Saturday, December 21, 2021
Sara was surprised to hear I had offered jobs to Sofie and Pete, but she didn’t protest. While I had lied about hiring someone being Sara’s idea, I had not lied about us needing some help.
“That was a great idea, Peter,” she said. “It’ll be nice to have a cool young woman to work with.”
She looked at me with a mischievous smile on her face.
“None taken,” I said, and returned the grin. Everything was going perfectly according to my plan. I played with Einie for a few minutes and at exactly noon, there was a knock on the side door.
“Got it,” I shouted to Sara. “It’s Pete.”
I opened the door and let Pete in, and through the dark corridor into the foyer and then to the office in the back. He was wearing black jeans and a dress shirt under a purple woollen sweater, an outfit I suspected had been picked for him by Jennifer. He looked like Alex Keaton in Family Ties, which in itself would normally been a big plus, but I was afraid Sofia wouldn’t be impressed.
“Well, welcome to Atlas, Pete. Let me show you around first. I was thinking that maybe you could help me to clear some space in our basement first. Or, maybe I should say “Vault”, because that’s where we keep our valuable movie memorabilia, posters, promo products, and old reels and so on,” I said and led the way to the basement door.
“Hope you don’t get your clothes dirty,” I added.
“I don’t mind, Mr. Eksell,” Pete said.
I flicked the light switch and turned to Pete.
“Please,” I said and smiled. “It’s Peter, OK?”
“Of course,” Pete said.
Usually, the basement was my secret Fortress of Solitude, a place where I went when I wanted to collect my thoughts and just spend some time on my own. It was like a bunker, and according to Sara, there was no cell phone reception. Not even the radio worked there but I had a few tapes and a boombox on a shelf there, next to a record player and a few albums.
“Wow,” Peter said when he saw the room with an Indiana Jones poster on the back wall, behind a big leather armchair I had once dragged down there. “Are those actual movie reels?” he asked and pointed at the top shelf.
“That’s exactly right, now, want to grab that step ladder and see which Christmas movies we still have here?”
Pete took the ladder, but since he was that much taller than me, he hardly needed it all to be able to read the labels, but he didn’t say anything.
“Do you want me to just read the titles out loud? OK? So, we have Groundhog Day, Top Gun, Gremlins…”
“Gremlins! Perfect! Take that down,” I said.
Ten minutes later, we had a good selection of Christmas movies: Gremlins, Scrooged, Ghostbusters II, and … Die Hard. I knew Sara didn’t consider the last two Christmas movies but you have to play with what you’ve got, right? We’d open with Gremlins, that much I knew.
“Thanks, Pete, great job. Time for a break,” I said.
“A break? I just got here,” he said.
I didn’t say anything, and with Pete in tow, I walked out the door and straight to Kim’s Basement. With only three days to go, I needed to speed up his education and Kim was the guru I had chosen for him. Kim was to be Pete’s Yoda.
Kim poured us cups of very strong, black coffee and even found a box of graham crackers to go with it as he chatted about some of the new records he had just got in. Pete didn’t say anything, he just sat on a bar stool and nodded at everything Kim said.
“Pete, my man, I’m going to let you in on a secret,” Kim said, after he had once again sent other customers away. “You’re a smart kid, I can tell, but there are some things you won’t – can’t – learn in school.”
“OK,” Pete said.
“Art, man. Rock’n’roll,” Kim said, and he looked Pete in the eye so intently I expected Pete to fall off his stool. Kim reached down and pulled something out from under his desk.
“I want you to do yourself a favour and listen to these three albums. Fair warning: you won’t be the same afterwards,” he said and laid three vinyl records on the counter.
They were Prince’s Purple Rain, The Police’s Synchronicity, and Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s Welcome to the Pleasuredome.
And as if to underline the importance of the Moment, we heard a tiny ring of a bell.
It was another customer. I turned to look and to my surprise, I saw the same lady I had almost knocked over the last time I had been at the store. And as an even bigger surprise was that Kim pulled away the plate with the graham crackers and in not so subtle way, let us know it was time for us to go.
“Anyway, I think it’s time for you to,” he said. “Listen to those, come back tomorrow.”
Pete grabbed the albums, I downed the last of my coffee and off we went.
“That was nice,” Pete said, “but I don’t know what to do with these. What are they?”
➡️ More on Someday Jennifer (HarperCollins Canada 2019)