“If you run short, you’re going to have to sell a lot of books, but we’ll worry about that later,” Barney said. “There are a number of people still in town who would remember the theater. I’ll give it some thought, come up with a list of people you should talk to.”
“That would be great. Thanks, Barney.”
“Wow, did you ever see so many cobwebs in your life?” Nikki went to her mother’s side and pulled a web from Allie’s hair. “They’re, like, everywhere. You could have an epic Halloween party in here.”
“That would be fun,” Cara agreed. “Maybe some of those old spooky sci-fi films Barney talked about are still around.”
“There are a lot of those reels in here,” Allie said.
“Oh, I could inventory the films,” Nikki said excitedly. “That could be my first job as your intern.”
“That’s an excellent idea, Nik.” Des picked up a metal container and was disappointed to find it empty. “At some point, we’ll have to decide what to do with them. We could sell them, or—”
“No!” Nikki protested. “We should show them here in the theater.”
“What are the chances the projector still works?” Cara asked.
“It can be fixed, right, Aunt Barney?” Nikki looked to her great-aunt. “And when we show them, you can run the projector. Maybe you could even teach me how.” Nikki grinned. “How cool would that be?”
“Very cool, I’m sure,” Barney told her. “Keep that thought on the back burner for now. There’s a long way to go before you can even think about showing films here.”
“Right now, I’m thinking about lunch,” Cara said. “I’ll be coming back later to meet with Joe and the structural engineer, so I’m ready to head back to the house if anyone else is.”
“Oh, look at the time.” Barney hoisted her bag higher on her shoulder. “One of my high school friends invited me and some others for lunch today. Unless I leave now, I won’t have time to get cleaned up.” She held up her hands, which were dirty from the projector.
“I wanted to see more.” Nikki frowned.
“We can come back,” her mother said, “but I’ve had enough for one day. I’ve inhaled so much dust my throat is dry.”
Nikki reluctantly returned the film cases to the closet. “I’m coming back with a notebook to make that list.”
“Later.” Allie steered her toward the door, and they all followed.
By the time lunch was over, Cara had little more than an hour before she expected to return to the theater. She cleaned up and changed her clothes in anticipation of the meeting with the engineer, and when she came back downstairs, she heard voices in the living room. She peered in to find Nikki and Allie on the sofa, Nikki’s iPad open in front of them.
“What’s going on?” Cara asked.
“We’re looking at the interiors of other old theaters. There are a number of them around the country of the same era as ours, though not many are still being used,” Allie said.
“I saw that one when I looked up stuff. It’s in Kansas. It has a fancy marquee out front. Oh, and that one, I remember that one. It’s the Saenger Theater in New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina destroyed it, but it was rebuilt.” Nikki reached past Allie to scroll the tablet’s screen. “Some of these were already restored, and they use them for concerts and stuff. I think that’s the coolest thing. Like this one? It’s in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Their orchestra plays there. See the floor? It’s like mosaic. Will ours be used for anything?”
“I don’t know. I guess that will be decided by someone else.” Allie shrugged.
“Like who? You and Aunt Des and Aunt Cara own it, right? So you should decide.” Nikki looked first to her mother, then to Cara.
Before Cara could respond, Allie said, “Nikki, your grandfather’s will only called for us to renovate it. Nothing else. Nobody’s talking about using it for anything.”
“But what’s the point in doing all that work if the theater just sits there?” Nikki made a face. “That seems pretty stupid to me.”
“Not our problem.” Allie went back to her tablet.
Cara watched the interplay between mother and daughter with interest.
“That would be the biggest bummer ever.” Nikki was still frowning. “Did you see the ceiling in the lobby? It’s like . . . gorgeous. I was at this theater once, in Hollywood? It was brand-new and the ceiling was all painted like that? But it was a copy, and this is the real thing.”
“Honey, no decisions have been made about anything concerning the theater,” Cara said. “We’re still figuring out what work has to be done to make it safe and bring all the systems up to code and working again. Those things take time.”
“It would just stink to do all this work and then just close it up again.”
“Too soon to worry about it, like Cara just told you,” Allie said. “We’ll worry about what to do with it when the time comes.”
“I think you know you’re not going to do anything with it,” Nikki said as she started out of the room, “except sell it. Which would stink.”
“Nikki, when it’s finished, we’re all going back to our lives,” Allie told her. “I’m coming back to California and Des is going back to Montana and Cara is going back to New Jersey. We’re only here to renovate the theater.”
“That’s so dumb. Why did Grampa make such a stupid will? Why would he want you to fix it up and then just leave it?” Nikki stood in the doorway, her hands on her hips, her face flushed. “And what about Aunt Barney? You’re just going to leave her by herself?”
Allie shrugged. “Nik, Aunt Barney has lived here by herself for a long time. I’m sure she’ll be fine.”
“I’m sure she’ll be lonely.” Nikki stomped out of the room. Seconds later, Cara heard her footsteps overhead and the slamming of a door.
“Teenagers,” Allie mumbled. She looked at Cara. “Want a kid?”
When Cara arrived at the theater, Joe was outside talking to the electrician.
“Mack has good news,” Joe told her.
