the moviegoers

harry and smith were brothers. or at least people thought they were. they were two old men who lived in a run-down house on the outskirts of town. they didn’t do much except sit around and sometimes watch television. once a week harry drove to the mall and picked up some supplies. on most of his trips he treated himself to a big mac or a whopper at mcdonalds or burger king. and fries and a large black decaf. smith never seemed to leave the house. smith watched a little more television than harry. if harry was watching he would sometimes change the channel. smith never did - he just watched whatever was on when he turned it on. they both spent long hours just staring into space. and went for long periods without speaking to each other. once they went for four years, seven months, and ten days without speaking and at another time four years, two months and three days. as run down as their house was, and as remote from the mall and the town, it was still under constant surveillance, like everything else on the planet. harry’s and smith’s existences were monitored by larry and eddie, two employees of the surveillance company. harry and smith were just about larry and eddie’s favorite assignment, as they did not require much maintenance and only needed to be checked from time to time. their tapes could be run through very quickly. after a long day of watching their fellow humans, larry and eddie liked to relax when their shift was over by going to the movies. sometimes they went together, but more often separately because their tastes differed somewhat. larry liked action movies, with macho heroes and lots of explosions and car chases. eddie liked almost anything except romantic comedies. he liked animated features. he liked the coen brothers movies. jennifer lawrence was his favorite actress. eddie wished jennifer lawrence would make a movie with the coen brothers.