The Net

Part 1: Salty Popcorn

“Monday afternoons are a quiet affair here at the Flix. Except for school holidays I suppose. And kids do come in occasionally when they should be at school.” 

 “Do we serve them?” 

 “We’re not supposed to. It depends who’s on, I guess. More often than you’d expect, they’re with a parent.” “So, they’re skiving off school?” 

 “Usually they’re off sick. I don’t know. Personally, my mum always said if you were too sick to go to school, you were too sick for anything else. But don’t bother arguing. You won’t get through to ‘em. We get quite a few college students in too. Not many old people.” 

Dan had just been promoted to shift supervisor and he was relishing the responsibility of showing the new guy around. The new guy, Timmy, could feel it. As far back as Timmy could remember, he’d been hugely empathetic. He loved being around excitement. He felt it glow inside him as though it was his own. He often imagined that he had a huge fishing net in his mind that caught strong emotions.

 “You’ve really gotta scrub the popcorn machine good,” Dan was saying. “Stevie - you won’t know Stevie, she was here before you, had to leave, wasn’t very good at her job, slept with Oscar too, Oscar used to work here, caused all sorts of bother. Anyway, Stevie used to mix the salted and sweet together. Don’t ask me how she made that mistake. I told her so many times. They’re labelled for god’s sake. Didn’t really care, I guess. Anyway, what I’m saying is, make sure you put them in the right one because when you have to be the one who cleans them out, it’s a pain. And I can guarantee you, some customer will complain if he gets a salty piece of popcorn in his sweet.”

The downside to Timmy’s great fishing net of empathy was that it wasn’t picky about what got swept up. Excitement sure, but he also caught grief, despair and frustration.

 “Don’t worry about it,” Timmy said. “I’ll clean it.” 

 “Don’t worry about it, he says. That’s easy for you to say but if it’s done wrong, it’s me gets it in the neck. Charming that, isn’t it? Someone else makes a mistake but because I’ve been here longer, I get the blame. Lovely that, isn’t it? Just charming. 

 “I’ll show you,” Timmy said, gently edging Dan aside. 

 He grabbed a few sachets of salt from a shelf and opened them. 

 “Don’t use too many, now. What are you showing me?” 

 “Watch.” 

 Timmy poured the salt into the side of the popcorn marked sweet. He switched the machine on to mix it up. 

 “He cannot be serious,” said Dan to no one in particular. “Says he’s good at cleaning. He better be goddamn amazing. Can’t read.” 

 Timmy gave the impression of a patient man. “Just watch,” he said. He rolled his sleeve up to below the elbow and slid his hand into the popcorn, fingers outstretched. 

 “That’s disgusting.” 

 Timmy closed his eyes and held his breath. He appeared to strain for a moment. 

 “Nearly,” he said. 

 “Nearly what? You better stop that before we’re seen.” 

 “Nearly. Just... nearly. There.” 

 He removed his hand and scooped out a few pieces of popcorn as he did so. He put them in a cup and offered it to Dan. 

 “Try them,” he said. Timmy ate one himself upon seeing Dan’s expression. “Seriously, just try one.”

Dan took the smallest piece apprehensively, inspected it and put it in his mouth. His eyes widened straight away.

“What did you do?”

Timmy shrugged.

“It didn’t taste of anything,” Dan said, still trying to understand. “It was just plain.”

“Yep.”

“But what did you do?”

“Dunno. It’s just something I can do. Anyway, no more worrying about them being mixed, eh?”

“I saw you pour that salt in. Where did it go?”

Timmy sighed. “Pass me that empty cup.”

Dan handed Timmy a large coke cup. Timmy placed it in the middle of the counter. He held his hand over it and made a fist. His face strained just like it had before. Dan didn’t blink this time. He didn’t want to miss a thing. Timmy relaxed his face and fist. A steady stream of white ran through his fingers and into the cup. Dan picked it up and looked straight into it. He dipped his finger into the cup and sucked his tip.

“That’s salt!”

Timmy nodded. “Pure salt. You could put that on your fish and chips.”

"But that's amazing! It's just sweet. There's no salt in there. I could've used you here ages ago." He grinned. Timmy's fishing net caught a wave of excitement. He felt a yellow glow in his chest and pleasant feelings washed over him.

It ceased as Dan's face dropped to worry.

"I just need to get something from the back," he said and disappeared.

That was when Timmy first met Vanessa. He thought she liked a bookish sort of girl. She was probably quite pretty but kept her head down towards her shoes.

"Is Dan here? I thought I saw him. Sorry, guess I was wrong. I'll go."

Part 2: £50 in cash

For the next week, Dan kept bringing different foods to Timmy and asking him to “I dunno, just try, let’s just see what happens.” Nothing ever happened.

They were setting up one morning when Timmy heard Dan jump. “Shit, man. That’s Mr Saffron. clean these counters.”

