Subtle Bodies by Jordan Castillo Price

Author:Jordan Castillo Price
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: JCP Books LLC
Published: 2022-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Beauchamp’s movie theater was small by Chicago standards, but it got the job done. The building squatted on the north side of town with cornfields on three sides and a car wash across the street. The lot was pretty full, probably because it was another muggy day and there’d be AC aplenty inside—plus, there wasn’t much else to do on a Sunday afternoon.

I nearly bought us three tickets from the kiosk before I realized Amy’s subtle body had a free pass. We headed inside and the smell of fake popcorn butter hit me right between the eyes. The lobby was pretty dead. There were only two screens, and both of them were mid-movie. The teenagers working the concession counter were all noodling on their phones, bored out of their skulls.

One of them paused in her texting to stir the popcorn, and the buttery smell intensified. Intellectually, I knew it was all chemicals and sodium. I also knew I’d had a big lunch just a few hours ago and followed it up with an even bigger ice cream cone. But the heart wants what it wants…or, in my case, the stomach.

Jacob was already striding purposefully toward the cinema door. “Hold on,” I said, and he paused, turned, and cast a shrewd look across the concessions, as if he figured there must be something of interest in the non-physical.

I ordered a popcorn so big I had to carry it two-handed…though with some finessing, I was able to stabilize it in the crook of my arm so I could eat and walk at the same time. When I caught up to Jacob, he raised an eyebrow and asked, “How do you feel about sleeping with the lights off?”

“I’m still here,” I reassured him. “But either I give my body what it wants, or I risk it going off on its own again.”

Amy said, “That fake butter topping’s got more preservatives than my workroom. I suppose the things we gravitate toward aren’t necessarily good for us.” No doubt Jacob would have agreed, though I didn’t repeat it.

We headed into the first cinema, where a kids’ animated flick was in full swing. Animation had come a long way since I’d been a fan of it. My childhood shows had the same background looping past repeatedly, like whenever Fred hopped into the Flintmobile and passed the same tree every 2.1 seconds. While the new computerized stuff was a lot more realistic, I wasn’t so sure I liked it.

While goofy music assaulted my eardrums, up on the screen, a battalion of guinea pigs erupted from a pet shop and streamed down the sidewalk, on some sort of life-or-death guinea pig mission to rescue one of their own. You could see how it was gonna end from a mile away. They’d find the critter in the loving arms of its new owner, a cherubic kid who lavished it with hugs and treats, and they’d reconcile themselves to the fact that they’d all get adopted.

I supposed you could do worse than hugs and treats all day.

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