Like In The Movies

Chapter One

It was a Sunday. The sun was high in the sky and the scent of spring filled the air and the boy's nose, the wind breezing by gracefully like a dancer. The daffodils were starting to grow and make the side of the pavements turn from a frost-bitten green to a wonderful, golden yellow, almost as stunning as the sun. It was beautiful, almost serene and the boy let his eyelids shut themselves so he could concentrate on the sounds and smells around him. He didn't need to open his eyes again really as he knew this road so well that he could've walked it with his eyes shut any day, but his eyelids drew back after a minute or two; he didn't want to miss out on the beauty of the scenery around him.

His blue eyes sparkled as his gaze turned the cobbled floor beneath his feet, smiling to himself as a peaceful silence shrouded him in its grasp. He loved this road, it was the only one that he could walk down in a total trance, knowing that no children would wake him up from the fantasies he created in his ever-whirring mind. His breath was soft and he could feel it escape from his lips as he wetted them with the tip of his tongue. 

The sun was insanely bright, too bright in fact for April - the thin boy secretly wished that he had brought his sunglasses along with him now, but he knew that in a little while he wouldn't be needing them any more as most of his afternoon consisted of a regular inside activity. It was a shame to waste such a uniquely beautiful day inside, cooped up with a bunch of people, all eyes focused on the one thing they were there for, but it was a routine that Kurt had participated in since he was six, and he wasn't going to break it now.

