"It's about time I tided this 'ld place", remarks Jet looking around the projector room.
It's clear this room is long overdue a spring clean with dust piling up on the high shelves and unused canisters discarded in the floor. His son must have been up here at some point as there is discarded hamburger wrappers in the table.
Jet signs to himself, "coulda sworn I taught dat boy some manners"
Jet cracks his fingers and begins to tidy up starting at reel shelf, this room isn't going to clean itself after all.
"Now how did da?" Jet remarks as he finds a cardboard box stashed on the shelf. He should know everything in the cinema, it is his cinema, and his home after all.
He takes the box off the shelf and sets it on a free space on the table and blows the dust off it. He grabs the brown tape and rips it off in one clean movement and bundles it into a ball. Opening the box reveals a very loved and battered notebook and three reels in canisters. Jet takes out the notebook and flicks the pages. Everything is handwritten and the handwriting looks very familiar
"...Blue? Since when da ya start leavin' ya reels here?" Jet mutters to himself, "lazy bum-" he grumbles before pausing mid-word as he notices a second set of handwriting on the notes " J-J-Junko!" he exclaims.
He flicks through the notes some more and sure enough it is his late wife's handwriting alongside Blue's.
The old geezer must have been planning a shoot with her. His notes are all about camera moment and her's about dialogue changes and actor positions. Jet realises something and drops the notebook. He scrambles to the canisters, if he's lucky one of them might have her on film, well that's assuming they survived all these years. Blue was never one for keeping his rehearsal reels in good condition.
Jet opens the first canister and takes out the reel. The film is a little grotty and a bit, make that a lot scratched as he examines the footage by eye. In true Blue tradition the rehearsal reels as the home movie 8mm variety. Jet groans as his cinema projector is a professional 35mm one.
"Blue ya cheap bast-" Jet mumbles "-wait didn't I have one of does' for Joe ta play wit?" Jet stands up, still clutching the reel, and scans the room. "I hadta put it up high..." Jet thinks aloud "...wait a minute".
Jet sets the film on the table and grabs a chair dragging it to the shelf and stands on it. It gives him a little boost and he feels around the top of the shelf, knocking off several dust bunnies which make him sneeze.
"It's gotta be 'round der" Jet stands on his tippy toes and peers to the top of the shelf "der ya are!" He exclaims and reaches for the smaller projector with both hands.
Jet immediately sets about setting up the smaller projector. He curses and mutters as he fiddles with the tiny clogs and tightens the loose screws by hand. This projector hasn't been used in donkey's years and oh boy does it show. Jet is even wondering if the blasted thing will even power up.
"Moment o' truth ol' boy" he mutters as he plugs in the projector with his fingers crossed.
The projector takes a moment before the machine lights up and begins whirling as the reels spin crazily. Jet fiddles with the controls, flipping switches and turning dials until the reels slow down to the usual speed.
"Lamp still works, dis crazy idea might work, ya know" he exclaims to himself as he positions the beam from the projector onto a bland part of the wall and reaches to grab the film reel. He momentarily powers off the projector and sets up the film reel, he crosses his fingers once again as he flips on the power.
The machine whirls and Jet is a little scared in case the footage is mangled to death by the ancient projector, but everything seems to be spinning in time. As Jet double checks the timing on the dials he hears the younger voice of his old friend Blue.
Jet turns to watch the film being projected onto the wall, the image quality is poor, flickering between colour and black and white and the sound is scratchy.
"Right it's all up and going...ready to start?" booms Blue, his clackerboard in hand
The woman in shot nods, her shoulder length black hair gleaming at the camera.
"Junko" Jet whispers
Blue's clackerboard comes into shot and he slams it down while crying "Scene Six, Take one!"
Junko delivers her lines with the voice of an angel. Her timing is immaculate. Even though this footage hasn't been kept in the best condition, Junko still comes across with all her beauty, delivering lines that don't even seem scripted. Her performance is so flawless it brings a tear to Jet's eye, or perhaps that's just down to the fact he though he'd never see her again.
The film comes to an abrupt end and the film spins on the return reel for a few moments before Jet snaps back into reality, wipes his eyes and stops the machine, carefully removing the reel and setting it carefully into the canister.
He picks up the second canister and examines the footage by hand. This film is an even worse condition than the first. It's scratched well beyond play, putting a film like that into the projector is suicide for the reel and Jet knows that. Even though he can make out his beloved wife on the film it is with a heavy heart he returns that reel to its canister.
"Savin' the best fer last, Ah hope?" Jet comments as he takes the third canister from the box. He's surprised it has a tape seal around the edges, which he carefully removes and opens the canister carefully. Inside is another reel, this one in much better condition than the previous two. Once again Jet takes the film and examines it by hand. The reel is in immaculate condition.
"Aum impressed Blue, ya actually looked after somethin fer once" comments Jet.
Jet loads the final reel onto the projector, sets the machine in motion and eagerly awaits for the film to begin. The first few minutes are just the set and some mumbled conversation between Junko and Blue can be heard in the background. The voices get louder as the speakers come closer to the camera.
"So you wanted Felicity to do a ballroom sequence? But you already established her fear of performance"
"...I did? But this film calls for a big dance number..."
"Felicity? Who da heck is she?" wonders Jet. He quickly flicks though the script and sees the name Felicity listed, "ah must be ma Baby's character..."
"This isn't like you Blue, you usually do those films with costumed heroes-"
Junko's voice gets louder as she walks into camera shot. She's somehow even more beautiful than Jet remembers her to be.
Blue doesn't say much as he to also gets into shot, his face full of sadness.
"-what's wrong Blue?" She quizzes
Blue sighs
"If you don't tell me Blue, I can't make it better" she responds.
Jet nods and smiles to himself, she used to say that to him every-time he was troubled with something.
"It's my little girl..." Blue sighs
"What about her?"
"...she's just not interested in those hero films and maybe..."
"She'd prefer this kind of movie?" Junko finishes Blue's sentence as he nods in agreement
Junko shakes her head, "maybe the movies aren't for her, you know?"
Blue sighs.
"She's a great kid Blue, you've done great with her, but you know it's time to let her find her own passion in life, we can't all be destined for the movies..." she smiles as she looks at him, "...I'm going to have to give this up soon myself"
"W-what? W-Why?" Blue stutters "you're my best actress!" he exclaims.
"Well it'll be hard to do some many hours in front of the camera with two children..."
"Two? But you've only got..." Blue's face turns quizzical momentarily and lights up as he realises the meaning behind her words.
"Shhhh! I've not told my husband just yet" she beams.
"You told 'im befur me?!" Jet exclaims at the footage.
"And when pray tell, are you going to share this news with him, you little Star you?" continues Blue
"Tonight...he's taking me out to dinner to celebrate our wedding anniversary...he did ask you to mind Joe tonight didn't he?"
"Like Jet would remember something like that" laughs Blue.
"Bite yer tongue Blue" snaps Jet at the screen.
"-of course I will, just drop him off at mine before you go. Him and Silv' get on so well"
"Here's hoping the new little one will too" grins Junko, she pauses as she looks into the camera lens, "hey since when did you leave this rolling?"
Blue looks into the lens, "I didn't...must have been Silv', I'll turn it off-"
The film ends abruptly as the return reel fills up.
"Oh ma Baby..." mumbles Jet
"Papa? Where are you hiding this time Papa?" shouts a teenage girl's voice from elsewhere in the theatre.
"Hey Jasmine Baby!" Jet shouts back "come up 'ere, I've got sometin' ta show ya!"