The Film Depository

Jenny and Frank counted the broken film sprockets a third time.  

     “Same sequence” Jenny said.

   “The pattern's like in “Close Encounters.”  They’re for lines of latitude and longitude.”'

    “Well, we can’t roll a big globe over here, though the film library does have one”

    “Of course it does.  You go to a great big university.”

    “And you go to a great big film school, but I bet you ain’t got a map.”

   “I got one in the car.   Come on.  I know where those coordinates are.  I used to be a geography major.  Remember?  They’re close.””

   “You used to be every kind of major, but I believe you,” she said as they hurried outside.

The drive only took half an hour.  Both remarked they’d never been out this way.

     “No reason to.  Range-land mainly.  Nothing much here.”

   “The Film Depository​?”

Jenny pointed at a large sign with an arrow marking a narrow road that curved into scrubby forest.

    “Let’s check it out, Frank said.

The road ended in a single lined space.  The sign in front read “Visitor Parking” in bold letters .

     “Guess they don’t expect crowds.” Frank cracked.

    “If there’s just one space, shouldn’t it be for handicapped? This is weird” Jenny said.

They followed a yellow tiled path to an imposing structure.

Imposing in size only.  The building was a concrete box a hundred yards deep.  The front was black glass.  Double doors opened before them, and a man called from inside.

     “Come in, please.”

The voice sounded old.   

    “Happy to receive you into our nappy home,” the man added.

    “Nappy​?” Frank said.       

  “Happy as well.” someone else said.

The speaker, an elderly woman, shuffled in from the dark.

  “We’ll show you,” she said.

Her gait was slow, but each step illuminated  a further expanse.  When the pair stood together behind a reception counter, the entire cavernous interior was illuminated.  Distant walls were blank.  Long rows of tables lined the floor.  Some were divided into sections.  Others held trays. The place was a duplication of the university film library only bigger, way bigger.

    “What will you show us?” Jenny asked.

    “Why anything you like.  This is The Film Depository,” the old man said and grinned.

His teeth were obviously false.

    “This is quite a set up you got here.  So how come two film aficionados like us never heard it was here?  Those are all films over there? “Frank said pointing towards the tables.

He sounded irritated.  Jenny put her arm a round his waist to be close.

    “This has got to be one of the world’s biggest film collections.”she said.   

    “The biggest,” the old woman interrupted.

    “So what goes on here?”  Jenny asked      

    “This is the stuff dreams are made of.” the old man said.

    “Oh sure, quote “The Maltese Falcon​”, why don’t you?”  Frank quipped.

   “Is that on the list today, Henry?”  The old woman asked.

    “No Gretta, but we do have a couple of Bogie films.  “African Queen’s” one.  Can’t recall the other.  We pull a lot of films, and my memory’s kind of slipping.”

    “We get so many requests for “African Queen,”  Gretta said

    “Requests from who?”  Jenny asked.

    “Operations,” Henry replied.

    “And what does operations do?”  Frank demanded      ‘

‘

    “We don’t know.”

After a pause, Henry continued, “We’re not involved in the design work or the selection process.  We just pull films and refile them when they return.”  

   “It isn’t a hard job. There’s plenty of down time, “Gretta said

She tittered then added, “More like fun time.”

Gretta reached over the counter to pat Jenny’s arm saying softly, conspiratorially,  “You’ll see.”

     ‘Let’s get out of here, Frank,” Jenny whispered.      

It didn’t come out quiet like she intended.  It echoed back across the room, repeatedly.  Swinging around to exit, Frank and Jenny saw only a concrete wall.

    “Whoa, how do we get out of here?” Frank shouted.

    “We’ll show you in a moment, but first you must see a film.  After all, you’re film students, and you’ve come all this way.”

     “You’ll be impressed, I promise,” Henry said moving to a side table topped by a control board with half a dozen rows of small brown buttons and a large red button on the far left.

     “I’m going to ask you to push down on this in a bit,” he said pointing to the red button.  

