The Premiere - Richard Sabia, ebook, Temp
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The Premiere
Sabia, Richard
Published:
1959
Type(s):
Short Fiction, Science Fiction
Source:
1
Also available on Feedbooks for Sabia:
•
(1959)
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2
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.
3
"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.
4
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.
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