My mom’s friends had come from China, and we had taken them to Galveston to visit the island. One of the attractions that my mom really wanted to take us to was the Titanica IMAX movie at the Moody Gardens.

The Titanica movie was a movie that showed the discovery of the Titanic in it’s sunken place in the ocean. It was showed on one of the biggest screens in the world: a 6 story by 10 story screen. I couldn’t wait to see the movie.

We had arrived at Moody Gardens a few hours ago but they had told us the next showing for the Titanica movie was at 9’ o’clock at night. So we had grudgingly left, and now we were sitting in the gigantic room, waiting for the movie to begin.

Ambient music played in the background and dim lights shown on us as we got comfortable in the chairs. There were many rows of seats, but there were only around 20 people in this late showing of the movie. Each group got a row to themselves.

But now the lights dimmed until there was no more light, and the music stopped. The movie began.

Halfway through the movie, I turned to explain what the narrator was talking about, since neither of the ladies from China understood English. I was about to talk when I noticed that one of them had fallen asleep.

She was plump and had probably become bored as she watched the movie, feinting interest. But she could feint no more. She had fallen asleep. The other lady, however, was thinner and did not fall asleep as easily. She was listening avidly to my mother’s translations.

At this point, in the movie, the submarine exploring the Titanic bumped into one of it’s doors slightly. In the large IMAX theater room, the loud thump echoed through the room and woke a startled lady who had just fallen asleep. A lady who was sitting next to me.

As we walked out of the room after a satisfying movie, I asked her why she had fallen asleep. She answered, “I didn’t understand a word of what they were saying.”

That night, she didn’t sleep very well on the bed. She just wouldn’t fall asleep. Eventually she did, but that was late in the night. It might have had to do with the loud air conditioner, but I think it was that doze during the Titanica movie…