At Long Last

It was on a Saturday night. Pat was sleeping soundly when the phone rang. He reached over to answer it, hoping that the ringing hadn’t wakened Charlie. He looked at the clock. It was 2:30 am. “Lupton,” he said. “Pat? How soon can you get here?” “Who are you and where is here?” “I’m sorry. Rachael Henderson. We’re at the Lakeside movie place.” “You mean the movie theatre over on Handover?” “Yes.” “So, what is the problem?” “I’d rather you just come over. Can you do that?” “Rachael, I have a son to take care of. I need to know what’s up. Do I need to take him to the babysitter? Talk to me, please.” “We’ve been watching the movie, well, not really watching it. We were sitting up in the balcony……and” Someone else grabbed the phone and Pat heard a male voice take over. “Pat, this is Lyle Hassin. You’ve got to come over here. We don’t know what’s happening, but we know it’s bad.” “Well, Lyle, I have to drop Charlie off at the babysitter. And then I’ll be there. Do you need the police or an ambulance?” “Yeah. Probably both. Definitely an ambulance.” “Okay, sit tight and I’ll be there.” Pat replaced the phone and picked it up again. He dialed for an ambulance. Then he dialed Carma. When she answered, he apologized for waking her so late. She said it was no problem and she would be up when he brought Charlie over. He thanked her and hung up. As he was getting dressed, he thought he should call Kranston. He picked up the phone and made the call. Kranston, who had caller ID, looked first to see who was calling. As he answered, he said “Can’t they wait till a decent time?” “Hello to you too,” Pat said. “I don’t know what the problem is, but they said I should call you and an ambulance.” “Okay, you got me. Where do I go?” “The movie place over on Handover. Like I said, I have no idea what’s going on.” “Have you called an ambulance? “Yes. I called 911.” “Good. You get over there.” “I have to drop Charlie over at Carma’s, and then I’m on my way.” “Okay, see you there.” Pat dropped Charlie off at Carma’s, apologizing profusely about the late hour. She was, as usual, very understanding. Pat drove to the movie theatre. When he got there, Kranston was just arriving. They walked to the theatre together. There was no one at the front door and it was open. They walked into the theatre. It was dark inside, a movie was playing on the big screen. House lights were turned down. The place looked deserted “Anybody home?” Pat called out. “In the balcony,” someone answered. Pat and Kranston went up to the balcony. There were about thirty kids sitting around. Pat saw Lyle and walked over to him. “What’s happening, Lyle?” “I’m not sure. We met here at about 10:00. We all came up here.” “You weren’t really here for the movie, were you?” “No, we weren’t watching the movie.” “So what happened?” “We have dead and injured people. Come over here.” He led the way. As soon as Pat saw where he was taking them, he turned to Kranston and said “We’re going to need more than one ambulance. Someone has to get the manager to turn up the house lights.” He started following Lyle. “Oh, and get them to shut off that movie.” Kranston took out his pager and called it in. He then went down to the manager’s office. Pat moved over to the first victim. It was a naked teenage girl. She was cut and bleeding. Pat saw she was awake and breathing. He asked her how she was doing. She said she was doing okay. Mary Winston, he thought. He moved to the next person. It was a male, also nude. He was also cognizant. Pat asked if he was okay and he nodded that he was. Ozzie Carlson, he thought. He moved over to the next body and found it was another naked male. He was cut and there was an awful lot of blood. Pat checked him out. He was not awake, and he was not alive. Kenny Jergins, he thought. Pat sighed and moved to the next one. It was another male - nude and alive. He stopped to ask how he was doing, and he said he was okay. Jim Ownes, he thought. The house lights came on. Pat stood up and looked around. It looked like a massacre. There were probably four or five more kids involved. There was blood everywhere. As he moved to the next body, he shouted “Someone talk to me. Tell me what happened here.” No one answered.