Richard Sabia - The Premiere.pdf - Richard Sabia - allforjesus2001

The Premiere

Sabia, Richard

Published: 1959

Type(s): Short Fiction, Science Fiction

Source: http://gutenberg.net

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• I Was a Teen-Age Secret Weapon (1959)

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Clamped to the contour couch, the young girl strained against the pad-

ded steel grips and screamed. Again she writhed and screamed as she

felt the hideous touch of the monster snatching at her. She struggled

frenziedly through the muck of the swamp but the thing with the blood

eyes scrabbled faster on its rotten limbs. The thing seized her in its ob-

scene embrace. Raw terror tore another scream from her throat. Behind

her on the projector a needle slammed into the red zone. Beyond the

hundreds of long rows of couches a warning light flashed on the control

console of Mezzanine F and its persistent buzz snared the attention of

one of the ushers. He glanced at the light's location number and ran

along one of the aisles till he came to the girl. He saw that the projector

had shut off the feature feelie and was running the emergency tranquil

strip. She had stopped screaming but her breathing was still agitated. He

looked around at the rows of couches, nearly all occupied but none of

the other patrons seemed more frightened than they should be. Some of

the other ushers had halted on their rounds and were looking quizzically

across at him. He shrugged the question back at them, removed the feelie

permit from its clip on the girl's couch and checked the permitted intens-

ity level against the setting of the projector. They matched. Still puzzled,

he examined the other settings without discovering any apparent cause

for her fright-hysteria. The tranquil strip ended and the machine shut it-

self off. The usher moved a switch that released the pressure of the elec-

trodes against the girl's head and retracted them into the headset. Her

eyes opened as he removed the apparatus and folded back the clamps.

"Feel all right, miss?" he inquired with a solicitous smile.

She nodded, but her eyes still held echoes of alarm.

"Better come down to the clinic," he said gently, assisting her from the

couch.

She said nothing but allowed him to lead her along. They stepped into

a float shaft and drifted gently down past other floors of the theater oc-

cupied by the myriad rows of feelie couches. When they reached what

was obviously an office level, the usher grasped a tug bar which pulled

them into a corridor opening. He brought her to the clinic and left her

with the doctor after explaining what had happened.

The doctor seated her alongside his desk. "How do you feel now?"

She smiled weakly. "All right Ah guess," she said with a soft drawl.

"Let's see," he said looking at her feelie permit, "you are Miss, ah, Lor-

etta Meenan, and, well, you are from Hammond, Louisiana." He looked

up at her and smiled. "May I ask how old you are Miss Meenan?"

"Sixteen."

"A very charming sixteen, I must say. Are you here with your family?"

"Yes. Ma an' pa are at the convention. They let us come to the feelies."

"Us?"

"Mah older brother, Jason."

"Oh? How old is he?"

"Eighteen. But he's big, real man-lookin' an' folks who don't know mis-

take him for past twenty."

"What couch did he have?"

"Next to mine on the left."

The doctor consulted his notepad. "Ah, that would make it number,

ah, six thousand forty-two. We'll have one of the ushers bring him

down."

"Please don't," she said hastily. "Not 'till the feelie's over anyhow. He'll

have the furies with me if he misses the endin' on mah account."

"All right," the doctor agreed amiably. "How are you enjoying your

visit to New York?"

"Ah'm havin' a dazzlin' time."

"Good. Do you go to the feelies at home?" The doctor saw her tense

forward from the curve of the chair.

"Yes."

"Enjoy them?"

"Yes."

"Have you ever been badly upset by horror feelies before?"

"No, sir."

The doctor was aware of the apprehension behind her guardedness.

"Do you have any idea why this one should have upset you so?"

"No, sir, except maybe the excitement. Ah ain't never been much away

from home before but once to New Orleans."

The doctor looked at her permit card again. "This isn't a very good

likeness of you."

"It does reflect me poorly," she murmured.

The doctor's smile evaporated from his suddenly stern face. "Perhaps

it's because this is not your picture and this is not your card."

Her face went white.

"What is your name?"

"Robina Rowe." Her downcast eyes were locked on her fingers squirm-

ing in her lap.

"Who's Loretta Meenan?"

"Mah girlfriend."

"Why did you borrow her card?"

She was close to tears. "Ah jus' had to go to this feelie. It's got mah

very favorite actor in it."

"Evidently your card doesn't permit you to attend horror feelies."

She nodded.

"Why not? Nightmares?"

She shook her head.

"Don't tell me you have a bad heart!"

She shook her head again. "Ah'm a Sensitive," she said bleakly.

In a sudden surge of anger the doctor half rose out of his chair and

leaned across the desk. "Why you little fool!" he roared. "You little damn

fool!"

From the open doorway a shape hurtled across the desk at the doctor

and crashed with him to the floor.

"Jason!" Robina shrieked.

"Don't you talk to mah sister that way," Jason shouted as he pum-

melled the doctor. "Ah'll kill you!"

The usher who had guided Jason to the clinic dashed around the desk

to pull the boy from the doctor. Robina tried to help but in the tussle she

was knocked down, striking her head on a leg of the overturned chair.

Jason, hearing her cry of pain, leaped off the doctor to aid her.

"It's only a little bump," Jason said reassuringly as he cradled her in his

arms.

The doctor got to his feet and glared at the tall, strikingly handsome

boy-man helping his sister to a chair.

Richard Sabia - The Premiere.pdf

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