Thriller Report

The Young Aficionado slides a tape into his VCR to watch.  It contains a TV movie he recorded off of TV.  It's titled Killer with Two Faces.  
"I don't know that movie", his English teacher said about it a couple of months ago.  "I can't talk about that one."

The Young Aficionado felt embarrassed at those words.  His blood ran cold from such words coming from a woman with dark brown curls running down to the red turtleneck sweater on her shoulders. 

The teacher's idea was to outline the plots of movies her students had seen.  She wanted to prepare her class to write book reports.

"You know what", his English teacher told him a few days ago, narrowing her eyes and grinning with satisfaction.  "How would you like to write a report on that movie you wanted to talk about that day in class?

"You'd be doing it for extra credit, and you can pick three movies besides that one.  You can do them all at the same time, or spread them out over the rest of the year."

The Young Aficionado glows because his English Teacher wanted so much to make up for the humiliation she caused him in front of the class.  His chest tingles with the joy of accepting his English teacher's offer.

The Young Aficionado pushes play, sits back, and watches the movie.

Two weeks have passed since The Young Aficionado accepted his English Teacher's offer.  He hands in his work to his English teacher.  Today, her dark brown curls touch a navy blue sweater on her shoulders.

The Young Aficionado hopes he can earn extra credit with reports he wrote on four TV movies from England.  They're titled Killer with Two Faces, The Death Policy, Anatomy of Terror, and The Killing Game.

In time, The Young Aficionado will learn that the TV movies about which he chose to write are episodes of an anthology series from England titled Thriller.  He will learn that ITC Entertainment repackaged them as TV movies for worldwide syndication.  He will learn that the very first time they played in the US was on ABC's late-night series Wide World of Entertainment.  He will learn that the original UK episode titles are "Killer with Two Faces", "Lady Killer", "An Echo of Theresa", and "Where the Action Is".

Right now, at the end of another school day, what matters to The Young Aficionado is that he earned his extra credit.  

Right now, what matters to The Young Aficionado is that he's found relief from the embarrassment he suffered that day when his English Teacher used movies to explain to her class how to write a book report.  

Right now, what matters to The Young Aficionado is that he's had the sense to make up for words he spoke in anger a few weeks ago.

Right now, The Young Aficionado celebrates a narrow escape from big trouble with his school's entire faculty.

Right now, The Young Aficionado finds freedom in realizing his teachers care about his education and giving civilization hope for a future. 

Gone is his burden of anger because it seemed to him that his teachers wanted money for loitering on school property.

Original pen date:  November 25, 2019

Reviews

[Lydia Shutter]

I took this as a story about a young man infatuated with his teacher. He notices what she wears and her hair. Extra credit is his if he writes reports on the movies he chooses. He avoids punishment from the administration and is at peace. No more anger. Have to say, the last line did not make sense to me. Loitering? who was loitering? Was he looking in the classroom window? In any case, good writing. Lydi*

[Jerry Ables]

Thank you, Lydi, for your time and comments. The part about loitering on school property is from another story that I haven't written down as of yet. Richest blessings to you and yours! :)

[Jerry Ables]

Although I do have a poem posted on here titled Loitering on School Property, which I wrote back in 2009.