She was going to die.
What do you mean: “The machine is out of order”?
It was 7:00 P.M. on Wednesday. They were at the movies. Matthias and Anna went to the movies on Wednesday nights. Anna began fasting on Wednesday mornings—Tuesday nights she ate an apple, perhaps—so that by 7:00 P.M. on Wednesday her brain would allow her to have the popcorn. Small.
Anna had movie theater popcorn once a week, on Wednesdays. She compensated for the oil by skipping breakfast and running for ten extra minutes on Thursdays. But that particular Wednesday it was 7:00 P.M. and they had bought their tickets, but the popcorn machine was out of order and she was going to die.
May I offer you any other concessions? Anything else at all?
She had long passed hunger and was nauseated with starvation. Her eyes blurred as she looked at the display.
A pretzel? Impossible.
Candy? Had the world gone mad?
Nachos? She could not accurately estimate their calorie content.
No, he could not offer her anything else, because there was nothing else that she could eat.
It is all right,
said Matthias,
we can eat when we get home,
steering her away from the concession stand.
No they could not, she almost screamed. Home was a two-hour movie and drive away from here. She would be dead by then.