Tuesday's Tales - Ring

Welcome to Tuesday's Tales! This week's prompt is the word "ring". I decided that Eric and his sweetie should take in a certain movie. :)

To read the rest of the stories by some fine authors, visit the Tuesday's Tales Web Site.

Ring

By Elizabeth Black

Eric and I sat down to a chilly snow-laden afternoon in front of the TV. Since the snow was coming down hard, there was a travel ban in the area, and we didn't lose power, we decided to forgo work – we couldn't drive in that muck anyway – and catch a movie.

I pulled a handful of DVDs from the bookcase. We had an entire bookcase devoted to movies.

"How about Fargo?" I asked.

"Are you kidding?" Eric said. "It's cold enough as it is. That movie will make me only feel colder." He hunkered beneath a blanket, sipping a mug of hot cocoa with mini marshmallows on top. I made cocoa for both of us.

"Horror of Dracula"?

"Nah. Something made after 1990."

"The Devil's Backbone?"

"I just watched that a few days ago."

"The Babadook?"

"Not in the mood for that one."

"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation?" I held up the jewel case.

"That movie was horrible. Why on earth do you own it?"

"I didn't buy that piece of dreck. My sister gave it to me for my birthday."

"What's with all the horror movies? Don't we have even one comedy?" He asked.

"'Texas Chainsaw: Next Generation' is a comedy." I pulled out another DVD. "The Ring?"

He sat up, interested. "Is that the American or Japanese one?"

"Japanese. You know I'd never allow that horrid American remake into our house."

"I've never seen it."

My eyes widened in surprise. "You've never seen 'The Ring'"?

"Nope. Is it scary?"

"I thought it was creepy but not all that scary. But it was very unusual for the time. Fun movie with a lot of imitators. Do you know anything about it?"

"Nope. And no spoilers."

"You'll never get a spoiler from me." I opened the jewel case and popped the DVD into the player. "'The Ring' it is."

"This should be fun." Eric said. Then he took a sip of his cocoa. I smiled, leaned over, and wiped his upper lip with my fingers.

"What was that for?"

"Hot cocoa mustache."

"I thought you liked me with a mustache."

"I like you with a beard, when you trim it. With a mustache, you look like Pepe le Pew."

He reached for me. "Haw haw haw. All ze better to zeduce you with, my lurve."

I pulled away with a laugh. "Knock it off, Frenchie."

He giggled and sat back. "So let's get this movie started."

"Let me set the mood first." I lit a few pillar candles and some votives, and then I turned off the lights. Candlelight cast a spooky gloom over our living room. A fire crackled in the hearth. Homey yet spine-tingling.

"You got the popcorn?" Eric asked.

"Red, yellow, or blue?" We always stocked up on gourmet popcorn. We were serious popcorn eaters.

"Blue."

After I popped the popcorn and poured a ridiculous amount of salt and butter all over it, I returned to the living room with the popcorn bowl and a copious amount of napkins. We both snuggled beneath the big, thick Mexican blanket and I hit "play".

I had no idea Eric was such a scardey-cat. The movie creeped him out more than I thought it would. And Eric is no wuss. He munched on popcorn throughout but he didn't take his eyes off the screen. By the time we got to the end, he was beside himself.

"Did you see that?" He yelled as he stood up, spilling leftover popcorn all over the floor. I wasn't about to clean that up. "She just crawled through the freaking TV!"

"Yeah, she sure did."

"I thought for sure they broke the curse, but he forgot the most crucial step."

"How do you like it?"

"This is great. I love unusual horror movies. Not the usual slice and dice crap that bores me to tears. This movie isn't boring."

When we finished, Eric vacuumed up the popcorn that tried to escape, and I washed the bowl and our drinking glasses. When we went to sleep that night, he held me very close, not so much because he wanted to be near me but because he was afraid the ghost was going to climb up the bottom of the bed. I had no idea he was so easy to scare. That gave me lots of ideas.