about a storm blowing down from the north.
“. . . with winds gusting up to forty-five miles an
hour and heavy rains. Small-craft warnings are out on
the . . .”
“She changed her hair again,” Renie remarked.
“Now it’s pink.”
“I hope the rain lets up,” Arlene said in a doleful
voice. “It always seems to be nasty when the trick-ortreaters are making their rounds.”
“That’s because it’s late October,” Renie replied.
“We get some of our worst wind storms about now.”
“. . . For more on the weather,” Mavis was saying,
“our own Duff Stevens will be along later in the broadcast. But,” she added, now all smiles, “despite the rain,
the stars were out tonight downtown. Here’s KINETV’s entertainment editor, Byron Myron, with more
on that big event.”
Byron Myron was a jolly-looking black man whose
appearance belied a rapierlike tongue. He was shown
outside the movie theater holding an umbrella.
“
said, “and blew out the main line.” The camera traveled
to the glittering marquee, followed by clips of the
celebrity arrivals. “Bruno Zepf’s four-hour, hundredmillion-dollar extravaganza proved that money can’t
buy you love—or a good movie.”
“There’s Angela in her
entering the theater.
“How can you tell?” Arlene whispered back. “She’s
wearing a mask.”
“I saw the costume here,” Renie said. “In fact,
somebody ripped—”
Judith waved a hand to shush the other women.
“. . . story which was based on an obscure novel of
the same name,” Byron Myron was saying, “doesn’t
merit four minutes, let alone four hours. As for the acting, the performers are in the unenviable position of
creating several different characters during the various
historical periods Zepf has chosen to make his statement about humanity’s progress over four millennia.
Or was it five? I’m not sure. The movie seemed to take
almost that long. This is Byron Myron, reporting
from—”
Judith switched off the set. “Goodness. That doesn’t
sound so good for Bruno.”
“Maybe,” Renie suggested, “Byron Myron feels he
ought to trash the movie because it was filmed on location around here and the city hosted the premiere.
He may feel that if he praised it, he’d sound like a
homer.”
“Maybe,” Judith allowed, then started turning on