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"Mummy, what's a cinema?" Kurt asked curiously, his bright blue eyes sparkling as he peered around his mother's bedroom door, tiny pale fingers clenching at the frame of the wood as he watched his mother shrug on a beautiful black jacket that matched her black-and-white tie dye dress.
"What's that munchkin?" Elizabeth turned her attention from how her waist looked in the flattering dress to her six-year-old, pallid son who lurked just in the boundaries of her room. She ushered him inside with her hands, turning from his reflection in the mirror to his real form, her long, jacketed arms outstretched to embrace him in a hug.
On instinct, the boy walked into them and they held each other tight, Kurt's fingers fiddling with the tips of his mom's soft, auburn hair. The woman smiled and looped her limbs under her son's legs as she picked him up carefully and walked to the bed, placing both herself and Kurt down onto the vibrant sheets that Kurt's father secretly hated.
The chestnut-haired boy unwound his fingers from his mother's hair and looked into her kind sapphire eyes, before his rosy lips parted and he repeated his question, "I asked: what's a cinema?"
Elizabeth let a soft chuckle escape her lips and she shook her head slightly, hair bouncing around her neck as she did so.
“Why do you ask that?” her smile broadened, her snow-white teeth visible beneath her glossy lips.
“Earlier when I was looking through all the books on our bookshelf I asked daddy if he wanted to play a game with you and me later – something like ‘hide and seek’ or ‘I’ll find it first’,” Kurt paused for breath, his high-pitched voice very unusual for a boy, even at his age, “but he said to me that we couldn’t play it with you because you were going to the new Cinema. So I came to ask you what that is, because I don’t think I’ve heard of one before.”
“A cinema, baby,” the woman placed a soft, affectionate kiss to Kurt’s temple, “is a place of magic. It’s where still images become moving ones with music and action and romance.”
Kurt’s eyes were twinkling as her words filled his mind, images of these places that held such wonderment causing his mouth to hang widely open, even at the mere mention of what these cinema’s contained.
“The first cinema here in Sicily Valley is opening tonight and I couldn’t resist taking a peek at it.”
The boy blinked to wake himself from the trance-like state he had been in moments before, his lips curled into an irresistible smile as he asked, “is that why you’re dressed so nicely, mommy?”
Elizabeth bared her teeth – still smiling – as she pounced on the boy, prodding and poking at all his weak spots; an enormous roar of laughter filled the humid air. Kurt wriggled and writhed under her touch, his hands clutching at his belly as he tried to stop giggles erupted from his mouth. Elizabeth found herself chuckling as she started to tickle at his bare feet, slowly removing her fingertips from his smooth skin.
“You always know what to say to make me smile, bambino.” She tittered, moving a long strand of her auburn hair away from her eyes that were firmly fixed on her son. They trailed off of him to look at her feet when she let out a startling squeak, “Aiee! But what am I going to wear on my feet that will match this beautiful outfit that my son got me for my birthday?”
She raised her eyebrow suggestively and Kurt almost immediately sprang up from where he lay bellowing with laughter minutes ago, scurrying optimistically to his mother’s wardrobe that was teeming with shoes at its base. The woman watched as her son carefully selected two pairs of shoes from the closet, carefully shutting the door and with it, its contents. She waited patiently as the little boy ran back to his mother and presented the two pairs of shoes he had selected.
“You really think blue will work?” She asked, staring at one of the pairs of heels that Kurt had handpicked that were a very dark shade of blue; she didn’t even know she owned a pair of navy heels.
The boy nodded frantically, “they’ll make your eyes pop. You don’t want too much black. They’re the choice I most recommend, unless you remove your jacket.”
Elizabeth tapped at her chin, her painted-nails shimmering a cream-colour under the light of the lamp that was switched on above them. She looked at the boy’s smiling face and nodded, lifting her right foot up for Kurt to slip on the heel; she would’ve done it herself but Kurt loved putting shoes on his mother, especially since she had read Cinderella so many times to him as a kid, and it was like he was placing the glass slipper onto the real princess.
Kurt backed away from his mother, he twiddled with his small thumbs and watched as his mother stood up slowly and gave the boy a twirl. He tilted his head to the right, then to the left, pursing his lips as he did so.
“You look…” Kurt hesitated, an idea of how to add the finishing touches to her outfit suddenly popping into his mind. He walked to the small bedside table that held an old, maroon box, opened it with a flourish and pulled out a necklace and earrings to complete his mother’s look.
Elizabeth allowed her son to stand on the bed and hook the necklace around her neck before placing the two blue earrings into the palm of her hand. She un-did the back of the jewelry and slotted one loop into each ear before she sealed them and shook out her hair, grinning widely at Kurt.
“Beautiful.” Kurt was about to open his mouth when a much deeper voice appeared in the doorway.
“Boys, stop it. It’s just a dress and some old family trinkets,” she batted away the compliment, her face clearly flattered.
Burt Hummel approached his family slowly; one hand in the pocket of his old jeans while the other outstretched and held Kurt’s shoulder, shaking it slightly as he grinned.
“Before you say anything about my outfit, Burt, you can thank Kurt. He almost single-handedly picked it out himself.” She winked at the boy who was still beaming brightly at his mother. She looked wonderful.
“You did a good job, Kurt. Doesn’t she look stunning?”
“Very.” The words trailed out of Kurt’s mouth in a hushed whisper as Elizabeth perked up and tapped her side.
“I guess I’d better set off then.” You could tell she was excited. Kurt could see it in the little dimples she got around her mouth and the wrinkles she got in the corners of her eyes when she did her special ‘eager’ smile. She nodded and placed kisses on Kurt’s forehead and her husband’s lips tentatively before she said goodnight to them both, grabbed something off their dining table and hurried for the door, letting it shut tightly behind her.
The boys remained still for a moment or two, standing silently in the muggy room in their one-floor house on this atmospheric night. Kurt’s heart almost jolted from his chest when Burt tapped him once, hard on his shoulder, cleared his throat and started for the bedroom door.
Just as Kurt himself was ready to leave his parent’s bedroom, there was a knocking at the window. The boy leapt across the room to open it and see what was banging against it, his tussled, chestnut hair bouncing with each step as if it had a mind of its own. His petit hands lifted the latch and the shutters opened to reveal his mother brightly smiling at him, brighter than she had done that whole evening.
“Get out of your pajamas, put on something smart and jump into your shoes. We’re going to the movies.”