“Great. I love good news.” Cara joined them under the marquee.
“All the circuits are now on the control panel. We still need to figure out what’s on which circuit, but we’re working on that. The wiring was already replaced, as you know, so if all goes well, we might be finished by the end of next week.”
“Everything?” Cara asked. “The stage lights, the chandelier . . . ?”
“Well, not those,” Mack said. “You’re going to have to find special bulbs for the chandelier, and it should be rewired. You’ll probably have to send it away to have that done, unless you can find someone locally who has worked with things like that in the past. Me, I’d be afraid of breaking it, and besides, rewiring old fixtures is not my thing. You’re going to want to replace the stage lights with newer ones. I can do that once you decide.”
“You’ll have to come back later anyway,” Cara said. “The marquee is going to need work, and there’ll be new fixtures in the bathrooms once those are completed.” She thought for a moment. “And the office and the hall and the projection room . . .”
“You just let me know when you have all that together, and I’ll send a crew over.” Mack handed Joe an envelope. “Invoice for the past week.”
Joe handed it to Cara without opening it. “Here you go.”
“Thanks.” Cara slipped it into her bag. “Mack, would you be able to rewire some of the fixtures from the lobby? I love the sconces on the wall, but I imagine they’ll need some updating.”
Mack nodded. “If I can’t, my son can. I’ll be back tomorrow and we can take a look at them.” Mack started toward his truck, waving as he walked away.
Cara turned to Joe. “Is the engineer here?”
“Not yet.”
She took the envelope out of her bag. “Did you already see this?”
He shook his head no.
“Still trying to show the subs who’s in charge?” she asked.
“Sort of,” Joe said. “A job
this size, I want them to know that I’m looking over their shoulders, but someone is looking over mine as well.”
“Got it. And once again, appreciated.” She handed him Mack’s bill. “But I don’t know how to tell if we’re being overcharged.”
He handed it back. “I’ll show you.”
“When?”
“Tomorrow. Meet me here around one,” he said. “Oh, and now that we have light, the HVAC people can come in. I’ll give them a call tonight. The roofer comes in on Thursday.”
“You’ve been busy.”
“You betcha.” Joe made no effort to hide the fact that he was feeling pretty smug. “Give me a title and I’m all in.”
“How many hours did all that take?” Cara knew hiring him on as project manager had nothing to do with his diligence. He’d been working on lining up contractors for the past week.
“Fewer than you might think.”
An SUV pulled up out front and parked. Seconds later, a man with a full head of dark hair and wearing dark glasses hopped out.
“That’s Tom Allen, the engineer.” Joe waved a greeting, then said softly to Cara, “He’s a tough nut, doesn’t miss much, but that’s what we need here. If the structure is bad, if there are cracks in the foundation, we have serious problems.”
Joe made the introductions; then he and Cara accompanied the engineer into the building and watched as Tom examined the foundation inside and out, inspected the walls, and tested the ceiling joints. After almost two hours, Tom told them he’d have a report for them by the following Monday.
“But I can tell you that I didn’t see anything that alarmed me. There is that hole in the back wall, but that’s not affecting the building’s structure. The foundation is solid—a couple of insignificant cracks here and there that you can fill. All in all, she’s in remarkable condition for a building her age. Maybe having her boarded up for so many years has helped preserve her.”
“We’ll look forward to your report,” Joe told him as the three of them walked out.
Once the engineer drove away, Cara exhaled. “That couldn’t have gone better. I can’t wait to tell Des and Allie. They’ll be as relieved as I am.”
“We’re not out of the woods yet. I don’t know for sure, but I won’t be surprised if the roofer tells us the entire thing needs to be replaced. It’s old and it’s already been roofed over two or possibly three times.”
“And I guess the heating and air-conditioning will be a big ticket.”
Joe nodded. “There is some duct work, but there’s never been AC in here. And we’re going to have to decide what type of heat will be most efficient. Those will be big items.”
“Speaking of big tickets, we still don’t know what you’re charging us to be our project manager.”
He took a small pad from his back pocket and wrote a number on it, then handed it to Cara.
“That’s your number?” It was less than she’d have thought, but it was still a lot of money.
“I told you I’d be reasonable. That’s a reasonable number for the amount of time I have to spend here and all the meetings I’m going to have to go to.”
“I’ll run it past the others and let you know.” Cara tucked the slip of paper into her pocket.
“You do that.”
“I guess we can talk about it tomorrow. I’ll see you at one.”
“Right. I’ll be here.”
Cara could feel his eyes following her as she walked to her car. She hated knowing that someone—anyone—was staring at her rear.
All the same, she hoped he was enjoying the view.
After dinner, they all met in the living room for what Nikki called a “state of the theater” meeting.
“Joe wants a hundred grand to be our project manager,” Cara said, opening the meeting.
“What?” Allie frowned. “I hope you told him we’d have to negotiate that number.”
Des tapped her pen on her notebook. “I don’t know. He has a lot of responsibility. And he’s been there every day.”
“Joe’s the guy you were talking to this morning, right?” Nikki asked.
Cara nodded.
