After two hours of sitting in darkness, the movie was over. The drama was over. Or so he thought. It was time to leave. He stood up slowly and headed toward the exit, the music accompanying the credits providing a nice background. In his left hand was a glass bottle, which had been empty since the first act. As he drew closer to the exit doors, he realised that this bottle had to be disposed of. Luckily, he looked down to his left, and there it was: the bin. He casually went to throw the bottle away, but then a dilemma became apparent. There was not one bin, as he had first thought, but rather two – a waste and a recycling. Suddenly, he found himself frozen in front of the two seemingly similar objects.
Come on, think, he thought. Normally he would seek guidance from the stickers on the front of the bins, showing what materials go into which bin. But there were no such stickers. He tried to recall what he had done the last time he had a glass bottle, but it was no use. Plastic had become the norm. He suddenly felt a disdain towards the artsy independent cinema that insisted on selling glass.
It then became apparent that he had been standing motionless in front of the bins for what must have been 15 seconds. What would the people behind him be thinking? He tried not to let this question linger in his mind. It was just his crippling self-consciousness coming into play. People aren’t as judgmental or even as observant as he thinks. They probably haven’t even noticed. Or maybe they’re all laughing silently at him, just waiting until they can tell their friends about the weird guy at the cinema bins. Maybe one of them will even write a blog post about him for a university course.
No, he snapped himself out of this foolish self-embarrassment. He now realised that it must have been over 20 seconds of stillness now. He knew he had to make the call, and get out of this place. A bead of sweat dripped off his nose, as he made his decision. He slowly bent down, placing the glass bottle on the ground, in between the two slightly different bins. He quickly exited the building, satisfied with his safe and harmless decision.