R as Rewind
"But, Mulder, what are you doing?" Scully yelled from the kitchen when she saw him coming down the stairs, a bunch of cardboard boxes he had found in the attic in his arms. "Mulder, watch your step!"
"As we are confined in our house because of this damn virus, I want to rewatch with you some VHS we had seen together, back in the days. Hoping that the VCR is still willing to play," Mulder replied loudly in a overenthusiastic tone.
"I'm a little concerned that I might have broken it with my Mandela/Twilight Zone episode... You remember? Last time, the VCR spat out this dumb fake TZ Lost Martian VHS..." Mulder added after reaching the living-room. He dropped all the boxes on the coffee table with a heavy sigh.
Scully cautiously stepped towards him with a cup of tea in her right hand and a paper in her left.
"But... Mulder...", she said quietly as if Mulder were a child willing to realize a too big dream, "...Are you sure we would have time? and the desire? I mean... okay we are quarantined in the house, but... we have still work to do. I have a lot of work to do, even more than when I was working outside. I have these papers to write, and these reports to read... and I have..."
"Shh...," Mulder interrupted as Scully was showing him the paper she was holding. "I know, I know... You're busy. I barely see you even when I'm only a few inch away from you. We barely share stuff together these days. Always the nose on your laptop or your phone or your damn papers. You don't even see me anymore."
"No, that's not true... Yesterday, I...we..." Scully replied a bit guilty.
"Shh... No discussion. That's my magic cure to this whole weird situation we are in."
"Really? These old VHS? Do you know we can watch these movies online in a better quality at any time?" Scully asked, resuming her mother-to-a-child tone, and articulating each syllabe of her last sentence.
Mulder sat down on the couch and looked at Scully, shaking his head.
"Scully, you know me better, don't you? A magic cure."
"Magic as in black magic, or as in a magic show?"
"As in charm and enchantment."
"In that old stuff?"
"First, you have to always respect the old stuff. Look at me!" Mulder said to Scully while opening his arms in an invitation to rejoin him on the couch.
Scully smiled back but stayed still, standing a few meters away from the couch. She glimpsed at her paper then heavily sighed.
"I really have to work... But, okay, I'm all ears. Why the magic in this old stuff?"
"There's a lot of magic in it. For instance, the rewind charm."
"Oh no... I see where you want to go. Rewind our memories. Reliving the past. Mulder... That's not us, that's not you. We move forward."
"We can also use the amazing fast forward, of course. Still..."
Mulder made a pause and raised his right index, a sign meaning that Scully would have to take his words seriously.
"Right now, look around you. The world is crazy, spooky, we cannot even know what will be its immediate future. We hear all days frightening words. Covid. War. Death toll. Recession. The Great Depression. Every day our clown in chief makes his brainless stand-up. Do I continue the list?"
"No..."
"Sometimes I wonder if I'd prefer an alien invasion... I would have..."
"No! Don't even start with that!" Scully launched louder than intended.
Mulder raised his two hands and froze, having been caught by Scully and her authoritative FBI mode.
"I surrender. No aliens in this house, I got it. Let me go back to magic spells."
He rummaged in one of the boxes for a few seconds and picked up a VHS.
"Ta-da! Caddyshack!"
"Mulder, no."
"Scully, yes."
"But, you already know..."
"Oh yeah, you don't like it that much. But this old stuff is made of magnetic tape. Mag-ne-tism, Scully. And it was stored above us, and among a lot of other magnetic particles."
"And?" Scully replied, rolling her eyes.
"Who knows what surprises are recorded on it? How many magnetic forces had hit the tape and altered it forever? This VHS was just above our bedroom, Scully... Can you imagine the magnetic fields?" Mulder insinuated with a conspirational face.
"Are you turning completely bat crap nuts?"
Mulder shrugged in return.
"You don't even believe in what you are saying. I can see it in your eyes," Scully said with a big smile, amused now by all this silliness.
Mulder knew he was starting to bring her in his game. He resumed.
"We would be able to only play the scenes you like. There's a few, I know what they are. Or the scenes you missed because last time we watched it you were always gazing at me instead of the screen. Imagining all the things you wanted to do to my body."
"We finally reach the part about the so called 'rewind charm'?" Scully said, quoting the last words with her fingers.
"No... You have to wait for that. Waiting. That's part of the enchantment too. You have to be patient to reach the scenes you want to see. You have to wait and listen to the sound of the VCR spinning its little wheels. Meanwhile your own mind spins its brain wheels. And you are entering in a meditation state, kind of hypnotical with the hum, and you are more within the present time than ever..."
Scully replied nothing but quietly sipped her tea. Mulder rummaged once again in one of the boxes and picked up another VHS.
"The Exorcist! You like it!" he said triumphally.
"Yes, but... I'm not sure I want to watch it currently. And this movie is frightening you. You are always finishing the watch you head hidden into my lap..."
"Yep. And you could play the tape forward or backward, choosing the most frightening scenes. And I would be stucked into your lap, my face against your thighs, dreading the scene that would come next, hearing the hum of the machine spinning its wheels during this suspenseful seconds, reproducing the loud regular sound with my lips against your center, and I would make you vibrate in unison, and I would hold on on your scent, on this specific scent that..."
"Wow, wow, wow!" Scully interrupted. "Here you are again."
Scully drunk her tea while looking at her paper. After a few sips she put down her cup on the coffee table. Meanwhile, Mulder was rummaging again in his boxes. He was losing Scully, losing his game. He had to be fast.
"And now, Planet of The Apes!"
"Because this film is foreseeing our very future, our world and civilization that is falling down right now? Or because there are scientists and doctors? Astronauts and spaceshifts?"
"Or bare flesh and a lot of hair? Okay... let's forget it."
Mulder threw the tape on the floor in the direction of the two other ones that had been subject to the same fate.
"Plan 9 From Outer Space?" Mulder quickly suggested.
"I'm done, Mulder. There's no magic in this movie. I'm going back to the kitchen and I'll work on this paper," Scully said waving her paper in front of Mulder's face.
And then she stepped toward the kitchen, turning her back to Mulder.
"Remember when this specific film made us go on vacation in Hollywood," Mulder said loudly. "Hollywood, Scully! How we discovered Hollywood and its decadence!"
"Bubble baths?"
"And more, Scully... and more... Remember when we came back for the premiere!"
"Mmmhh..." Scully mumbled without watching Mulder.
"Scully, pause!" Mulder suddenly shouted to Scully's back. "I have the remote control of the VCR in my hand."
"Meaning?" Scully replied, remaining still.
"It's my magic wand. The one that can allow me to do the rewind charm."
"Really?"
"Yep. Eject!"
"What?"
"Eject the paper!"
She opened her left hand and let the paper fly away.
"Rewind!"
Scully stepped back to the living room, walking backwards.
"Pause!"
Scully stopped.
"What?"
"You are going too fast. I have to put the slow motion. Slow-mo Rewind!"
"Would you let me play with your magic wand?" Scully asked, her hips sensually swaying while walking at a slow pace.
"Mmmm... You would be able to play with any of my magic wands."
