28

Dad and Poppy hung a bedsheet down the side of the shed to use as the screen. They moved the table and put the projector on top of it, facing the screen. Then they set up the chairs in a row. In no time at all we had an outdoor movie theater.

“Is this the way you did it when you were a kid?” I asked Dad.

“It is,” he said. “There were more people out here, but this is almost exactly the way it used to be.”

“It’s pretty cool,” I said.

Poppy took the cover off the projector. The whole thing looked kind of complicated, with a bunch of buttons and dials. Poppy moved two metal arms until they snapped into place. One stuck out in the front of the projector and the other stuck out in the back. He got an empty movie reel from the cardboard box and snapped it onto the back arm. Then he took one of the round metal tins, marked “Rex and Friends,” and opened it. Inside was the actual film on a reel. He carefully snapped that reel onto the front arm. He fiddled with the film. Finally, he fed it into the projector and turned it on. You could hear whirring and clicking as the projector gobbled up the film and then spat it out near the back reel. Poppy wound the film onto the empty back reel.

“Okay, I think we’re ready, boys,” he said. “It’s showtime.”

Rupert curled up on the grass near Poppy. I got my flashlight from the tent and gave it to Sam to hold. I didn’t want him to be scared of the dark.

Sam started shining it all around.

Rupert stood up and chased the light. I think he wanted to bite it.

“Go, dog, go!” said Sam.

“That’s enough, Sam,” I said. “Come here, Rupert! Sit!”

Rupert sat at my feet.

Finally, we were ready. A clear beam of light shot out from the projector onto the screen. Then we saw a series of flickering numbers. It was like a real live countdown:

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1!

The cartoon started.

“Look, guys!” Dad said. He was excited. “It’s Rex the Ruff Rider!”

We watched a bunch of Rex the Ruff Rider cartoons. There was one called “Little Red Riding Rex.” Rex is driving through the woods on his way to his grandma’s house and the Big Bad Wolf is chasing after him. Sam watched in horror. I guess he was afraid that Rex would get eaten. There was another cartoon where Rex sings the national anthem in front of a crowd of spectators before a race. Rex holds a single note for a really long time. It looks like he’s going to pass out.

Rupert suddenly seemed very interested. His ears perked up. Something about Rex’s singing voice made him want to sing, too. Instead of singing, though, Rupert howled.

“AAAAAARRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOO …”

“Shhhhhh,” we shushed him.

“AAAAAARRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOO …”

Once Rupert started howling, there was no shushing him. Poppy said he’d had enough.

We watched the end of the cartoon, and then Poppy turned off the projector. We sat in the dark and looked up at the stars. There weren’t many to see. I went to the tent to get the marshmallows. We ate them right out of the bag. It was too bad we couldn’t have a real campfire to roast them, but they were delicious anyway. Poppy pointed out the Big Dipper. Dad pointed out the North Star.

Sam fell asleep in Dad’s arms, and Rupert fell asleep on Poppy’s lap. Then Poppy fell asleep and started snoring. Then it was just me and Dad. We sat there without saying anything, just looking up at the sky and eating marshmallows.

There was nothing fake about it. It felt like a real camping trip.