Page 3 of Killer Summer
“And tell them what? Some weirdo is giving me bad vibes?” Dani shrugged. “I was going to put in my notice at the end of the month anyway.”
“I dunno.” He sighed. “Just, whatever you do, be careful.”
“I will.” Dani gave him a half smile. “Thanks, Kyle. I’m gonna miss working with you.”
“I’m gonna miss you too.”
Dani detected a flush of color on Kyle’s cheeks as he returned to his stacks of VHS tapes. She really was going to miss him. Dani barely had time to return to her post before a woman and two small children walked through the door. She did her best to shift back into work mode and shake off the unsettling encounter.
“Welcome to Cool Flix,” she said, the words robotic and metallic on her tongue.
Dani leaned against the counter, propped her chin on her hand and resumed her position staring out onto the boardwalk again. A ball of dread that she couldn’t shake rolled around in her gut, heavy as a bowling ball. Beyond the glass storefront, Dani could only see endless shadows; a world cloaked in darkness, concealing any number of dangers.
Dani distracted herself at work for the rest of the night the way that she always did when she was upset—with her favorite films. It was so easy for her to pop a beloved VHS tape into a machine and allow herself to be transported to another world for ninety minutes. Things were always better in the movies; the people were prettier, wealthier, happier. In films she could go on amazing adventures, discover exciting things, fall in love again and again. Reality paled in comparison to the hundreds of videocassette worlds that were right at her fingertips.
That night, whenCasablancawas finished, Dani pluckedThe Wizard of Ozclamshell case off the shelves and inserted the tape into the VHS player. If anything could cheer her up, it would be her favorite childhood musical. Instead, as the whimsical story played out on the screen, Dorothy’s feelings of rejection, loneliness, and longing for home only stabbed at her heart.
Most of the time, getting lost in a movie helped to ease Dani’s mind, but her encounter that night with Matt Vickers left her shaken. Her usual dissociation coping mechanism wasn’t working against a real life, six-foot-tall hulking threat. Even though her parents had raised her with stranger danger talks, she wasn’t prepared to deal with the attention of someone so intense. She’d had boys at school come on to her before, but never like this. Matt Vickers wasn’t a teenage boy—he was a man, and a big one at that. Intimidating. Dangerous. How do you make someone go away when they don’t take no for an answer?
“The Wizard of Oz? Interesting choice.”
Kyle joined Dani behind the counter, snapping her out of her Matt-Vickers-induced anxiety spiral. Kyle pulled his backpack out from under the counter as Elmira Gulch threatened to kidnap Dorothy’s dog.
“Another black and white movie?” Kyle teased.
“This is sepia tone, not black and white,” Dani said. “Don’t worry, it’ll switch to color soon.”
“I know, I’ve seen it before,” he said. “You usually pick out more mature films. I was just surprised that you chose a kids movie. That’s all.”
“It’s one of my comfort movies,” she explained. “Watching it usually helps me feel better.”
“Is it helping?”
Dani snorted. “Not really.”
“Still kinda rattled, huh?” Kyle asked.
“Yeah,” she said. “Vickers creeps me out. Big time.”
“Sorry about that guy. I wish our manager would do something about dudes like him.”
Dani frowned. “Me too.”
Kyle passed her a half-eaten box of chocolate covered raisins. “Want some?”
Dani shook her head. “No, thanks.”
“Come on, if this is your last night working here, you gotta at least take advantage of some free candy.”
“Good point.” Dani reached around to the front of the counter, instinctively knowing where her favorite candy was stocked. Her hand closed around a package of crinkly sour gummy worms. She opened the bag, popped one in her mouth, and let out a sigh.
“So, what is it about this particular movie that’s so great?” Kyle asked. “I mean, I know it’s a classic. I guess I just don’t get it.”
“I dunno. It was so magical to watch when I was a kid,” she said. “Movies like this always made me feel safe. You know?”
Kyle scrunched his forehead. “Whaddaya mean?”
“Like, I didn’t grow up with a lot of friends. My parents were always anxious about me playing outside. I was left alone a lot, so I always had the TV on in the background.”
