Steed and Molly advanced farther into the near time of the future.  They saw Luke asking his mother where his chocolate milk is.  She ignores him.  Luke screamed, “Someone has stolen my chocolate milk and you don’t even care.  I bet it was the milkman, or maybe even Jackie.  I’m going to call the police.”

Byrdy caught Luke before he completed the call. Trying to stop from laughing she asked, “What do you think you are doing?”

“I’m going to call the police and report my milk missing.”

Byrdy laughed, “Your milk isn’t missing.” She told Luke, “After the little stunt you pulled causing Jackie to quit, I told the milkman not to deliver the chocolate milk for a couple of weeks.”

“I need my milk.”

“We have regular milk you can drink.”

“Yuck.”

Luke ran out the door to look for his friend Rick.  He announced to Rick, “I think we should have a cussing contest.”

“I don’t know.  We might get in trouble.”

“Come on over to the side of the house. No one will hear us over there.”

Knowing full well that his mother was in the kitchen and would hear them, he and Rick went over to the side of the house and began the contest.  In a few short minutes his mother rushed out of the house.  “Young man, what have I told you about using that kind of language?  You are going to have your mouth washed out with soap.  And you Rick, you go home.”

Molly and Steed focused farther into the near future. Mary and Luke were in a small theater waiting for the movie to begin.  Luke turned around and looked up after feeling a bit of popcorn being thrown from the balcony seats.  He had never paid much attention to upper level before.  Luke asked Mary if he could sit up in the higher seats.   Mary told him that white people weren’t allowed to sit up there.  She told him that only people of color were allowed to sit in the upper seats over looking the small theater.

Luke said, “That is not fair.  I want to sit up there.  Why should they have the better seats?”

“We have the better seats for watching the movie.”

“But not for throwing the popcorn at people. I want to sit up there.”

“Look! We can’t.  If you don’t like it, go join a protest march with Jackie.”

“Where is she marching?”

“I don’t know.  I was just being a smart lick.”

An elderly woman who had been partially listening to Luke and Mary stood up from a couple of rows behind, and moved to sit next to Luke.  She tapped Luke on the shoulder.  “My grandson is sitting up there.  He was throwing the popcorn at me to get my attention and not to be a bully, to be mean, toward you.  He was aiming at me, but hit you instead.”

Mary cringed.  She prayed that Luke would not ask the nice white lady how she had a black grandson or say something even ruder.

Luke smiled.  “Throwing popcorn is not mean.”  Luke pointed. “Now if I was sitting up there, I might be tempted to throw a drink at that dude in the green jacket over there.  But I’d probably just throw popcorn or maybe cotton candy.”

The woman asked, “Why do you not like Monk?”

“You know him?”

“I know of him.  I don’t much like him either.  I was wondering why you don’t like him.”

Mary glanced over to see whom her brother was pointing to.  She caught a glimpse of the gold chain around the man’s neck just as the theater lights were being turned down.  Mary remembered what Luke had said about the man sneaking into their house.  She wanted to think he had just been making stuff up, but she felt scared.  “And here we are about to watch a horror film.”

Luke looked at his sister.  Mary had told him not to tell people stuff that might make them think he is weird. Mary saw the woman waiting for Luke to tell her why he didn’t like the man and realized Luke was heeding her advice to him.

Mary asked the lady, “Why is it that you don’t like the man?”

“I…”

A woman walked up.  “The movie is starting mother.  Don’t be telling these children all our problems.  Come back to your seat.”

The elderly woman stood up and was helped back to her seat by her daughter.  A young man leaned over and whispered to Mary with a giggle, “You’ve been talking to the grandmother of a murderer.” 

Luke turned around in anger.  “And I see your brother sitting next to someone she doesn’t like anymore than I do.”