“Aunt Cara, he is hot. Boy, if I were old, like you? I’d be there, if you know what I mean.”
“I get the gist.” Cara smiled. “Old as I am.”
“We all agree he’s hot, sweetie,” Des said to Nikki. “Right now we’re talking about how much to pay him, which has nothing to do with where he lands on the hotness scale.”
“He does spend a lot of time there. He’s lined up all the subs and he’s got all of them writing up estimates for their work. The exterminator is almost finished and the electrical work is nearing completion. At least, as much as can be done right now,” Cara said. “He’s going to be supervising the entire job.”
“Then what are you doing?” Allie asked.
“I’m trying to learn as much as I can from him. Obviously, I’m in no position to do what he’s doing, but he’s willing to teach me enough that I can converse with the subs and I can come back and report to you with some semblance of understanding.” Cara turned to Allie. “You don’t really expect him to do all that for nothing, do you?”
“All things considered, I think he’s giving us a break on the price.” Des looked at Barney. “What do you think?”
Barney shrugged. “I don’t have a vote.”
“But you have an opinion.” Des grinned. “And you know you’re dying to express it.”
“Well, from my experience at the bank, I think he’s undercharging you by a good third.”
“Really?” Cara frowned.
“Really.” Barney nodded.
“So we should pay him more,” Des said. “It’s only fair.”
“I agree. So we raise Joe’s overall compensation to one hundred fifty thousand dollars. Any objections?” Cara looked directly at Allie, who merely shrugged.
“One fifty it is.” Des made a note in her book, then glanced up at Cara. “Anything else to report?”
Cara shook her head no.
“So, Allie?” Des gestured for her to begin.
“Nikki and I have spent the afternoon doing research. We have a list of companies that reproduce paint colors. I’m hoping it’s historically acceptable to touch up here and there on the walls in the lobby. At some point, we might want to contact one of the universities that have an art conservation department to take a look at the ceiling,” Allie said. “We also have a list of companies that sell theater drapes and seats. We’re going to go seat by seat and see what needs to be replaced.”
“Maybe some of them only need repair,” Des noted.
“We’ll look them all over carefully. If we have to replace them all with the same type of velvet, it could cost us. Today’s theater seats are smaller, narrower, and nowhere near as cushy. We’d probably have to have them custom-made, in which case we’re going to have to decide between cost and authenticity.”
“I’m going to help Mom with that,” Nikki told them proudly. “This is so seriously cool. I can’t believe I have the chance to do something important like this.”
“Like what, Nik?” Des asked.
“Like, you know, help restore a historic building. That’s like, epic, you know? I mean, how many kids get the chance to do that? How many kids’ families own a historic theater? Court was so jealous when I told her. Like, she’s sending me pictures of her on the beach, and I’m going to send her pictures of our theater. You just can’t compare the experiences, you know?”
“I do know.” Nikki was so sincere, so enthralled by the idea of the theater, so eager and determined to be a part of it, Cara couldn’t help but smile.
“Oh, and that stained glass? The little theater masks? That would make the coolest tattoo ever.” Nikki’s voice was reverent.
“No tattoos,” Allie said without looking up from her notebook.
“Mom, lots of kids have tats, but this would be meaningful. Like, it’s my heritage, you know? Like, the theater is in my bl
ood,” Nikki said dramatically.
“We’re lucky you had this time to spend here, Nik,” Des told her. “There’s going to be a lot of work involved. We want everything to be authentic, and we want to preserve as much as we can.”
The four adults in the room suppressed smiles.
“So in keeping with that thought, I have a list of books about renovating historic theaters. I’m going to order a few—Des, you can reimburse me for those—and I can see if the local library has some of the others, though I doubt it. Maybe one of the local colleges would have more. I’m also going to contact an organization that can give us tons of information. It’s called . . .” Allie looked through her notes. “The League of Historic American Theatres.”
“I’m going to take pictures every day. I can’t wait to send them to Courtney so she can see. She’s going to be so jealous.” Nikki appeared to be thinking out loud.
“What’s Courtney doing this week?” Allie asked.
“Mostly she’s surfing, but I just got a text from her. She has to babysit her dad’s girlfriend’s five-year-old. Court said he’s a total brat and she hates him and she hates her father’s girlfriend because she’s a bitch.”
“Watch your language, miss,” Allie said.
“Sorry, Mom.”
“Where’s Courtney’s mother?” Allie tried to appear casual.
“Oh, she went to London for some conference. I forget what it’s about, but she got told at the last minute that she had to go, so that’s why Court got shipped off to her dad.”
The silence in the room could not have been thicker.
“London. What a coincidence. Isn’t your father in London?” Allie asked casually.
“Yes, but he’s not going to be in the same part of the city, he said.”
“Oh. Pity.” Allie rolled her eyes. Cara could see the steam rising behind them.
“Yeah. That would’ve been fun for them, but I guess they’ll both be busy.”
“I just bet they will,” Allie muttered.
“Lucky for me, though, right? If Dad didn’t have to go on this trip, Court would be at her dad’s place and I’d be home alone.”
“Don’t you have other friends?” Allie asked.
The Last Chance Matinee Page 25