Kurt didn’t need telling twice I’ll tell you that! As soon as the word ‘movies’ rung off of his mother’s lips, his blue eyes began to shine with happiness and he bolted for his room, pulling out the button-up shirt he had saved from his grandfather’s funeral several months back and some black trousers that were probably the only item of clothes he could classify as smart in his lacking wardrobe.
They weren’t a wealthy family, not at all. With his mother working at the village’s only pharmacy for four hours each day and his father running a small automobile repair shop for the little amount of cars and other running vehicles that the town occupied, they were paid very little, so fancy clothes were a rarity – no matter how much Kurt loved to dress up.
The boy tucked the front of his white shirt into his trousers, pulled on a pair of scuffed black shoes and galloped the whole way to the front door where two large hands stopped him by grabbing him around his waist, yanking Kurt back
“You always forget to tuck in your tail, bud.” A smile prominent on his father’s lips as his large fingers finished off the job of tucking Kurt’s pristine shirt into his black pants.
“Thanks dad.” He grinned widely, teeth visible and happiness very much radiating from his whole body as he gave his father a quick squeeze and joined his mother outside the front of their infinitesimal house.
The sky was pitch black aside from the thousands of stars that twinkled down from the sky. Most days all street lamps were turned off to avoid light pollution and believe me, it was worth it. The sky looked beautiful, as if there were thousands of tiny diamonds glinting in the atmosphere. Kurt and Elizabeth both stared in awe at it, letting them and the full moon that gleamed bright and round light their way.
The air was cool and crisp and sent shivers down Kurt’s spine, a mixture of excitement, anticipation and a blend of the icy wind. He gripped tightly to his mother’s arm for warmth as they carried on walking through the night. They were accustomed to colder nights, so Kurt knew that it was mainly the exhilaration that was making him tremor.
One of the perks of living in such a small village was that nothing was ever far away; practically on the doorstep of most houses was the Cinema. It was nothing fancy: a small, painted-white brick building with a large door and a sign that read ‘Cinéma’ that was standing up from the top of the building. To Kurt however, it was the second most beautiful thing he'd ever seen, coming just behind his mother in the ranks. He felt his eyes begin to widen and his pulse begin to quicken, as they grew ever closer with each ecstatic step they took.
It seemed as if half of the village was clambering to get a peek inside this new attraction, people literally sprinting to see if they were able to catch the first feature the building would ever play. To most big cities they would've seen cinemas in all shapes and sizes before, but to a little place like Sicily Valley, it was like their prayers had been answered.
The motorcar was the big craze just up to a year ago and now a new surge of excitement coursed through the villagers’ veins. Movies, films, moving images with sounds and voices and music. No one thought it would ever be possible until five months ago when they had planned to build the monument that lay before Kurt's bedazzled eyes.
"Mommy," Kurt whispered and his mother bent over slightly so she could here what her son had to say, his voice suddenly mixed with more than just excitement, "what if we don't get into the cinema."
Elizabeth tapped the side of her nose and stood up straight again. Kurt frowned, not knowing what that signal meant but he decided to let her worry about that and just marvel at the light and the noise the building was producing as they closed in on it, it's enchantment engulfing him into a state of need. He didn't want to go into the cinema now - he needed to.
Kurt grasped his mother's hand tightly as she lead him through a swarm of villagers that were all muttering enthusiastically to themselves about the cinema and various other stories that linked on from the new building. Kurt's eyes wondered around the faces of the people, recognizing various shop keepers and passers by in the street, kids from school and the occasional person who had come all the way from the outskirts of the village to gawk at the thing that had been on the topic of everyone's conversation.
"Excuse me, excuse me, coming through, pardon us, excuse me-" Kurt's mother politely weaved and dodged her way through the tightening crowd, dragging Kurt along behind her as she did, pulling him in closer as they finally reached the front of the line where a man in a pin-striped suit stood, calming all the bubbly citizens with a wave of his hands.
"If you do not have tickets," his voice raising above the noise level of the chatter already, "then unfortunately we are not going to be able to let you in to see the performance this evening. There are limited tickets left as most of them were sold earlier today. Please form an orderly queue and we shall start letting people into the auditorium. Thank you."
Kurt's eyes watered and he shook on the spot as he watched the man depart into the building. He gazed up quickly to his mother and threw her a hopeful look, which she answered with a nod. They had tickets. They were going to see a movie. They were going to enter the cinema.
It took Elizabeth and Kurt several minutes before they reached the front of the newly formed line and the auburn-haired woman uncurled her free hand to reveal two ticket stubs that were slightly crumpled from being held in her palm all the journey. She handed them to the man at the door who was collecting tickets off people who had already purchased their seats in the screening tonight and he nodded, taking them off her before he opened the door for them to walk through.
Elizabeth yanked at Kurt's arm excitedly, pulling him towards the entrance but Kurt stopped and looked up at the ticket man, his lips opened and his eyes softened as he asked, "please may I… keep the ticket?" He looked hopefully up at the man who was ready to collect another stub off of someone else. He reverted his eyes down to the boy in front of him however, knelt down for a second and slowly handed Kurt the crumpled ticket his mother had handed into him a few moments ago. Kurt beamed and he took the ticket gratefully from the tanned man, thanking him wholeheartedly before he rushed into the building with his mother and the man continued the job he had been performing.
As soon as he entered the building it was as if he had stepped into a different world entirely. Lights shone in every place you looked. People were swarming around a small opening in the wall that served something called 'Popcorn' in small bags and people were apparently going crazy for it. Muzak was quietly playing from a small cassette player to add a little atmosphere to the already overly excited one. It was almost too much to take in. It was wonderful.
He and his mother spent a good period of time standing in the entrance just looking around at the small space before they found themselves making their way over to the small booth in the wall whose crowd was starting to thin out a little. The man behind the counter beckoned them over, smiling brightly at them as he held out two bags filled with a strange looking food inside of it.
"Free today only." He cheered, placing the bags into both Elizabeth and Kurt's hands before they were wished a happy showing and were shooed along so another portion of free popcorn could be handed to the next customers.
Kurt waddled along with the bag clasped tightly in his hand, following his mother's feet as his trail of sight was turned downward to the assortment of yellowish, bumpy things that sat unevenly in the red-and-white striped paper container. He put the pieces together in his head and figured it was the 'Popcorn' that he had heard people asking for at the counter seconds ago. He was fascinated by it for this, along with the cinema, excited him; he had never seen anything like it before. Why, before today he hadn't even heard of the pictures!
"Kurt," his eyes were drawn upwards as his mother laid her hand on a set of black double-doors, grinning widely down at him, "are you ready for this?"
His heart swelled up in his chest and he nodded frantically, hearing his pulse beat loudly in his ear. "I'm ready." he squeaked.

