Starlight (37 page)

Yet it wasn't long since there'd been a film on that screen –
Miracle on 34th Street
– which Jess had once thought of screening at Christmas, it being a sweet, sentimental Christmas story, but it had turned out to be instead their very last showing. All the patrons, sitting on those now empty seats, had loved it. They'd said so. Said it had been a terrible shame, that the Princes was going under. But they knew there was nothing anyone could do.

‘How are you feeling?' Rusty asked gently.

‘Stunned.'

‘Poor Jess. I'm going along to see the projection room. Somebody's already bought the equipment.'

‘And the organ,' Trevor sighed. ‘I've got another job in Portobello, but I'm going to miss my Wurlitzer. How long will I last?'

‘I'll stay here,' Jess told Rusty.

She didn't add that she would be listening to the voices. But voices there were, all around her.

‘Good morning, ladies, and welcome to the Princes . . . I'm Sally Dollar . . . what's your name, dear? Jessica Raeburn . . . Any chance of a coffee? I'm Russell MacVail, always known as Rusty . . . Miss Raeburn, please . . . If you want the job, it's yours . . .'

Tears pricked her eyes, but she willed them not to fall. There could be no point in tears now.

‘Remember when I told you to nip into the circle?' Sally was asking. ‘You looked so scared, as though you'd no right! Now what was that film you saw?'

‘It was
Jezebel
,' Edna told her, grinning. ‘Funny how you remember these things, eh?'

‘Strange,' Jess agreed, though it seemed to her only natural to remember everything about the Princes, and she knew she always would.

‘Like to go and see the office?' George was asking, but when she shook her head, he said no, he didn't want to see it either.

‘Come and have some coffee!' cried Daisy, who was another to have brought a Thermos, and then Addie and Sally, and Joan Baxter, too, produced theirs, graciously offering Mr Henderson a cup, and everyone stood in the foyer, trying to warm themselves up, knowing it was time to go.

‘Seen enough?' asked Mr Henderson, swinging his keys, as Edie burst into tears, and Renie sniffed and Netta sneezed.

‘We've seen enough,' Jess agreed. ‘Thanks for letting us in, we appreciate it.'

‘Sad for you, we know. Don't think we don't understand at Keys and Keys. It's just the way things work out, eh?' He hesitated a moment. ‘You've all got new jobs, I take it?'

Yes, apart from Fred and Edie who had decided to retire, most had new jobs, either in cinemas or cafes, although Rusty's was only a fill-in until he began his television course at one of the technical colleges in September. Only Sally and Jess herself had nothing planned, and if Sally said she was going to enjoy herself doing nothing, Jess had her suspicions that she might in fact be fully occupied. Not for ever, even if she turned out to be right and she'd be bringing up Ma's first grandchild, for she'd certainly be looking round one day, wanting to run something, as Addie herself would say. But that was in the future. Now there was only the present, and their sad, sad goodbyes.

Once again, they were outside the glass doors, and Mr Henderson was locking them.

‘That it?' he asked, with his cheerful smile.

‘That's it,' Jess said.

‘Goodbye, then, and the best of luck!'

Away he went with his keys, and those left looked at one another and then, for the last time, at the fine, white, still-standing building. They would not be coming to see the demolition, or even the terrible hole it would leave. Oh, no, no! Some time, of course, they'd have to see the new store, rising on the site, but for the moment, they put that out of their minds and thought of their future.

‘After all, tomorrow is another day,' Scarlett O'Hara had said in
Gone With the Wind
, the Princes' most popular film ever, and it was true. There might never be another film like that, thought Jess. There would certainly never be another Princes. But with any luck, a little of its starlight would go with her and Rusty and the others into their new lives. Life went on, whatever happened.

‘It'll be a bit late, but are you two coming back with Derry and me for your dinner?' Addie said to Jess and Rusty.

‘Fancy needing to ask!' they exclaimed.

And, as people began to walk slowly away from the Princes, Jess and Rusty, holding hands, followed Addie and Derry across the street to the station, and did not look back.