The lights dimmed to darkness and the curtains began to part. Marilyn, to my right, placed her hand on my arm. I was so glad to see her again, and I gave her a kiss on the cheek. I was anxious to speak with her, but this was not the time. Our eyes met, then turned towards the giant, sloping projection-screen. The screen was amorphous, and though it was currently a comfortable oblong, it would change shape according to the moods and scenes of the soon-to-begin film. Never before had such a device been tested, and, accordingly, the theater was packed to an anxious capacity.

At the top of the hour, the film began. The opening scene was a flashback, depicting Herman, the protagonist, as a high-school nerd. The screen became square. After graduation, as Herman left on his cross-country road trip, the screen stretched horizontally to convey the great distances traveled. In Chicago, it rose tall like a skyscraper. In Montana, it grazed and galloped like a buffalo. In Arizona, it curved to an organ-pipe cactus.

When Herman, hugely drunk at a college bash, began wobbling on his feet and retching into a hotel bathtub, the whole theater erupted into laughter as the screen began warping and wavering. Later, during a lovemaking-scene, the screen pulsed along with the couple's rhythms, lolling, swaying, and bouncing. Afterwards, it wavered like cigarette smoke.

A gasp of approval rose from the audience when, in a bad-weather scene, the screen split into thousands of mini-screens, mimicking the raindrops, each microcosm a fraction of the whole picture. During the tense chase scene, the screen became car-shaped and raced back and forth from one end of the backdrop to another. At the climactic and confrontational showdown, the screen became a jagged, tilted, tensely desperate but afterwards calming shape which eventually returned to its initial oblong.

Finally, as Herman walked off into the sunset with his wife and just-born baby daughter, the screen shaped itself into a big, happy, satisfying smile. "Aww..." sighed the audience, Marilyn and myself included.

The lights switched on, and everyone began to stretch. Marilyn and I stepped into the aisle, arm in arm. As I smiled into her eyes, I realized I was absolutely falling for her -- falling absolutely hard and fast -- and my fall was as exciting as it was speedy, as blissful as it was complete.

"Howzabout some dinner, Johnny-man? I hunger, know what I mean?"

"Totally!" I pulled her closer. "And I know just the dish that would satisfy your wish..!"