MOSES LAKE — As the sun set on the Columbia Basin Sunday, a handful of moviegoers trickled into Fairchild Cinemas in Moses Lake to watch “Come Play,” a horror movie about a monster that uses cell phones to terrorize mankind.

The theater reopened last Saturday, nearly eight months after its doors were closed due to the pandemic. The cinema had begun to let patrons in again for weekend viewings, and Sunday was the fifth night it had been open.

It also will be the last for at least four weeks.

On Sunday morning, in the wake of a dramatic surge in coronavirus cases in Washington and nationwide, Gov. Jay Inslee announced that theaters were among the businesses that would have to shutter their doors by midnight Monday, this time for four weeks.

“To get closed again is not fun,” said theater manager Andrew Jenson.

The theater had spent a week before opening just cleaning the facility and setting up a system so that patrons could reserve their seats and easily keep their distance while watching a film, Jenson said. Though the theater had only been allowed around 250 people, 25 percent of the building’s capacity and about half an average weekend’s customers, it had at least been profitable, Jenson said.

Now, Jenson said he’s just glad the theater should be able to reopen in time for Christmas, which is big business for movie theaters.

Other business owners who soon will be banned from having customers inside their buildings are worried about making ends meet. Emmy Winzler, manager at Evolve Fitness in Moses Lake, said the fitness company has been staying afloat by offering online courses and training to its members. Gyms and fitness centers, like movie theaters, will be closed for indoor operations after Monday night by the governor’s order.

Evolve will rely on the online portion of the business until it can reopen, Winzler said – but it won’t be easy to balance the books, she added.

“It will be very, very challenging to make the business profitable,” Winzler said.

Leticia Rodriguez, an immigrant who has owned Moses Lake-based restaurant and nightclub Emperador Azteca for 21 years, spent the day talking with her husband, trying to decide whether they would have to close their doors until December. Under the governor’s order, restaurants and bars will be closed for indoor dine-in service, effective Wednesday.

She’s worked consistently since she was 11 years old, she said, but she shut down her restaurant in March for four months.

She and her husband are getting older and are at higher risk of severe complications for the virus, she said, and she did not want to get herself, her husband or her neighbors sick.

Rodriguez felt that delivery would too risky, as she watched neighbors and community members ignore safety warnings and gather for house parties, and take-out-only cost the business more than just staying closed, she said. She sent her employees home, dipped into savings, and found cleaning work to make ends meet, she said.

“I was lucky to have some savings because I never go anywhere. I just work,” Rodriguez said. “Sooner or later, my savings are going to run out.”

“It’s a nightmare,” she added, close to tears.

While some on Sunday criticized Inslee for ordering the shutdown, Rodriguez put the blame for the shutdown squarely on the shoulders of fellow community members who have flouted the guidance of health officials. Her own grandchildren were infected with the coronavirus after their babysitter hosted a wedding in the babysitter’s backyard, many attendees of which later got sick with the virus, she said.

And while she reopened the restaurant in the summer for limited dine-in service, the nightclub portion of the business, about 50% of their income, has remained closed.

She pointed to a flyer she has saved, advertising a Halloween music festival that was to be held at a local store, in violation of the state’s Safe Start reopening regulations. Videos of the event on social media showed packed crowds without any masks, and there have been others like it since the pandemic began, Rodriguez said.

Meanwhile, Rodriguez is unsure how much longer her own business can survive.

“They don’t care,” Rodriguez said. “Innocent people are dying, and they’re risking family and friends. I worry with my heart for everybody’s safety.”

Emry Dinman can be reached via email at edinman@columbiabasinherald.com.