Jade thought everyone had left the cinema, but re-entering the auditorium to tidy up she noticed an elderly man in one of the rows near the front. ‘I’m afraid we’re closing,’ she called out. The man showed no sign of hearing her. ‘Time to go,’ she repeated as she walked down the aisle towards him. He was hunched over a book which was open on his lap, the pages blank, illuminated it seemed by a light from within. The dark tones of his skin suggested a Middle Eastern ancestry. He was weeping and as his tears blotted the pages Jade saw words appear. The old man gazed at the text and his tears dried. He scanned the sentences with a seeming rapture. But when he turned the page he was again confronted by a luminous blank expanse of white and he began to cry once more. ‘Are you alright?’ Jade asked. More words materialised as the old man wept. He appeared oblivious of her presence, bowed intently over the book and wholly engrossed in deciphering the text. Then Jade noticed a young child standing in the aisle on the other side. She was perhaps 7 or 8, dressed in a blue frock and yellow tights, with silver spangled ribbons in her hair. She seemed to have come from nowhere. The girl approached the old man along the row of seats and pulled gently on the sleeve of his coat. He looked up and nodded. The child closed the book and placed it in a cloth bag the old man was holding. He rose, wiped his face on his sleeve, and took the child’s hand. ‘Will you be OK?’ Jade asked as they made their way to the exit.
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Simon Collings
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