Videos are one of those things that will never go out of style. Think about it for a second, if you own a VCR you can watch a movie without even going to the theatre! You don’t have to worry about commericals interrupting your movie every fifteen minutes either, all you gotta do is pop in the video tape, watch the film, and then rewind the film to watch it again in the future. By any angle, videos have a major edge over movie theatres and cable television in providing an enjoyable movie experience. Of course, the crowd that rents and buys videos on a regular basis are almost always fans of film. The average person will see a movie when it comes out, talk about it for a few days and then bury the memory in his or her head, only touching upon the experience when an opportunity for discourse on entertainment presents itself.
This type of person gets entertainment from film, but is not heavily affected by a movie. He or she may have one or two favorite films that end up being purchased, sure, but for the most part films are not a major part of his or her life. Sam never remembered these type of consumers(unless the encounter was memorable for an unrelated reason, like say the person in question being a celebrity, or looking very distinct for good or bad reasons), he would only see them once or twice at most. But the regulars, Sam remembered the regulars well enough. There was Lobsterback, the elderly man obsessed with British comedy. He’d walk in the shop at least once a week to rent the latest sketch comedy show from the royal isles, and probably as a result of his fascination with cheeky humor, was a joy to speak with.
Twenty minutes talking to Lobsterback felt like five minutes talking to anyone else(except Sam’s wife…most of the time), and it was a bright spot on the dreary workday whenever he walked in the store. There was also Bleeding Heart, the middle aged lady into dramas and soap operas. She was very self aware of the artistic merit(or more often than not, lack thereof) of the films and tv shows she liked to watch, yet she did feel the need to give Sam a synopsis on whatever she was watching at the time.
Last week she had droned on and on about a series in which the main character’s twin was his wife’s murderer(and lover to boot!) the whole time, and the week before that she had wept bitterly while recalling a series about a dumb pianist who nevertheless managed to win the heart of a young lady using only his musical talents and his unshakeable determination. Finally, there was Specs, who was into sports films and war movies. A young brown haired bespectacled man in his twenties, Specs was always pumped no matter what the occasion. To say that Specs talked with Sam would be a lie, because Specs did not talk so much as he yelled in a cheery voice.
He would always(after verifying that Sam had watched the film in question) hoot and holler about the best moments in the movie he was returning, screaming about the scene where the G.I. beat down the Japanese commander with a makeshift metal arm(he had lost his proper limb when he jumped on top of a grenade to save his comrades), or the hail Mary Pass in the last moments of a football movie that won the underdogs the game. Sam found him less pleasant to ta-, scream to than he found Hugh, but enjoyed the discourse none the less. Sam had been promoted to “Top Executive Manager” of the store, which meant that he did exactly what he always did but earned two more dollars an hour. After all, the only employees in the store were Sam and the Owner. The additional income was welcomed, because Sam had only two months before gotten approval from the bank for a housing loan. Sam liked his apartment, but an apartment for two is not an apartment for four. Two extra dollars an hour meant that Sam and his wife could take care of the costs that came with moving out of their apartment.
Two extra dollars an hour meant that in twenty five years, the house they were buying furniture for would actually be theirs. Two extra dollars for two extra people. Sam smiled at the thought. Today was a slow day at work, even slower than it usually was. Boss had a funeral to attend to, and Sam’s wife was out with her mother buying some furniture Sam was pretty sure that his kids would never need. When his wife’s doctor told him that she was carrying twins, Sam had felt a feeling in his chest not too unlike heartburn. But time(and Pepto-Bismol) heals all wounds, and after a few weeks of frank discussion with his wife Sam had come around to the idea of being a father of two. His wife being pregnant was no accident, so if there was going to be a surprise guest in addition to the one he and his wife had invited then that would be just fine. He had no idea about the gender of the twins, frustratingly enough. When he asked his wife for permission to find out(she of course was in the know) all Sam received was a stuck out tongue and a playful rebuke.
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“After all…” his wife had said. “it’ll be more of a surprise when July rolls around.”
There was a silver lining to being kept in ignorance, however. By not knowing the genders of the kids, Sam was by default banned from accompanying his wife and mother in law on most of their shopping trips(this did not apply to his wallet and credit card, oddly enough) But that was something for the future, right now Sam was focusing on his, er, “work.” Well, as much as sitting at a counter waiting for customers who would not come could actually be considered work. It wasn’t that the weather outside was yucky, outside it was seventy degrees and sunny. The main issue with today was that it was the middle of a Wednesday. Wednesday is in the middle of the week, and the middle of the week is usually not the most opportune time to return, take out, or purchase a video. The white collar folks were probably stuck in a meeting, the blue collar folks almost always had handiwork scheduled from nine to five, and those unemployed could still find better things to do on a Wednesday than pay Sam’s video store a visit. Tourists wouldn’t show up either, it was June after all.
Besides, Charlotte didn’t have much to offer tourists. Most tourists to North Carolina went over to Raleigh Durham, which was slowly but surely becoming a trendy place among teenagers. And so Wednesday was doomed to be an absolute bore, there was just no way around it. Suddenly, Sam got a spark of inspiration. There were several suspended televisions in the store, they broadcasted the newer videos in stock. This particular system was highly effective at increasing revenue, Sam recalled. He’d seen multiple occasions in which a potential customer would walk around the store, not find any movie in particular, but then with the timely intervention of the rotating advertisement of the television decide to rent or even purchase one of the newer arrivals. The system wouldn’t be of much use today, though. The time was three in the afternoon and the shop closed at four on Wednesdays.
Surely, if Sam were to use the display televisions it wouldn’t hurt revenue too much? And wasn’t it possible that maybe, just maybe, a customer would walk in and, upon seeing the movie Sam was watching for his own personal amuse, decide to rent it in order to watch it as well? The damage would be minimal, and that was only in the worst-case scenario. Clenching his fist, Sam decided to go ahead and do it. He fetched a movie he’d been meaning to watch from his personal employee locker. It was a sketch comedy from Britain. Lobsterback had highly recommended it, and with Sam’s wife being so busy and pregnant, the video had sort of decayed in the background. The title of the series was “Highly Successful Serious Salesmen.” He walked over to the store’s central VCR, and ejected the video inside of it. With two delicate hands, Sam gingerly took the video and placed it back in its case. With that taken care of, Sam shoved the comedy show’s video in the VCR. The screen on the television monitors crackled, displaying the FBI warning it always did. A loud tuba theme started blasting from the television; Sam scrambled to the stereo system and lowered the volume.
One problem with videos, as cut edging as they are, is that the volume between them is inconsistent. Sam had set the television to seven blips out of ten, but seven out of ten sounded a lot more hellish and headache inducing with the comedy video than it did with the montage video. With the volume lowered, the sound was discernable, no longer just a shrieking cacophony to be ended. The sound was music, specifically a wacky tuba theme playing as several posh businessmen ran in and out of the camera’s shot(of a street and cafe London, of course.) Sam giggled a bit, the over-exaggerated sped up sprinting and wild arm waving of the Serious Successful Salesmen were hard not to react to. Right as the show began to start in earnest, Sam’s buzzer buzzed. He checked the message on it, it was from his wife’s doctor.
It read two words: Come Quickly.