Ric was particularly animated in expressing his displeasure with the movie.  I hadn’t realized that he felt as strongly as he did as we were watching it.

“I can’t believe that this was the movie that we thought was going to be something special.  It was terrible,” Ric exclaimed.  I could see from his body language in the passenger seat that he was eager for one of us to come to the defense of Quentin Tarrantino.  He was in an antagonistic frame of mind this evening.

Cee rarely spoke up during the aftermath of a movie that had evoked this kind of response.  Kay, however, was nonplussed.

“But you like martial arts movies and you liked Pulp Fiction, didn’t you?  You should have loved this movie.”  Kay said, perplexed at the vehemence of his reaction.

I interjected, “There was another Tarrantino movie that I know you liked, because we’ve talked about it.” I said to Ric. “It’s that Antonio Banderas movie with Salma Hayek.  The one set in a Mexican town?  I can never remember the name of it… but you know what I’m talking about.   “Bandito,” or something like that.”  

“You mean Desperado,” Eric said with a deep sulk in his voice.  “And this was nothing like that.  This movie ended for me as soon as she found a way to get out of the hospital.”  He was turned in his seat so that he could see the three of us as he spoke. 

“It was worse than a comic book,” Ric continued.  “She walks into a Japanese restaurant with a samurai sword and takes on 100 men, who all have swords, and she kills them all???   Was it supposed to be funny?  It’s bad enough that she wakes up after getting shot in the head, but now she is out to get everybody… and they are making two movies out of that???  C’mon!”  He snorted out a derisive laugh to show his complete contempt for the idea. "No way I'm going to watch a sequel!"

I laughed along with him in an attempt to allow the subject to wane.  “So Mr. Lincoln… other than that, just how did you like the play?” 

He cut his eyes at me and gave me a half-hearted grin as both Kay and Cee laughed from the back seat at my attempt to rescue the evening with humor.  The laughter … any laughter, would ease the tension that seemed to have come from nowhere. 

Kay and I had invited them to come to the movies with us.   Having the four of us together again made it seem ... safe.  It had not occurred to us that there might have been something going on between Ric and his wife as well.  

There was no confirmation one way or the other that something was actually wrong.  It was just a feeling.  They were just a tad less touchy-feely and perhaps more quiet than usual.  I don’t know if Kay had thought to ask Cee about it, but I hadn’t asked Ric yet.  I would probably ask him later, but the opportunity hadn’t presented itself yet.  

Actually… if they were having problems now… I didn’t really want to know. 

They did seem pleased that we had gone out this evening.  It had been quite awhile and I think that we had all missed the camaraderie.  And while it was not terribly unusual for Ric to decide to dump all over a movie… this evening he seemed uncharacteristically angry about it. 

I drove back to their home from the theater as planned.  When Cee explained that she wasn’t feeling well due to a severe headache, I think we all saw it as an excuse to comfortably end the evening early.   This was something we never did.  If we needed evidence that the stars were badly misaligned this evening… this was clearly a strong clue. 

We said our goodbyes with the usual hugs all around.  What was unsaid… remained unsaid.  Then Kay joined me up front in the passenger seat, and we left them waving at us as we drove off.    

We drove in silence for a few long minutes.  It wasn’t until we were on the highway, that Kay broke the thick silence. 

“I think Ric doesn’t like action movies with women as the lead characters,” she announced. 

“You know that he would argue that point with you if he were here,” I said. 

“I don’t care,” she countered.   “I’ve seen him get like this before.” 

“Name another movie that brought on a strong reaction like this from him.”

“He makes fun of Xena constantly,” she said as if she knew she had made a point.

“No.  Too easy,” I said.  “You know he doesn’t like that show… and that is not a movie.  Name a movie that proves your case.”

“I don’t know,” she said, flustered after thinking about it for a while. “But I know I am right about this. You help me think of a movie with a strong lead female character.”

I considered it for a bit.  Then I said, “Alien and Terminator are the first ones to come to mind… but I don’t remember his take on either of those.  In fact we didn’t see those movies with them.” 

“It doesn’t make a difference.  Ric likes his women pretty, shapely and feminine.  He doesn’t like to see them on the screen kickin’ ass.”  Kay made this last pronouncement slowly with a somewhat triumphant note, as if she was saying something that she knew that I could not dispute.

She went on to say, “And I know he would never admit it… and Cee is smart enough not to call him on it.”

I looked over at her briefly, and said, “You really think so?  You think it would be a problem for him just because she disagreed?”

She thought about it for minute, and said, “Yes… I do.  And not because he would freak out or anything… but more because he has her so brow beaten with a desire to please him… that she can’t bring herself to do or say anything that she knows is contrary to his way of thinking.” 

I grinned with widened eyes as I said, “Damn girl… I feel like I should be defending my boy here.  Unfortunately, I know him as well as you do.”  I laughed and added, “I know him better than you do… and it doesn’t sound like you're wrong.”  

She laughed along with me.  It was a short laugh.  She was pleased to have found some common ground with me. 

As we pulled into the garage, we shouldered more of the thick veil of silence that had periodically found a home within our group throughout the evening.  As we went into the kitchen… she announced that she was going to have a glass of wine, and asked me if I wanted one.  Then we sat at our dining table and drank a chardonnay that we both liked, while we found opportunities to make small talk. 

I’d had such hopes for the evening.   It felt like it might be a major step in the right direction.  We had not been out together in months, so when she had seemed to warm to my invitation... I had looked forward to the night with anticipation.  Her suggestion to invite Ric and Cee only convinced me that she was still struggling with some issues and wanted to recapture our Movie Night to make it feel like old times. 

It really hadn’t.  We stayed at the table for a good fifteen or twenty minutes after we finished our glasses of wine. 

Then we said good night and went upstairs to our separate bedrooms.