It was almost as if time hated him today, because Kurt was sure that as soon as he took his seat in the cramped theatre (surges of delight coursing through his veins) the movie was drawing to a close. Kurt hadn't taken his eyes off the huge screen the whole time, dumbstruck by it's size and also by what was being projected onto it by the weird contraption at the back of the room. The boy was scared that if he looked away or even blinked, that the whole thing would vanish and he'd wake up from this dream, this wonderful, astounding dream.
But he blinked and the screen was still there. He blinked again and the chairs and people all around him were still intact. This was very much real and that made Kurt very happy.
He heard his mother sobbing quietly to herself beside him as she winced at the screen through her tears, many of the other women doing the same. Kurt didn't understand why they were crying at the woman on screen - all she was doing was talking to a man as she lay in bed and -.
Kurt scrunched up his face for a little as the man and woman locked lips, having to peer through his hands at the screen. As he parted his fingers a little, he saw the man shaking the woman who was now completely still. He was crying too. But he had good reason.
Kurt was very intelligent for his age; he understood things that even some adults couldn't quite grasp the concept of and he knew about things that kids like him shouldn't have encountered yet, but he had. This was a melancholy topic, but Kurt knew and understood death. Up until his Grandfather passed away he was clueless about the whole thing, but since his funeral, Kurt had opened his eyes and he knew that death was just like sleeping, but forever. That was how he looked at it anyway - it made it seem happier, like the person would be dreaming happy things like going to cinemas and eating popcorn every day.
As the screen showed a bunch of people cluttering around the woman, Kurt heard a faint whisper coming from somewhere in front of him. He frowned. His mother had told him that he had to stay utterly silent while the film rolled, but most of the people - her included - had made lots of noises throughout the show and he hated it.
"Have they finished kissing yet?" The voice asked again and this time Kurt spotted exactly where the question had some from, his blue eyes squinting to make out the figure in the dark.
"Yes, now be quiet." A rather gruff voice of a man beside the boy (whom must have been no older than Kurt) snapped back, and Kurt sat back in his seat because it was now silent as the film drew to a close, the screen fading out on a shot of the dead woman's face.
The whole audience clapped furtively, cheering and standing and talking as the man who had given Kurt his ticket to keep switched on the lamps around the walls by hand.
Kurt placed the last piece of the sugary popcorn into his mouth, hummed in delight and hugged the bag tight to his chest as he watched his mother beside him wiping her tears on a handkerchief she had borrowed from the woman in front.
"Kurt! I didn't know you were coming to see the show!" The woman chirped as Elizabeth handed her back her handkerchief, thanking her.
"Mommy said I could come and I'm so glad I did. It's amazing in here, Emma." He smiled at the red-haired woman who had dressed almost as glamorously as his mother, though no one could beat her looks tonight.
"Indeed!" Emma grinned, ruffling his hair with her hand quickly, "It truly was remarkable. Doesn't your mother look like a movie star?"
Kurt nodded, trying to make his hair a little less messy than the thin woman had made it as his mother said a goodbye to the woman she worked with. He combed his fingers through his chestnut hair and his eyes scanned the crowd as they departed.
His blue eyes widened slightly as he searched for the boy he'd only seen the outline of. He presumed that both he and the source of the voice were the only two children who were there tonight and he wanted to see this child's reaction to the magic that had just been played on screen.
"Hurry along, Kurt," his mother pushed him into an opening of the departing group and she gripped his hand tightly, "we need to get you home to sleep."
"How can I possibly sleep when I have just been to a cinema?" He warbled, jumping up the isle instead of walking, when suddenly he heard the familiar voice again.
"I was only asking if I could open my eyes," the voice rang through the air and Kurt picked it out from the mixture of noises immediately, his eyes drawn to a small olive-skinned boy with a head of tight, black curls.
Kurt was about to tug at his mother's arm and show her this other boy but when he tried to peer around the crowd again to look at his face, the boy had disappeared.
Kurt sulked slightly, but then he realized that he didn't have a reason too. He was in a place of magic and dreams and nothing in the world could be better than this moment.
"I'm thinking we should come back next Sunday."
Kurt's eyes flittered up to his mother's face as she took his hand and they exited the bustling cinema, people outside waiting to greet them and ask everyone what the experience was like. Elizabeth however just pulled Kurt along past the hoard of villagers and Kurt kept his eyes on his mother as the frostbitten wind swept by them again.
"I think this should be a regular thing," Elizabeth repeated to herself, looking down at her starry-eyed son so it was directed at him, "every Sunday we should see a movie."
Kurt opened his mouth, but instead he just choked out a thank you and gripped at his mother's legs tightly, stopping her from walking as the pair embraced in their usual fashion: Kurt's arms wrapped around his mother, head pressed against her stomach, Elizabeth's hand on the back of his head where she'd stroke his soft hair affectionately.
"Don't thank me, thank your Auntie Vera for dropping out of tonight otherwise tickets wouldn't have been available to you. I'm glad you came instead of her - you didn't complain about my crying."
"It was a very sad ending." Kurt nodded, swapping his grip on his mother's legs for one on her hand as the pair of them hurried back, chatting and talking amongst themselves about movies and how Kurt said it was his new favourite place in the world as long as he was with her.