Mr Saffron owned the Flix. Timmy had never met him. He rarely came to the actual cinema. He was a large man. He wore his suit well and his smile even better. Timmy had heard of his reputation as a charmer.

“Good morning, gents,” he grinned over the counter. “How are you treating my business?”

“Ugh,” Dan groaned, putting his hand on Mr Saffron’s shoulder. “We haven’t stopped, have we Timothy? It’s been crazy this past week. It’s that new SuperWasp film, filling the place with kids. I even came in early this morning to start the tidy up.”

“Thatta boy, Dan,” Mr Saffron grinned.

Timmy could feel the pride flowing from both men. Suck up, he thought. When I came in at 9, you were helping yourself to a slushy.

Mr Saffron turned to Timmy and lessened his genial manner.

“And how is our new boy settling in?”

“Fine.”

“Fine?” he said. “Fine is good. Fine means things are running smoothly. Which leads me to wonder why the tills were £50 down last night.”

“Were they?” Dan asked. “Well that’s strange. It was only us two on last night and we double checked, didn’t we Timothy?”

“That we did.” Timmy could feel Mr Saffron's irritation and it was washing onto him. Stupid kids. How could they misplace £50?

“Come on boys. You’ve got to see this from my position. It looks awful suspicious, especially with a brand new start and a new supervisor.”

“I can vouch for Timothy, sir.”

“Well, it doesn’t bode great for you either, Dan. The first week I leave you in charge and this happens.”

Timmy felt a rush of panic.

“But sir-”

“This comes out of my pocket, you know?”

“I know, sir.”

“So do you have any idea what might have happened?”

“I don’t know, sir. We counted and double checked. I separated the different notes. I gave it to Timothy to double check and-” He stopped and looked at Timmy.

“What?” he asked.

“Yes, Dan?” said Mr Saffron.

“Well, sir. Timothy does this thing.”

Oh God.

“Stuff that he touches disappears.”

“That’s a very serious accusation, Dan. Are you sure?”

Timmy started scrubbing the counter very hard. The more stressed he was, the easier the stains came up.

“No, not like that. It’s just, he touches them and... Show him the thing with the popcorn, Timothy.”

Timmy put his head down.

“What’s the thing with the thing with the popcorn, Tim?” asked Mr Saffron.

“It’s nothing.”

“It’s not nothing. Look, sir.” Dan grabbed a cup and put a few pieces of salted into it. “Try these, Mr Saffron.”

Mr Saffron looked into the cups and started to laugh. “You’re shitting me, right boys?”

“Please, sir.”

Mr Saffron shrugged and threw two pieces into his mouth. He shrugged.

“Salted popcorn.”

“Okay, now can I have the cup back please? Timmy, work your magic.”

Mr Saffron’s eyebrow jumped a centimetre.

“I’m busy, Dan.”

“No, Tim. I’m interested to find out what fascinating thing you’ve been doing to my popcorn that I sell and make a living from. Let’s see it.”

Timmy waited.

“Oh, for goodness sake,” said Dan. He grabbed Timmy’s hand, put the cloth down on the counter and plunged his hand into the popcorn.

“Now, do that straining thing you did.”

Mr Saffron waited, curious but yet unimpressed.

“Okay, Mr Saffron. Now, try another piece.”

He hesitated longer this time but wanted to find out where Dan was going with this. He ate one piece.

“Bit bland. What’s your point?”

“Don’t you see? Timothy did that. He made it bland. He put his hand in, and I don’t know, sucked the salt out or something.”

“Very interesting, but about the till. I want my money.”

The moment that Mr Saffron spoke those fateful words, Timothy felt his pocket grow heavy. He knew what it was and yet he couldn’t say anything. How could he explain it? Hell, he couldn’t even explain it to himself.

Timothy felt other pain very acutely and he couldn't stand it. He needed it to end. When the popcorn had frustrated Dan, Timothy had really wanted to help. Hey, what do you know? The salt is gone. When Mr Saffron had been angry about losing money from the till, Timothy had wanted to give it back. The problem was that £50 has gone missing from the till and then suddenly there was £50 sat in Timmy's pocket.

“Excuse me, I need to go to the bathroom,” Timmy said and ran to the staff toilets. When there, he hid the money in the cistern. He washed his hands and tucked his shirt in in front of the mirror nervously. He wished so hard that the money had never gone missing. As he left, he felt it. The money was back in his pocket.

Part 3: First Date

When Timmy got back, Mr Saffron wasn't there but Vanessa was. Dan was studiously sorting the coke cups on the back shelf as she tried to catch his eye.

Timmy could feel the butterflies in her stomach as she watched Dan work. She felt nervous that she would say the wrong thing but terrified in fact that he would ignore her. She felt embarrassed and empowered by the red lipstick she had tried today. It all depended on how Dan responded, like a kind of Schrodinger’s makeup artist.

“Need a hand, do you?” she asked. Dan scratched his arse. Vanessa turned sadly and saw Timmy.

