In early May of 2024, with spring about to vanish and summer vastly approaching, there was a movie theater multiplex in a small New Hampshire town named Summer Top that was on its last legs and struggled financially since the pandemic. The movie theater multiplex is called “Lion’s Grand Theaters”. It’s your stereotypical movie theater multiplex chain from the 1990’s. Oddly enough, it appears to have remained in the 1990’s with little updates and refurbishment because of its cheap greedy owner Lion, which the movie theater chain, of which only one location that exists today, bears his name. Lion is an anthropomorphic talking Lion who opened the small movie theater multiplex chain to cash in while the industry was hot, but he never cashed out.
Today is May 5th and it’s the final day of operation at the last functional Lion’s Grand Theaters location. You think on the final day of operation and with having 24 theaters inside it that the theaters would be jammed pack with customers, right? Well, think again because it’s half an hour before closing time and not a single movie goer has appeared in sight. As Lion moans and groans in his office, smoking heavily, his five valued employees are bored out of there minds. Two employees work the concession stand, the first is a young male anthropomorphic teenage nerdy slim bear named Binky who eagerly keeps the stand in order like a good employee should. The other employee is a young female anthropomorphic chinchilla college student with headphones always in her ears named Chillie, who listens to music as she flips through an entertainment magazine chewing gum like she doesn’t give a fuck.
Due to the theater being quiet and not a customer in sight, the theaters two forty something custodians, the first whose name is Stork who is a male hippie anthropomorphic stork, who’s probably the only stork with his feathers on the back of his head in a ponytail. The second whose name is Spotty is a male, man child, that happens to be an anthropomorphic brown furred spotted mutt. Spotty is a labrador retriever and a beagle mix with a simple mind. The duo is currently playing floor hockey on the theater lobby floor with brooms as the hockey sticks and a urinal cake as the puck. As the bird and dog have fun, and the younger employees Binky and Chillie do their own thing at the concession stand. There’s just one more employee that remains. His name is Mr. Raccoon, a sixty something anthropomorphic, uptight, film buff, raccoon, who happens to be the theater’s sole projectionist and the second oldest current employee in age other than the theater’s owner Lion.
Mr. Raccoon, up in the rafters next to a movie projector, sits sipping tea while he reads the local newspaper as he listens to classical music on the radio. Until he and Lion hear the loud thud of Spotty and Stork crashing into each other from downstairs. Mr. Raccoon rolls his eyes and exits the projection room. Lion, now furious, storms out of his office. Back down in the lobby, Binky checks to see if Spotty and Stork are okay. “Spotty, Stork, please stop playing floor hockey in the lobby again. This is our last day of operation, have some respect,” says Binky. Spotty and Stork slowly regain conscious, they get off the ground and dust themselves off. “Good game Stork,” said Spotty. “Good game indeed, Spotty. Same time tomorrow?” asks Stork. Suddenly a loud roar is heard as Spotty, Stork, and Binky spot their boss Lion and Mr. Raccoon standing behind. “There is not going a tomorrow, you morons. Like your fellow employee Binky said, this is my theater’s last day of operation and after today, you’re all going to be laid off,” said Lion. Spotty and Stork both gulp then start to clean up the mess they made. Lion taps Mr. Raccoon on the shoulder. “Mr. Raccoon, keep an eye on these two idiots along with the slightly useful teens, okay,” said Lion. “Yes sir. And I would like to say it’s been an honor working with you for…” says Mr. Raccoon. Lion grunts and slaps Mr. Raccoon in the back of the head. “Don’t be a kiss-ass. Now do your job and keep an eye on the other employees,” says Lion. Mr. Raccoon sighs and says, “Yes sir,”. Lion then makes his way back to his office. Mr. Raccoon turns around and yells at Spotty, Stork, Binky, and Chillie. “You four, birthday party room meeting now!” hollers Mr. Raccoon.
In the theater’s birthday party room, Mr. Raccoon stands next to a whiteboard as he writes a list of rules. As the other employees are doing their own thing with Spotty and Stork arm wrestling each other, Binky is doing his homework, and Chillie is still listening to music. Mr. Raccoon claps loudly which gets everyone’s attention. “Now, do you know why we’re having this meeting right now?” asks Mr. Raccoon. Spotty raises his hand and says, “Because it’s my birthday today,”. “Why do you think it’s your birthday today Spotty, no wait let me guess, is it because we are currently meeting in the birthday party room because we don’t have any conference rooms here,” asks Mr. Raccoon. “Actually, that and because the calendar says so,” said Spotty. Mr. Raccoon facepalms as Chillie raises her hand. “Yes Ms. Chinchilla, you have a question?” asks Mr. Raccoon. Chillie removes her headphones and asks “You do know that this is our last day, right? Then why do we need to listen to you?”. “Because our boss said so?” said Mr. Raccoon. “You do know it’s almost closing time and we haven’t had a single customer today, right,” said Chillie. Mr. Raccoon angrily flips the table over with Spotty, Stork, Binky, and Chillie having no reaction to it. “Can’t you guys do anything right? I wonder why Lion hired you idiots in the first place?” asks Mr. Raccoon. Spotty raises his hand and Mr. Raccoon points at him. “Speak, what do you have to contribute to this conference that’s become pointless?” asks Mr. Raccoon. Spotty wags his tail happily as he pulls out a huge box filled with film reels. “Where did you get those reels?” asks Mr. Raccoon. “From storage, since it’s our last day I thought why don’t we have some fun and watch some movies. It’ll be our own little film festival,” says Spotty. Everyone in the room began to smile, even Mr. Raccoon. “Who agrees with Spotty that we should just watch movies until our theater’s demise say I,” said Mr. Raccoon. Everyone says I and Spotty picks up the box of film reels and hands them to Mr. Raccoon. Mr. Raccoon grins as Spotty, Stork, Binky, and Chillie exit the room. “I’ll make some popcorn. That’s not fresh from the concession stand,” says Binky.
With the theater just ten minutes away from closing and their boss Lion having left the building, the inmates now run the asylum as they hold a film festival for themselves inside their place of work and watch movies which we are going to see with them. Or in this case, read with them. Enjoy the show!
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