But despite not spending a significant amount of time together over the past year, I knew that my friendships with Bert and Lynne were the kind that w...ould never require frequent visits. We’d see each other whenever we saw each other; and we’d feel just as comfortable around each other after a long absence as we would if we’d met up only yesterday. Lifelong friends are like that, you know?Still, getting Bert to come out and play basketball made for a good excuse to visit, and I leaned in to peck. James arrived at the theater at 11:02pm. Twenty-eight minutes before the doors were to open. The line for the midnight showing stretched around the building and into the darkness. Disgusted, James left his folding chair in the car and trudged to the very end of the line, somewhere just west of Siberia. Standing out there James couldn't even talk to the group in front of him, they were all Japanese and spoke no English. What they expected to get out of the movie was anyone's guess but James. No, daddy, no, she begged. What happened next, reflected back in its full glory from the full length mirror, shocked me a hundred times more than the moment Id hit the ground earlier. My mouth fell agape as suddenly Ray reached out to Allys slender wrists, pulling her to him. A whimper met the onslaught, combined with a token yet fruitless struggle. Powerless to resist Ally was hauled across her fathers firm knee as he took to a wooden chair. My eyes bulged as her corduroys were wrestled down. That would prevent whatever was inside from escaping, and I could then adopt either of the simpler solutions.Sitting on the floor, I cast the spell for a spherical Defensive Shell and expanded it to a hundred feet in diameter, which should be more than sufficient to contain the resident of the cell. On rising to my feet, I cast another spell to disable the Magic canceling spell in the walls and threw it at the wall here in the corridor. There was a loud 'POP' as the spell in the walls.