Coda 02 -A to Z

felt.
    He left and I went back to doing my crossword puzzle. I was disappointed, but I tried to tell myself that it could be worse. He still wanted to see me. That made up for missing dinner. Mostly. Still, I dreaded six o’clock, when I would close the store and go home to my empty apartment.
    My thoughts were interrupted by a sudden question in an impudent tone. “Can you help me find a movie?” It sounded like a challenge.
    I looked up to find the skinny punk looking at me expectantly. He was quite a few years younger than me, probably early to midtwenties. He was about five-seven. He was wearing combat boots, a T-shirt that had been washed so many times I could practically see through it, and baggy jeans that were low on his hips. At least his ass wasn’t showing.
    “Maybe,” I said. I would have liked to be able to just say yes, but it would have been a lie.
    “Can’t really figure out your system.”
“They’re alphabetical.”
    He gave me a lopsided smirk which might have been cute if it wasn’t so annoying. “What alphabet you usin’?”
    He had me there. I had given up on the alphabetical thing a long time ago. “They’re grouped by genre.” I pointed to the little labels at the top of the shelves.
    “In theory, man, but they’re all fucked up.”
    I was starting to get annoyed. Not least of all because he was probably right. Still, I didn’t really want this punk giving me lessons on how to run my business. “Like what?”
    “Like this.” He pointed to the shelf next to him. It was labeled Classics. “ Sixteen Candles is not a classic.”

    “It’s a classic to people my age.”

    “No, man. No way does it belong next to A Streetcar Named
    Desire . I don’t care how much it reminds you of your long lost youth. And this.” He walked a few steps and pointed to another shelf. “ True Romance— not a romance.”
    “What do you mean?”

    “Quentin Tarantino. It’s an action flick. You never watched it?”

    I was getting uncomfortable now. “No. I don’t like romances.”
    He rolled his eyes. “Right.” He pushed his hair out of his face, sighed, and said, “I’m lookin’ for The Bridge on the River Kwai . You got that?”
    “Ummm… I think so. That’s the one where the nun blows up the trestle bridge, right?”
    He gave me the lopsided smirk again. “No, man. That’s Two Mules for Sister Sara . Shirley MacLaine and Clint Eastwood. I’m talkin’ about Alec Guinness. You know—Obi-Wan Kenobi?” I nodded, because I did at least know who Obi-Wan was. “I don’t remember much about it except that fuckin’ song that they whistle, so thought I’d check it out again, you know?”
    “But there’s a bridge, right?” Don’t ask me how that was supposed to help me locate the movie. I was just trying to keep up.
    He shook his head at me. “Forget it, man.” He turned and grabbed The Shining off the shelf next to him, walked over, and tossed it on the counter in front of me. He was a few inches shorter than me. He looked up at me through his overgrown bangs. “Don’t you watch any of these movies?”
    “I guess I like the blockbusters more.” I was trying not to sound defensive.
    “That’s not really the way to go, is it? I mean, all the stores carry those types of movies. You gotta carry the shit that they don’t have space for. Cult classics, you know.”
    “Cult classics?”
“Right.”
“Like The Breakfast Club ?”
    He blinked at me. Once. Twice. Then, “How fuckin’ preppy were you in high school?” he asked harshly.
    “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He rolled his eyes at me again. “Never mind.”
    The Breakfast Club wasn’t a cult classic? Although I had heard that term before, I realized I didn’t really know what it meant. “What kind of movies are you talking about?” I asked him, making an effort to sound sincere. “I really want to know.”
    For a minute he just looked at me, and I could tell he was trying to decide how seriously to take me. Finally he pushed the hair out of his face again and said, “ The Toxic Avenger . You got that?”
    “I think so. Maybe. I don’t know.”
“ Ed Wood ?”
“Ed who?”
“ Ed Wood , with Johnny Depp.”
“Is that the one where he cuts hair?”
“You talkin’ ’bout Edward Scissorhands or Sweeney Todd ?” “I thought we were talking about Johnny Depp.”
    He rolled his eyes. “How ’bout, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, & Her Lover ?”
    “Is that one movie or four?”
“What