the cluttered space in the basement where he kept anything he wasn’t ready to part with yet, including a leather jacket he hadn’t worn since high school. He pulled the jacket off the hanger and put it on, a bit stiffer in the shoulders than he remembered. He zipped the sleeves and checked the pockets as he looked around for the VCR.
As he contemplated opening a decade old mint he found in his jacket’s inner pocket he spotted the box labeled VCR.
Clark put the box on the kitchen table and walked over to the sink to spit out the mint.
“I found it,” he said. “Blah, everything is fine.”
“Surprised we still had it,” said Alice. “Take that old jacket off. You look ridiculous.”
“It’ll take me a minute to setup,” said Clark, draping the jacket over a chair at the kitchen table. “I wonder what those movies will look like now. Back then we thought they were better than anything Hollywood could ever do.”
“Can we watch the movies now?” asked Jessica.
“I think we have a future director on our hands,” said Clark. He smirked at Alice and they both broke into laughter. “We’ll be there in a minute, Jess.”
Clark brought the box over to the TV and pulled out all the cords. He checked the back of the TV and scratched his head.
“Uh, Ally?”
“Yes, Clark?”
“I’m not sure if this will work.”
“Let me try.”
Clark watched a video on his phone for how to hook up a VCR to a modern TV while Alice placed everything where it belonged.
“This is taking forever,” said Jessica. “These movies better be worth it.”
“I hope they’re dinosaurs!” shouted Brendan.
“I hope they still work,” said Clark.
“All done,” said Alice.
Clark popped in the first video, ‘Clue Squad’. He grabbed the remote from beside his chair and joined his family on the couch. He pressed play and couldn’t help but smile as the title card, written with black marker on a piece of paper that kept flopping over, filled the screen.
The movie was from before Alice had joined Clark and his friends. He watched as his children laughed at the jokes he’d made up on the spot when he was a few years older than his son. Clark and his friends had done their own take on the mystery show they loved as a kid, with one of his friends playing the role of the dog, Clark sighed of relief as he thought back to how he was almost forced into the role, but luckily a coin flip had been on his side.
“I don’t think I’ve seen this one,” said Alice. “You remind me so much of Brendan. Look, you have the same nose.”
“The same wit too,” said Clark. “Right, pal?”
“I don’t know what that means, Dad. Can we watch the other movie now?”
Clark got up to get the tape; with the runtime of the movie being only twenty minutes he was looking forward to seeing who stole the turkey sandwich, but as he thought back he smirked and shook his head.
“I think the dog did it,” said Jessica.
Clark grinned as he put in the next tape. “I think you’re right.”
As soon as the title card was pulled from the screen Clark’s heart began to pound. ‘Indoor Theme Park Adventure’ was the first time he’d hung out with Alice outside of class. He watched as his character, the park owner, invited Alice and his friends into the indoor park, which consisted of boxes labeled various things — Haunted House, Arcade, Spinning Cups. His character showed off each attraction before leading Alice to the crown jewel of the park, which was a laundry basket sitting atop a coffee table.
“What’s that?” asked Brendan.
“Just wait and see,” replied Alice.
On screen Alice stepped into the basket as Clark turned on the TV. Playing on the screen was a demo from an actual theme park, complete with a thirty-second section dedicated to going through the course of a roller-coaster from start to finish. As the ride started on screen Clark began to shake the basket. Alice held on and Clark shifted the basket from right to left, even tipping it forward by pulling up the back whenever a hill came up.
Clark watched his children laughing as they saw their mother with her hands up in the air on screen. When the movie was over he got up and ejected the tape. As he turned around back to his family he wiped a tear away from his eye. He looked up to see Alice doing the same.
“Your father asked me out on our first date after we made that movie,” said Alice.
“Where’d you go?” asked Jessica.
“To the movies,” replied Clark.
Thank you for reading this week’s Friday Romance story!
If you’re interested in more of my writing I have an eBook available on Kindle as well as 3 serials on Kindle Vella.
The Centennial Courtship (Kindle)
One Town Over (Kindle Vella)
The Centennial Courtship (Kindle Vella)
The Fantasy of Love: A Romance Story Collection (Kindle Vella)
I enjoyed this.