It started with a whisper you heard while in line at a coffee shop, a story you probably should have ignored. But the rumor stuck in your head like a song, it plagued you like an unsolved riddle. Until, at last, it led you here. A parking lot, which had clearly not paid attention to the weather report.

They said it would be all stars, no clouds tonight, but you feel the rain on your toes. The wet hits in eager droplets as you dash across the pavement in sandals. Around you, streetlamps flicker, a staticky chorus to your damp footfalls.

You’re not out of breath, but you slow, stopping under a marquee. The words COMING SOON sizzle in red block letters, throwing neon shadows on a retro cashier’s booth, covered in washed-out posters for attractions that have already come and gone. Veronica Lake’s name splashes across the top of one poster in faded yellow letters, while a black-and-white Loretta Young smiles at you from another. Loretta’s poster is for A Night to Remember, and you hope tonight will be one of those nights.

You don’t know for certain if the stories are true, but you half expect to fall through a rabbit hole as you step through the theater door into the lobby.

Your excitement varnishes everything in an extra layer of shine. On your right, there’s a bank of gleaming pay phones in neat wood and glass boxes. You’ve never seen a line of so many. You’re almost tempted to snap a photo, but you don’t. And you couldn’t have even if you’d tried. By now your phone is no longer working, though you don’t know that yet. You’re suddenly too distracted by the ancient concession stand to your left, where the dust looks like nostalgia and you barely notice the chips in the gold paint that make up the art deco border of geometric suns and jumping dolphins.