Part One

“This is so exciting!” Trixie bounced on the balls of her feet and turned to the stranger next in front of her in the line, who had become a new friend in the hours of waiting. “How long do you think it is now, Sean?”

The seventeen-year-old pulled back the sleeve of his robe and checked his watch. “It will be exactly two minutes and thirty seconds until the doors open… now.”

Trixie grinned at him. “I hope the people inside have their clocks set right.”

“They do,” he answered. “I came by yesterday and made sure.”

The seven Bob-Whites, along with what seemed like half of Sleepyside, waited outside the Cameo for the midnight screening of the latest Star Wars movie. Now in their early twenties, the group could have chosen a cinema anywhere, but since their home town had somehow met the requirements to hold the event, the Bob-Whites had jumped at the chance of meeting there.

“Hey! Is that someone coming to open the door?” a man behind them asked.

The whole crowd shuffled forwards, jostling each other as they craned to see if they were going to be admitted. A few people groaned as the attendant walked away again, only to return a moment later. Trixie felt the solid bulk of Jim’s chest against her back and leaned against him.

“Nice to meet you, Trixie,” Sean told her. “Maybe I’ll see you at the next one.”

“Up here, near the front of the line.” She glanced at her friends, some of whom looked less than enthusiastic about the idea. “It’s a date. We’ll see you then.”

With a rattle, the doors began to open and the crowd cheered approval. Trixie rushed past the uniformed attendant, Jim’s hand in hers. She found the perfect seats for the group and hurried to claim them.

“These seven are ours!” she cried, plonking herself down in the seventh one, only to find an unfamiliar woman sitting next to her in the place she had expected Jim to be. “Oh, sorry. You’ll have to move; our group is sitting here.”

“No. You move.”

“We got here first,” Trixie argued. “And there aren’t seven seats all together anywhere else.”

This was true. While they had bought tickets in advance, seating was not allocated. The seats were rapidly filling and only scattered ones remained vacant. Six of the Bob-Whites were seated, but Dan still stood, waiting to see what would happen.

“Please,” Honey added. “We don’t all see each other often and we came here to do this together. Are you on your own? Maybe you could have that seat there?”

The woman considered for just a moment, tucked a strand of long, blonde hair behind her ear, then took the seat Honey suggested.

“That’s a relief,” Trixie commented, as Jim moved into the seat next to her. “This wouldn’t be anywhere near as fun without you.”

“Hey! No kissing over there!” Mart called from further down the row.

Jim tried to pull back, but Trixie held his head close to hers for a leisurely kiss.

“You’re just jealous,” she called to her brother when they finally finished.

“One of you girls sit next to Mart and kiss him, okay?” Dan suggested, making the rest of them laugh.

Honey and Diana, who sat next to each other, began whispering together and giggling.

“Now look what you’ve started,” Brian complained to Dan, but with a twinkle in his eyes.

The good-natured teasing, familiar and comforting, continued until the lights dimmed.

Later, as the end credits rolled, Trixie reached under her seat to look for the lip gloss she had dropped half-way through the movie. Her hand closed, instead, on something like a paperback book. Her fingers felt the edges, but none seemed to open.

“What are you doing?” Jim asked, as she got down on hands and knees and peered under the seat.

“There’s something down here,” she answered. She snagged the lip gloss and tucked it into her pocket, then drew out the other thing she had felt. “Hey, this is weird. Look!”

She scrambled out into the aisle, where her friends could gather around. Rather than a book, the object had been a box. Its lid was embossed with something like a figure eight. In the dim light, it seemed to almost shine from within.

“Does it open?” Honey wondered, coming closer.

As Trixie wiggled it, the lid slid off the base. Inside was a plastic figure of a robot, its body green and angular, its brown arms resembling wrenches. She ran her fingers over the base, which had a roller.

Jim took it from her hands. “I think I’ve seen something like this before, somewhere, but I can’t remember where.”

He passed it to Brian, who shrugged and gave it to Mart, who passed it to Dan.

“It’s probably some kid’s. We should hand it in.”

Honey frowned as she took it. “It looks old. I don’t think a child would have something like this. Maybe it was the people sitting behind us.”

“It looks like it should fit on the eight-track,” Di suggested.

“That’s not an eight,” Mart corrected. “It’s a lemniscate, more commonly known as an infinity symbol.”

“Whatever you call it, it goes here. Look.”

She placed the robot on the track and gave it a push. The track glowed brighter and the robot gripped it in an unnatural way, rolling slowly around the whole path without any further assistance from Di. Some instinct caused the seven to all reach for each other.

A voice yelled, “No!” and a hand reached for the robot, but it was too late. A golden glow surrounded the group. As the robot completed its lap, the light turned white and then everything went black.

Continue to Part Two

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