#30 Endings

“Is this the end?”

“Nah . . . this can’t be the end. There’s no climax in the story.”

“Yeah, where are the explosions? I thought this was an action flick.”

Then the credits start rolling. The pit orchestra crescendos and we are left sitting on the edge of our seats anticipating something, but that something never comes along. Instead we tell ourselves that we must have held our breath for too long; we must have blacked out and woke up right after the cops charged in on the real murderer.

“Gee whiz man, what a bad ending.”

“Wait, so was the guy in the picture at the end really the Zodiac?”

“Yeah, but who was the other guy?”

“Which guy?”

“The guy who pointed out the Zodiac.”

“I thought he was the guy from the beginning.”

“Which guy?”

“The guy that was shot in the car.”

“He lived!?”

“I don’t know. It looks that way.”

As Kevin, Kenneth, and Dan unraveled the ending of the movie, I sat there on the couch. I looked over and saw Anna in her chair. She dozed off 10 minutes into the movie.

It was the first day of Christmas break and we needed a release from school. We borrowed a movie from the video shop and wasted 3 hours tucked under blankets, with bowls of buttered popcorn on our laps, sipping hot chocolate from our mugs. This was what we’ve been waiting for since the end of summer. And now that our vacation was here, we begun to lose our wits.

“Dude, you’re not choosing the next movie.”

“Fine, but we’re not watching any chick flicks! You’re not making me sit through Bring It On 3 again.”

Their bickering woke up Anna. She regained consciousness and looked around; it was as though she was lost.

“Is the movie over?”

“Yeah,” I told her, “you missed the whole thing.”

“It wasn’t a very interesting movie.”

“It’s a true story though.”

Anna started hanging out with the gang after the parking lot. We included her in our expeditions. She was our only fan when we practiced BMX. She gave us tips on balancing when we couldn’t get a trick down. She road on the back of my bike when he went anywhere. It was fun having a female around.

“So what now?” I heard Dan say.

“What about a board game.” I said. “My parents just bought this board game, Ticket to Ride. Supposedly it got mad reviews.”

“Nah . . . How about we go prank Carl. Let’s hide a bunch of raw meat around his house. It’ll stink up the place like crazy!”

“Yeah! I’ve got some leftover casserole from last night, too. We can pick it up from my home.”

“Let’s go!”

Thus we begun another great adventure.