    ‘Think you can do that for me?”   

     “Sure, I guess so,” Frank muttered.

    “Great. Orders get printed out through this slot.” Henry said running a hand along the side of the unit.

Then he pushed the top button on the far right row.  An immense movie screen started sliding out of the wall.  The top nearly grazed the lofty ceiling while the bottom barely cleared the table trays.  The horizontal expanse grew beyond reason.

    “It makes IMax look like something on a cellphone,” Jenny exclaimed.

The screen lit up displaying a bucolic scene in technicolor.  Gently rolling hills of grass were splotched with majestic oaks.  In the distance, Frank noticed two small people frozen in place beneath a towering tree.  A deer and two doe calmly grazed in front of them.

    “Hey, that’s us,” Frank yelled.

    “This film is one we selected.  The next one as well,” Gretta said.

    “Nothing much to this one though we figured it would suit you.  A few birds fly by.  Some wildlife wanders through.” Henry said.

    “Why are we frozen figures over there/” Jenny asked.

    “Because the activation button hasn’t been pushed,” Gretta said.

     “Are you going to push the activation button?”  Frank asked

    “Not until the next film, and you’ll push it. Wouldn’t be a good idea right now.  See,  you can’t act in two places at the same time,”  Henry said.

Jenny let go of Frank and rushed towards the counter.  She leaned over to confront Gretta who serenely shuffled back a bit.

   “Do you know us somehow?  Those are our clothes on screen.  I recognize them,  but they’re not what we have on now.  And how’d you know we were film students?  We never told you that.”

    “Say, that’s right.  What gives?” Frank said.

   “It was important to us that the right pair be chosen, a couple that could truly appreciate The Film Depository’s possibilities,” Gretta said.

She turned and began slowly walking towards the tremendous screen.

    “We let operations know some of the qualities we wanted, and after they made the selections, they let us know a few things about you.  Nothing mysterious,” Henry said.

      “Nothing mysterious,” Frank bellowed.  

     “Just how did we end up, the chosen?”

      “Like I explained, we don’t know how operations works.   We stick to filling orders and napping.  The transponder board  let’s you do that six ways from  Sunday.  Believe  it.  Anywho, you know better than we do how operations got you here.” Henry said.

He pushed another button on the control panel, and the scene on screen switched to the main street of a town in the old west.  The setting had a rosy glow as the sun was starting to set.

Henry called over his shoulder as he hurried to join Gretta by he screen,  “Okay Frank, if you’ll just come around the counter and push that red activation button for us.  That’s how you exit.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Frank dashed over and hit the button.  He was shocked to see it vanish from the board.  He was even more amazed to see Henry and Gretta now onscreen walking towards a pair of Palominos tethered to a rail in front of the swinging doors to a saloon.

    “Look how gracefully they mounted up,” Jenny marveled.

Frank ran back around the counter and grabbed Jenny.

   “It isn’t real It’s a movie,” Frank shouted.

He released Jenny and looked at the screen.  Henry and Gretta had wheeled their horses around and were starting up the dusty lane.

    ‘Hey, you said the activation button was the way out.  So where is it?”  Frank called after them.

    “Oh, I don’t imagine that’ll pop up for quite a spell,” Henry shouted back.

The horses were now some distance so Jenny really had to yell.

    “What do the other buttons do?”

   “We’ll not spoil your fun, a lifetime of marvels awaits,” Gretta replied loudly as she and Henry spurred their mounts to a trot.  

Roy Rodgers began singing “Happy Trails.”  Frank and Jenny held each other tightly.  It was getting hard to see the riders in the distance, but he elderly couple seemed to be growing younger.   They were now silhouettes etched upon the red lowering sun, but their voices, now youthful, could still be heard.

    “I think operations made the right choice;’ Gretta said.

    “They always do,” Henry replied.

The screen went dark.  As it slid away, the transponder began to regurgitate a list.

Time to get to it.

The end