I buy two cinema tickets so no stranger sits beside me

Dear Delyara, I started buying two cinema tickets after my wife died. At first, it was because I could not tolerate a stranger sitting in her usual seat. She always sat on my left because she liked holding the popcorn with her right hand. Two years later, I still buy both seats. Online booking makes it easy. Nobody asks. I arrive early, place my coat beside me, and for two hours it looks as though somebody is expected. Tonight, an employee came in after the film started and asked whether the empty seat was taken because the screening was almost full. I said yes. He apologized. I spent the rest of the film staring at my coat. My wife is dead. The seat is not taken. It is empty because I paid money to make emptiness private. My children think I enjoy going to the cinema alone. I tell them it keeps me busy. The truth is, I choose dark rooms full of strangers because everybody faces forward and nobody notices that the man beside an unused seat occasionally turns his head toward it when something funny happens.