The Premiere
Page 1
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_The young actor was great.... They didn't realize just how great until the night of_
THE PREMIERE
By RICHARD SABIA
Clamped to the contour couch, the young girl strained against the paddedsteel grips and screamed. Again she writhed and screamed as she felt thehideous touch of the monster snatching at her. She struggled frenziedlythrough the muck of the swamp but the thing with the blood eyesscrabbled faster on its rotten limbs. The thing seized her in itsobscene embrace. Raw terror tore another scream from her throat. Behindher on the projector a needle slammed into the red zone. Beyond thehundreds of long rows of couches a warning light flashed on the controlconsole of Mezzanine F and its persistent buzz snared the attention ofone of the ushers. He glanced at the light's location number and ranalong one of the aisles till he came to the girl. He saw that theprojector had shut off the feature feelie and was running the emergencytranquil strip. She had stopped screaming but her breathing was stillagitated. He looked around at the rows of couches, nearly all occupiedbut none of the other patrons seemed more frightened than they shouldbe. Some of the other ushers had halted on their rounds and were lookingquizzically across at him. He shrugged the question back at them,removed the feelie permit from its clip on the girl's couch and checkedthe permitted intensity level against the setting of the projector. Theymatched. Still puzzled, he examined the other settings withoutdiscovering any apparent cause for her fright-hysteria. The tranquilstrip ended and the machine shut itself off. The usher moved a switchthat released the pressure of the electrodes against the girl's head andretracted them into the headset. Her eyes opened as he removed theapparatus 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 thecouch.
She said nothing but allowed him to lead her along. They stepped into afloat shaft and drifted gently down past other floors of the theateroccupied by the myriad rows of feelie couches. When they reached whatwas obviously an office level, the usher grasped a tug bar which pulledthem into a corridor opening. He brought her to the clinic and left herwith 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,Loretta Meenan, and, well, you are from Hammond, Louisiana." He lookedup 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 knowmistake 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 visitto New York?"
"Ah'm havin' a dazzlin' time."
"Good. Do you go to the feelies at home?" The doctor saw her tenseforward 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 youhave any idea why this one should have upset you so?"
"No, sir, except maybe the excitement. Ah ain't never been much awayfrom home before but once to New Orleans."
The doctor looked at her permit card again. "This isn't a very goodlikeness of you."
"It does reflect me poorly," she murmured.
The doctor's smile evaporated from his suddenly stern face. "Perhapsit'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 squirming inher 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 mahvery 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 andleaned across the desk. "Why you little fool!" he roared. "You littledamn fool!"
From the open doorway a shape hurtled across the desk at the doctor andcrashed with him to the floor.
"Jason!" Robina shrieked.
"Don't you talk to mah sister that way," Jason shouted as he pummelledthe doctor. "Ah'll kill you!"
The usher who had guided Jason to the clinic dashed around the desk topull the boy from the doctor. Robina tried to help but in the tussle shewas 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 inhis arms.
The doctor got to his feet and glared at the tall, strikingly handsomeboy-man helping his sister to a chair.
That done, Jason whirled to face the doctor. "Now listen here--"
"Now you listen to me," the doctor shouted. He saw Jason gather himselfas if for another leap but Robina placed a restraining hand on his armand his fists slowly uncurled. "If you loved your sister as much as youpretend to you wouldn't have helped her try to kill herself!"
"What do you mean?" the boy said sullenly.
"You know damn well what I mean," the doctor said. "You _know_ yoursister is a Sensitive. She experiences things with ten times the impactof an ordinary person and her empathy threshold is so high a death scenein a feelie could kill her! And if you don't know what some of the wordsmean," the doctor said, noticing Jason's slight puzzlement, "you do knowwhat your sister is and the care that has to be taken."
The guilt in Jason's abashed face agreed.
Fired by his anger, the doctor raged on. "Why the devil do you think wehave laws concerning attendance permits? What do you think all thattesting by doctors and psychologists before a permit is issued is for?You, you big ox, could be killed by fright too if the intensity level ofthe projector was set higher than your psycho-profile rating."
He saw his last words had lost the boy again. "In any case you knowbetter. Why did you allow your sister to endanger her life by lettingher illegally use another's permit? And of all things, a horror feelie!"
"Ah didn't want to take her," Jason complained, "but she jus' fussed an'fretted at me 'till Ah gave in."
"Well you've both broken the law. Your parents will be notified andyou'll have to stay here until they come." The doctor buzzed and a guardappeared. "Take these two to Mr. Lemson
's office," he instructed him.
The guard led them from the floating steel and crystal theater structureof the U-Live-It Corporation complex to the executive wing of thegeneral offices. He stayed with them until the receptionist at theoffice suite of Vice President Cyrus W. Lemson ushered them inside.
After having them seat themselves, Mr. Lemson stared at Jason in histight, crimson, dress dungarees and rhinestone speckled, black shirtwhich accentuated his lithe, muscled body. _Eighteen or not_, he thoughtin mild astonishment, _that