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Show 133 opposite Mary Pickford was a handsome young actor named Lionel Barrymore. During their third scene Karl got to use 'Hearts and Flowers.' When 'At Jones* Ferry' came on, he disregarded the cue sheet and played 'Alexander's Ragtime Band' for the barn dance. No one in the theater seemed to mind. After that he played whatever popular songs came into his head, banging the keys loudly as Kathleen had instructed him to do, because the projector really was noisy. All three of the one-reel films were shown in little more than half an hour, and then were repeated again and again as fresh patrons arrived to replace the ones who'd left the theater. By nine o'clock, Karl's eyes hurt, his head ached, his fingers tingled like pins and needles, and his neck had a crick in it from his watching the screen. How could Kathleen keep it up night after night, Karl wondered. Even worse, how could poor Professor Kitzweiller last for ten straight hours every day? Karl felt a wave of relief when the projector stopped and the lights went on. Blinking patrons buttoned their coats to head for the door -- Karl was right behind them. As the chilly air revived him on the mile-long walk to Center Street, he began to think that the job hadn't been so bad after all. When he got home, he could describe the three movies to his mother -- he'd seen the sub-titles often enough that he remembered them. At the bottom of Center Street, he waited beside the streetcar tracks for Kathleen and Jame, but the streetcar didn't come. Maybe it had arrived early, he thought. Climbing Center Street, he looked for Kathleen and Jame in the shadows. They weren't there. Instead, |