فصل هفدهم

chapter-17

The theater marquee outside the art deco Cinemark movie theater in downtown Alexandriaville listed six different movie titles.

Five were big blockbusters. One Kyle had never heard of: Another Clue for You.

“Come on,” said Kyle.

“Where are we going?” asked Abia.

“The box office. I want to see Another Clue for You.” “Ah, yes. I have heard that one is quite good. Well played, Kyle Keeley.” “Thanks.”

They ran over to the ticket window.

“May I help the following guest?” asked the blue-haired lady inside the box office. Kyle noticed that she was wearing a little lemon-and-cello lapel pin.

“Mr. Lemoncello sent us!” said Kyle. “We’d like two tickets to Another Clue for You.” The lady thumped a button.

A tiny square of cardboard shot out of a metal slot in the ticket counter. The lady tore it off at its perforations and slid it through the half-moon window.

There was a miniature picture puzzle on the ticket stub.

“Enjoy your show. Next.”

“Come on,” said Kyle. “Let’s go figure this out!” They turned around. Andrew, Diane, Akimi, and Angus were all lined up behind them.

“We want to see the exact same movie,” whined Andrew, nervously tapping his fingers on the counter.

“Good luck, you guys,” said Akimi as Kyle and Abia hurried into the lobby to work their clue.

“Yeah,” added Angus. “You’re gonna need it!” Akimi and Angus laughed and slapped each other high fives. They even woo-hooed.

Kyle couldn’t let it bug him. He and Abia went over to a tall table near the concession stand and studied their clue.

“It’s another pictogram!” said Kyle.

“Don’t let the others see that!” whispered Abia.

“Don’t worry. They’re all getting different clues, remember?” Kyle focused on the rebus. So did Abia.

Kyle figured it out first.

“Got it!” he said. “We need to ‘find the man who was always meant to work here.’ ” Kyle and Abia looked around the lobby. There was a guy tearing tickets. Two guys working behind the concession stand. An elderly man sweeping popcorn off the floor. Still another guy with a flashlight looped through his belt who looked like an usher.

All five of them wore the telltale lemon-and-cello lapel pins. So did all the women working in the movie theater.

“How do we find out which one of those men was always meant to work here?” asked Kyle.

“We could interview them,” said Abia. “This is theoretically a game designed to test our research skills. The one-on-one interview is a time-honored investigatory technique.” “But it could take like an hour,” said Kyle. “Maybe longer.” “Always searching for a shortcut, eh, Kyle Keeley?” “Yes! Because this is a race!”

The guy working the broom shuffled by, chasing a half-popped kernel of corn that wouldn’t stay in his long-handled dustpan.

“Very well,” said Abia. “I have found one.” “What?”

“That senior citizen who just swept by. Did you notice his name tag?” “No.”

“He is Mark.”

“So?”

“This is the Cinemark movie theater, is it not? Given Mr. Lemoncello’s love of puns, clearly a man named Mark was always meant to work at a cinema named Cine-mark.” “Booyah!” exclaimed Kyle.

The two of them chased after the broom man, who had finally corralled the last pesky piece of popcorn.

“Excuse me, sir?” said Kyle. “Are you Cine-mark?” The old man laughed. “Well, that’s what Mr. Lemoncello always calls me because I know so much about movies.” “Um, do you know Thomas Edison?”

“I’m only seventy-two, son. Not a hundred and seventy-two.” “I know, but…”

“Ah, I’m just messing with you. Hang on.” He pulled a sheet of paper out of his pants pocket.

“Here we go. I’m supposed to say this to anybody who asks me about Edison.” He cleared his throat. “Go to Murphy’s Drugstore and grab what you might need if you were the star of the first copyrighted motion picture shot on an Edison Kinetoscope.” Kyle had no idea what the man was talking about. “We have to read Edison’s horoscope?” “We should return to our bookmobile,” said Abia. “We can research Thomas Edison’s contributions to the motion picture art form, including his creation known as the Kinetoscope.” “Sure,” said Kyle, “we can do an Internet search on our tablet computers on the way to Murphy’s.” “We can also consult the many books in our book-mobile. Knowing Mr. Lemoncello, I would not be surprised if several of them were from the 791.43 section.” “Which one is that, again?”

“Books dealing with the cinema.”

“Right. I used to know that.”

Abia could do it the old-fashioned way, with books, but Kyle would stick with a quick and speedy Google search.

Because the race always went to the swift!