{"id":8692,"date":"2012-07-09T22:30:28","date_gmt":"2012-07-10T03:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/?p=8692"},"modified":"2012-07-09T22:30:28","modified_gmt":"2012-07-10T03:30:28","slug":"sweet-popcorn-gal-part-ii4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/?p=8692","title":{"rendered":"Sweet Popcorn Gal, part II.4"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center>***<\/center><\/p>\n<p>The bottle of scotch was almost empty.  As the waiter refilled his glass, the writer grinned happily. &#8220;This is one advantage of a fictional coffee house.  Where I come from, the strongest thing on the menu is double espresso.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Definitely a perk,&#8221; the woman said.  &#8220;If we&#8217;d been drinking this before, we&#8217;d probably have written an even better song.&#8221;  She gazed fondly at the man by her side.<\/p>\n<p>The man by her side smiled back. &#8220;I think we already make beautiful music together.  Hey, did that sound as corny as I think it did?&#8221;  He waved to the waiter, gesturing toward his glass. The waiter promptly obliged.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know,&#8221; the writer said.  &#8220;That song was ok, but I actually preferred the other ones.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The woman looked at him quizzically.  &#8220;What other ones?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You know,&#8221; the writer said, &#8220;the songs in the first act.  The song about the Beatles was really clever.  But to tell you the truth, the one about scary things was my favorite &#8212; a real hoot.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>They were both staring at him now.  &#8220;We were singing?&#8221; the man asked.<\/p>\n<p>The writer stared back. &#8220;You really don&#8217;t know, do you?  Oh right, of course.  There are rules about these things.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Rules?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Yeah, remember all those Hollywood musicals?  They didn&#8217;t <i>know<\/i> they were singing, unless&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Unless, in the plot, they were deliberately writing a song,&#8221; the woman finished for him. &#8220;Oh my.&#8221; she turned to the young man at her side.  &#8220;We really <i>do<\/i> make beautiful music together.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The writer contemplated the man and woman, who were now holding hands and gazing fondly into each other&#8217;s eyes.  &#8220;I guess things are going well for you two.  So what about the boyfriend?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Oh, that wasn&#8217;t me,&#8221; she woman shrugged.  &#8220;That was the character.  I actually don&#8217;t have a boyfriend, fictional or otherwise.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>There was a sudden noise behind them.  They all turned toward the door, only to see a woman in a red dress glowering angrily.  &#8220;Yeah, but I have a boyfriend.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The writer turned visibly pale as she fixed him a stern look.  &#8220;You and I,&#8221; she said, &#8220;have a few things to talk about.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>*** The bottle of scotch was almost empty. As the waiter refilled his glass, the writer grinned happily. &#8220;This is one advantage of a fictional coffee house. Where I come from, the strongest thing on the menu is double espresso.&#8221; &#8220;Definitely a perk,&#8221; the woman said. &#8220;If we&#8217;d been drinking this before, we&#8217;d probably have &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/?p=8692\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Sweet Popcorn Gal, part II.4&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8692"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8692"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8723,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8692\/revisions\/8723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}