Bad Enough for You (Currently Editing)

On a Scale of 1 to Bad Decision

9.] On a Scale of 1 to Bad Decision

One of my favorite places in Jessamine was this little movie theater right in the center of town that had all of the charm and charisma in the world. The Matinee had been around since the 1930s and was one of the few theaters left in the country that still carried its original charm with only one screen. They only ever showed one movie at a time and nine times out of ten, it was a black and white movie. It had a little box office out front, where you could find one of the local college students sitting in, blushing under the ridiculous little red hat that they were required to wear while selling and punching tickets. Old fashioned black and white posters of Hollywood greats like Audrey Hepburn, James Dean, and Woody Allen hung on the outside of the brick-facade.

Even on the inside it held a certain old Hollywood glamour to it that left me wishing for that time period. Everything on the inside was red velvet, from the large curtains that drew back and forth in front of the screen to the cushioned chairs that didn’t recline. The lobby was decked out with original posters from Hitchcock movies and life-sized figures of the actors and actresses from the movie they were showing at the time.

I hadn’t been there in quite some time or even thought about it until I drove past it on my way to meet Georgia for lunch. My destination happened to be my second favorite place in Jessamine. Polly’s Bar and Grille was owned by the parents of a set of twins I had gone to Jessamine Prep with. They had always seemed cool and since it was practically Mathers protocol to be nice to everyone I met, I had always made it a point to pair up with Isabel in our biology lab. It also helped score me special service whenever I visited Polly’s.

Polly’s sat right on the end of the boardwalk overlooking the ocean. It actually wasn’t that far from the Harrington, where my father and I had lunch when he was home. While the food at the restaurant inside the hotel was top-notch, I quite enjoyed fried food and greasy hamburgers from time to time. I always tried to convince him to eat at Polly’s, but his excuse was always that he wanted to “check up” on the hotel. As usual, it was just because my father didn’t like restaurants that let customers come in in flip-flops and bathing suits. He liked to think of himself as a classy guy.

It didn’t matter, though, for Georgia loved Polly’s food just as much as I did. When she went off to college, we weren’t always able to get together, but on the rare days that she finished class early or classes were cancelled, we always made it a point to eat at our favorite bar and grille.

When I pulled into the little parking lot behind the restaurant, I immediately spotted Georgia’s silver Mercedes. She was sitting in the driver’s seat with her compact in one hand and a tube of lipstick in the other. When I pulled in beside her, she looked up, rubbing her lips together. They immediately sprang into a smile and she tossed the lipstick into her cupholder before extracting herself from the seat.

When we met at the end of our cars, Georgia flung her arms around me, giving me a quick hug before she stepped back and we made our way around the front of the building. The boardwalk was rather crowded as the tourists had suddenly popped out of the ground for the summer season. Parents tugged along wide-eyed children who were begging to stop in one of the shops whose outsides were adorned with cheap sunglasses and water toys. Couples rollerbladed hand in hand, making Georgia and I roll our eyes simultaneously.

Out over the edge of the boardwalk, the beach was dotted with colorful towels, some of them sporting familiar cartoon figures or geometric designs. There were a few umbrellas spread out, the stubborn people who didn’t enjoy water or the sun huddled beneath them, coated in sunblock and nose in a book. A group of guys holding beers in one hand tossed an electric green frisbee back and forth, while a group of girls clad in scanty bikinis attempted to impress them with their bodies.