Suddenly the woman sitting next to the boy said, “My God!  I hadn’t noticed whom he was sitting next to.  What the hell are Tatt Hartley and Monk up to?”  Quickly she stood up and rushed to tell her older son to come back and sit with her.  Just as he was standing up, the film broke and the theater lights were turned up while the film was being spliced and reloaded. Monk turned around and looked directly at Mary and Luke. 

Mary saw Monk’s scowl as he stared at Luke.  She could only wonder what the woman had said that had drawn Monk’s attention directly toward them.  Mary told Luke that she wasn’t feeling well and that they should go to lobby and call their mother to pick them up early.  As they got out of their seat, Monk got out of his seat.  Mary and Luke very quickly walked toward the lobby to the pay phone.  Just as they reached the phone, Monk walked up and acted as though he also was waiting to use the phone.  

Luke turned around and smiled at Monk.  “Don’t tell me the movie made you scared like it did my sister.”

Monk said, “No, just seeing that guy press that hot iron to the man’s face made me wonder if I had forgot to unplug my iron.  Thought I should call a neighbor to go over to my room and check.  All I need is to cause a fire at the boarding house.”

Playing a mind game with Monk Luke asked, “Have I seen you somewhere before?”

Monk scratched his head as he stared into Luke’s eyes.  Luke’s calm expression revealed no hint of fear.  “We’ve seen one another a few times.”

Luke asked, “How many times?  I can’t remember even once.”

Monk said, “Four times counting today.”

Luke thought, “I saw him when he broke into our house.  I saw him at the pool. I am looking at him now.” Luke wondered, “When was the other time? Is he counting the night our house caught on fire?”  Luke asked, “Were you standing with any of the crowd the night our house burned down?”

Monk cringed at Luke’s words.  “Maybe you’ve seen me more than four times.”

“I don’t remember.” Luke stared at Monk.  “I wish I could remember all the times you say I’ve seen you.”

Mary finished talking to Byrdy.  She looked down to avoid eye contact with Monk as she took Luke’s hand and pulled for him to follow her.  They walked back into the theater and sat down on the back row to wait for their ride.  The woman with her two sons walked to the back row and sat down with them.  The woman said, “I noticed you two sitting back here.”

Mary said, “I’m not feeling well.  We are waiting for mom to pick us up.”

The woman looked at Luke.  “How did you know that the boy is my son who was sitting next to Monk?”

“I saw the three of you sitting together earlier and heard him ask if he could sit nearer to the screen where he could see.”

“Of course. I should have realized.  I was thinking you might be psychic or something.”

Luke laughed. “I don’t even know what that means.”

Mary said, “I heard you mention Tatt Hartley.  His father once owned a place that my parents were buying.”

“It is a small world.”

Luke said, “It is a big world, but this is a small community.”

The woman patted Luke on the head. “Yes, and people do gossip.”  She then intended to sit silently while waiting with Luke and Mary to make sure they remained safe until Byrdy arrived to pick them up.

Luke said, “You are like that other nice lady. You know about Monk first hand and not because of gossip. I don’t mean to be hurtful but I think you know that the man on death row for killing your sister Sally and for killing the others was actually trying to save your sister.  You got your son away from sitting next to Monk, because you know Monk is responsible.”

The woman whispered, “George told me, but he told me to tell no one.  He was fearful for his own family and for me and my sons.”  The woman hugged Luke, “You must know that Monk has some influential friends through the Hartley family. You must never tell people what you know, because you will put your family in danger.”

Mary asked, “How can we not tell them?”

Luke said, “Tell them what? You must have dosed off and had a bad dream.”

The woman said, “Yes, watching these old horror movies will cause bad dreams.”

Mary looked at the woman’s two sons. “I wasn’t dreaming.  You heard what I heard.”

The youngest boy told Mary, “I was watching the movie.”

The older boy said, “Yeah, me too.”

Much later Luke and Mary would meet the two boys again in their respective classes in school.  They would learn that the woman they had met in the Theater had been arrested for prostitution and her two sons had been taken away from her.