Every Man Who Loved Me Left Hating Me, Only My Father Knows Why novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: The Booth

At two in the morning, the house was dark and my father's snoring carried down the hall.

I went down the cellar stairs in my socks, with the brass key in my fist.

Remo stood at the top, with his back to me and his eyes on the lawn.

"I'll watch the door," he said. "Take as long as you need."

"You're not coming in?"

"I don't go in the booth."

I didn't think about that then.

The projection room smelled the way it always had, of hot dust and old carpet.

Eight rows of red velvet seats faced the screen, and behind the last row, a half-wall hid the booth.

The brass key turned in the booth door easily.

Inside, there were shelves of flat metal cans, four of them marked with strips of masking tape.

T.M. Then the initials of the third man and the fourth. Then J.M.

Jake's was the last, and the tape on it was fresh.

I lifted Theo's can down with both hands and loaded it onto the projector the way my grandfather had once taught me, when I was ten and thought it was a game.

The film clicked through the gate.

On the screen, a woman in a green dress laughed in a hotel bar and put her hand on a stranger's cheek.

I made myself watch her mouth.

It didn't match.

She said, "Papa, he's easy," but her lips had closed a full second before the word finished.

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