An hour later, the alley was starting to fill up. They showed up in clusters, sticking mostly to their own kind. Fans with film stills of Raina, hoping for autographs. Regulars from the Green Street. Fanboys and movie geeks. There was even someone who claimed to be a reporter from the Tribune. By the time it was dark, there were probably fifty people and about twenty total folding chairs. It was pitch-black in the alley except for the white glow of the projection on the brick wall. There were two hours until Raina left for the airport.
Anjo was up in Ron’s apartment, prescreening the videos to make sure there was no porn. There were about fifteen movies total. When I looked up at her in the dimly lit window, she gave me a hesitant thumbs-up. Griffin was in the crowd, handing out free candy, and occasionally administering one of his drops. Lucas was standing in the crowd, transfixed by the spectacle. And Sweet Lou was our lookout. In case of the police, she was going to sound an air horn. She stood at the end of the alley like a sentry.
It was finally dark enough to get a good picture on the makeshift wall screen, so I threaded my way to the front of the crowd and tried to announce the beginning of the festival. The noise from the crowd was loud though, and no one was really listening. I cleared my throat two different times and even let out a pretty loud whistle, but nobody paid any attention.
Finally, I heard the racket die down all at once. Like someone had waved a wand. I looked to my right and found Raina standing beside me. All it took was her presence to bring everyone to silence. She looked at me expectantly, and I leaned over and whispered in her ear.
“I think they came to see you,” I said. “You better say something first.”
She nodded.
“Hello, Minneapolis,” she said. “Hi, everybody.”
A whole group of people at the back cheered like they were at a concert,
“Wooooooooooooooo! Time Zap!” someone yelled.
“Wow, okay,” she said. “Yeah. I was in that.”
“We love you!” said someone else.
“I’m sure I would love you, too, if I got to know you,” she said.
She was smiling now, and it felt to me like her transformation was complete. She was Raina Allen, young celebrity again. All it took was a few fans to switch the light back on. She pretended she didn’t like the attention, but it had to be thrilling some of the time. Especially, if you’d just decided to be that person again.
“I’m Raina,” she said. “But this isn’t really my event. It’s my friend Ethan’s. So I’m going to turn things over to him in just a minute. I just want to say that it’s possible I wouldn’t be an actress if I didn’t come here to see movies, and I wish it could live on forever. But, I’m excited to see your movies tonight. I’m sure they’re going to be great. Ethan?”
She turned toward me, and I couldn’t help flinching. I assumed she was going to speak for longer, maybe even give a rousing speech. But she just pointed at me. I looked at the crowd of people, many of them I had never seen before. Probably most of them had never seen a movie here. Or if they had, it was only once with their weird friend. I didn’t resent them—not much anyway—but I wished I could have found a way to get them here sooner.
“Okay, everyone,” I said.
I tried to project my voice the way Mrs. Salazar had taught us at the Playhouse.
“Thanks for coming.”
It was so quiet now, and I felt my nerves suddenly. Heat in my armpits. A tickle in my throat. I wasn’t used to talking to this many people. The only thing that helped was that most of the people were still staring at Raina, not me. I looked around for some familiar faces in the crowd, and eventually, I spotted Griffin, the screen reflecting in his giant glasses. Lucas was at the fringes of the crowd, watching too. Up above me, Anjo was looking down as usual, a benevolent god we did not deserve. And Sweet Lou was at the very end of the alley, holding her air horn with her arm in a sling.
“Home,” I said.
It felt good to say the word out loud.
“This place is home. I grew up here. My dad, who isn’t here anymore, used to take me here when I was a kid, and I thought it was the single greatest place on the planet. It just felt good being here with him. The old seats that swallow you when you sit down. The noisy house projector. The crackle of the old speaker system. Movies were my dad’s religion and I guess I was an easy convert. I told myself that his temple was going to be here forever, which is probably also what I thought about him.”
I took a breath and tried to stand up straight. There were some befuddled looks from the crowd now. This was supposed to be a party.
“They’re going to knock it down now, and they might or might not make some stylish places for young people to live. I tried to fight it. But in the end there wasn’t much I could really do. You can’t save everything, no matter how much you might care about it. In the end, your love can’t keep it alive.”
I glanced at Raina, and though she was smiling for the crowd, she gave me a concerned look.
“But there might have been one thing I was wrong about.”
I turned around to look at it for a moment. Then I turned back.
“I thought the building was everything. I don’t think I was right about that. It might not be the space itself. It might be the people who came to the building. My fellow employees, the regulars, anyone else who showed up to be part of it. All the people who kept it going for as long as they could. And so, I guess what I want to say is that if you have a good time tonight, just think about finding more ways to do this. It doesn’t have to be here. Just find ways to be together to do something you really care about. If you can make art together and find your people, maybe that’s enough.”
No one said anything. The alley was totally quiet.
“Can we?” I said, motioning to Anjo. “Can we just maybe roll the first film?”
She nodded and began clicking on the laptop.
“The rest of the night is for you,” I said. “It’s yours.”
I walked away then, through the crowd and around the corner. I left the alley, and walked back into the lobby of the apartment complex. I rode the elevator back up to the third floor. Then I walked down to 3F, Ron’s apartment, where I helped myself to a grape soda from the fridge and stood next to Anjo at the projector. The first film had already started playing. Anjo adjusted the focus, and everything that was fuzzy at the edges, suddenly became perfectly clear.