“Everything okay, Ness?” he asked. It pained him to ask.

“I guess so,” she sighed. “But...”

Then he had an idea.

“But what?”

She paused. “It’s nothing.”

“No, go on,” he insisted. “What is it? What would make you happier than anything right now?”

She hesitated again and glanced over her shoulder. First at the back of Dan’s head..

“Go on. You need to say it.” To show that he understood, he also looked at Dan.

“I suppose it’d be nice if her just noticed me for once.”

“But you want more than that, don’t you?” he pushed.

“Well... well, of course I do. I mean, in a perfect world, we’d be married by now and have three beautiful little kiddies.” She caught herself, embarrassed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

Timmy grinned. “Consider it done,” he said and marched over to the popcorn stall.

Vanessa and Dan had their first date in the most original of locations: they went to see a movie together. Dan allowed Vanessa to choose the soppiest movie they had and he bought a large tub of popcorn to share between them (100% sweet). Timmy felt a yellow glow in his heart as he watched them heading into the darkened room holding hands.

In the grip of his saviour spirit, Timmy opened the till. He took out the £50, counted it ever so carefully and returned it to the correct segment of the till. He beamed as he thought of how happy Mr Saffron would be to see his money back up to date.

Bang.

The door to Mr Saffron’s office burst open and the manager strode over to the confectionery, removed his sunglasses and looked Timmy directly in the eye.

“I’ve got you,” he said.

“Sir?”

He pointed his finger to the corner of the foyer. Timmy looked over and upwards, and he understood what he meant. The CCTV camera was pointing directly at his station.

“Sir, I can explain!”

“Can you, indeed? It’s quite a thing, reverse psychology. I imagine you’ve never heard of it.”

“Of course I have, you tell someone not to do something and they do it.”

“Aha!” he cried. “Got you again. Don’t you see that by inferring that you don’t know what it is, I forced you to show your poker hand and define it to me. So you do know more than you let on, young man!”

“I didn’t take any money!”

“And once more! Aha! You are drowning in the truth today, Timothy Wardle. You see, I knew that someone had stolen it. I couldn’t search you. You could claim that the money was yours. The CCTV didn’t show anything being stolen. Damn those oscillating cameras. I brought this on myself. No matter. I knew that if I were to put the fear of God into my staff, that the culprit would reveal themselves by returning the money lest they risk my wrath. And you did! You’ve given yourself away.”

“Sir, that’s not true.”

“Is it not? Then watch this.” He placed a laptop on the counter and pressed play on the video. Timmy already knew what he was going to see: Himself, counting out £50 and then returning it to the till.

“It’s complicated. But I didn’t steal the money. I was returning it for you. That’s what I’m like, you see. I can’t bear stress. It affects me too strongly and I can feel other’s pain. I could see how distressed you were so I put the money back in the till for you.”

“You’ve given yourself away.”

“It’s the truth.”

“Oh yes. It’s the truth. Far more than you know. You said you put the money back. You said you returned the money.”

He did have him there. Even though he was wrong. There was no way to get out of it. The money had gone missing. He had the money. Mr Saffron had planned to catch someone out and he’d done it. At least he thought he’d done it.

Dan and Vanessa were kissing. Timothy could feel it. They were almost as excited as Mr Saffron, who was overjoyed to have caught someone out.

Timmy agreed to leave without making a scene. He made one request which, surprisingly, Mr Saffron agreed to.

Part 4: Curtain Call

The cinema seats were full. Families fought for places as the “suggested seats” on the movie tickets were quickly abandoned. The SuperWasp franchise was going to be a huge phenomenon and tonight was its last showing before it was going to DVD and Blu-Ray.

“Now I hope you remember that this is a thank you,” said Mr Saffron, “for returning the money. Not many would’ve done that. But you’re still a thief. Come see me for your final pay check when you’re done and then I don’t want to see you again.”

Timmy ignored him. He wasn’t worth it. Mr Saffron waited as he threaded the reel into the projector and started the movie. Seeing that everything had started properly, he relaxed and made to leave.

But then Timmy’s movie started.

It is quite difficult to describe what occurred in the auditorium that fateful day. Old ladies wept. Young children cheered with excitement. Teenagers allowed themselves a sly smirk. Parents held each-other a little tighter and thought of their youth.

If it is difficult to describe what happened, it is impossible to describe what was on the screen. You had to be there. No, you literally had to be there. The audience has since argued about what it is that they saw that day. The truest description that can be given is that each viewer saw on the screen exactly what they most needed to say. Those that needed comfort received it. Those who needed joy were uplifted. Nostalgia was given in bucketfuls and hope was distributed to all.

Mr Saffron waited, holding the door ajar. He had made to leave but couldn’t keep his face from the film being projected in front of him. Timmy tried to read his expressions, his body language, his feelings but he couldn’t quite work it out. Mr Saffron gazed for a good minute. He looked to his feet. Then he chuckled, adjusted his suit and left, leaving the door open behind him.