Linebyline: When it was finished
Just being silly. =D
"We're gonna have fun tonight, partner." Kyrie grinned as she pulled the Trans Am up to the little booth just beyond the flashing marquee. "One please," she said to the teenaged girl sitting in the booth.
The girl took Kyrie's five dollars and tore off a small red ticket from a large coil. "Enjoy the show," she said with a smile.
KITT waited until they had passed the booth before he spoke. "I still think you should have paid for two," he chided.
Kyrie guided the car around the perimeter of the sea of white posts, passing families in lawn chairs set up in the beds of pickup trucks. "Oh, I can just see that," she quipped. "'Hi, two please--one for me and one for my car." She snorted. "I don't think so."
"You would n't be paying for the car," KITT corrected her. "You would be paying for the AI that resides within the car. The sign clearly states 'five dollars per carload.'"
"'I say po-tay-toh, you say poh-tah-toh, you say toh-may-toh, I say toh-mah-toh,'" Kyrie sang. "Your point is duly noted, but you really need to give it a rest, partner."
KITT was mercifully silent as Kyrie carefully navigated the aisles. "Here we go," she said, as they slipped into a spot. She shut off the car and nodded toward the expanse of white screen that soared thirty feet into the twilight sky. "There's an art to picking the perfect place at the drive-in, you know."
"Really," said KITT. "Enlighten me."
Kyrie climbed out of the car and looked around at the other cars taking their places before the screen. "Well, you have to be centrally located, far away enough from the snack bar so that people don't continually walk in front of you and yet not too far away--and most of all, you have to find a speaker that works." She took the aged metal box from its post, twisted the dial, and was rewarded with a static-filled squawk.
"There is no need to resort to such an archaic device," said KITT. "My radio can be tuned to find virtually any frequency you desire, and my custom speakers have been designed to deliver a high-quality listening experience."
Grinning, Kyrie hung up the speaker. "Showoff."
"Thank you." KITT paused for a moment, and then asked: "Kyrie, I'm not sure why you chose to view this particular film."
"'It Came from the Ooze 3'? Come on, KITT, it's a classic." She dug in her pocket for the crumpled bills she'd stuffed there before leaving the Manor. "My mom and dad saw this when they were dating." She laughed. "Probably where I was conceived, actually."
"You were conceived at a drive-in theatre?"
Kyrie chuckled. "You see all those cars parked in the back row?"
The scanner swept from side to side. "Yes, I detect multiple vehicles parked along the back wall of the theatre--not an optimum viewing area, to say the least."
"That's because they aren't watching the movie."
"Then why did they pay for a movie they're not going to watch?"
Kyrie leaned down and stuck her head in the window. "Tell you what--if you really want to know, keep your scanners on. Just do a sweep of those cars from time to time and see what you find." She patted the windowframe and backed out to straighten with a sigh. "I'll be right back; I'm going to brave the snack bar before the show starts." She grinned. "You want anything?"
"No, thank you. Considering the damage that melted processed cheese and frankfurters can do to human arteries, I shudder to think what it might do to my circuitry."
***
"I'm back," Kyrie announced, arms full. "I got a popcorn, a soda, some red licorice--and for the piece de resistance, some chocolate-covered peanuts."
It was mostly dark, so no one noticed that the door of the Trans Am opened by itself. "You don't want to know how many calories are in those snacks."
"Nope," said Kyrie, arranging the munchies for easy access in the passenger's side seat. "I've been looking forward to this for a while." Soda in hand, she frowned at the dash. "What, no cup holder?"
"Sorry. I was designed before cup holders came into vogue."
Kyrie snorted. "Most advanced automobile in the world and he doesn't have a cupholder."
A blue-white light dawned in the dark theatre, and suddenly an animated frankfurter with ears and a tail was racing around the screen, chased by a bright yellow squeeze bottle on legs. The pair gamboled off screen as a small cup of ice cream led a popsicle, an ice cream cone, and a corn dog in a parade march using its wooden spoon as a drum major's baton. "Tasty treats are available at the snack bar," said a man in a game-show-host voice. "Better hurry--the show's about to start!"
Several car horns sounded across the theatre. "Come on!" someone shouted. More honks sounded as the previews started.
Finally, the movie got underway. "Have you figured out how I could have been conceived at a drive-in yet, KITT?" she asked between mouthfuls.
"Not yet,"KITT answered. "Perhaps it's too early in the evening?"
"Hmm." Kyrie crunched a kernel. "You're right, it IS a bit early. The real interesting stuff doesn't happen until after the second feature."
"In other words, we'll be sitting here all night."
Kyrie laughed. "Why do you think I got so many snacks?"
***
Four hours later, the credits of the second movie rolled slowly up the screen. When it was finished, the lights came on in the theatre to reveal only a dozen cars left in the main viewing area, but the vehicles parked in the last row were still there. Intrigued, KITT swept them with a scan and carefully filed the data he received.
"Kyrie."
His driver stirred in her sleep, upsetting the popcorn bucket perched on her knee and spilling yellowish kernels over the carpeted floorboard.
"It's time to go home," said KITT, starting the ignition. "By the way, I see what you mean about your possibly being created while your parents attended a drive-in movie."
Kyrie yawned, stretched, and scooped the popcorn back into the bucket. "Told ya."
"Although from what I know of human procreation, the practice hardly seems...comfortable."
She let one corner of her mouth curl into a rueful smile. "You're right, pal. It's not." She put the car in gear and eased out of the parking spot to join the line of cars winding its way to the exit. "Come on. Let's go home. I've had enough living ooze and junk food for one night."
--END--