And they did go to the cinema every single Sunday, week after week, month after month, for two years... and then it was as if Kurt’s whole world was ripped from him at eight years when the accident happened.

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Kurt shook his head and his eyes opened wide to shake the memory out of his mind before his mood began to spiral downward. It was a gorgeous, sunny spring day (the first of many in a while) and Kurt was almost at his set destination as he turned off the scenic route he'd chosen to take, leaving all the daffodils and tranquil-ness behind as he came face to face with shops and people and cars making their way slowly down the newly-tarred road. He didn’t want to tarnish the day by thinking of thing he knew would make him upset.
Kurt let out a deep sigh, his eyebrows furrowing sadly at what this road had become over the eighteen years he'd been alive. It used to be such a quaint town, the community tight and the business little, but now it had began developing, growing bigger and bigger under the shadow of the cities that began to sprout up all around the village.
Still, he crossed the busying street and walked with a jump in his step as he turned onto the path that lead him to the clearing that held the place he wanted to be more than anything in the world right now. Suddenly his perfectly sculpted eyebrows raised and his eyes sparkled as he half-ran to the attraction.
It was a force of habit really, but Kurt couldn't help but smile and feel like a child whenever he saw the old Cinema still standing like it had been twelve years ago. It had been re-painted and the sign on top had been replaced with one that lit up, but aside from that and the odd minor detail here and there, it hadn't changed one bit. The only thing missing was the flock of people waiting to see the films that they showed every so often, but since the big new theatre and cinema had opened on the outskirts of Sicily Valley, people weren't interested in the first cinema in the village anymore, only wanting to see the newest releases of films instead of old films that Kurt liked to indulge in.
People are morons, he thought to himself, shaking his head as he adjusted the bag that sat comfortable on his blazer-covered shoulder and his hand came into contact with the cold, black door. He was one of the only few people in the village that visited this ‘Cinéma’ anymore, but – though he’d never admit it – he sort of liked it. It was like Kurt’s secret little place that he could resort to when he wanted to be alone or just wanted to take a break from reality.
He took a deep breath, letting the tingling sensation he always got when he reached this building swallow him up and as he breathed out, his eyes opening, he made his way inside. Kurt loved Sundays.