Emma's Six- The Final Year

Samuel Lloyd

The following Saturday, we decide to call Maria. We've sadly neglected to call her since the Titanic officers started arriving, but we want to change that. 'Hi, Maria,' Luke says.
'Luke, hey. Hi, queens, how have you all been?'
'Great,' Catalina says, 'there are a few people we want to introduce you to.'
'Okay.'
'This is Sky,' Sky hurries over to join us, 'Emma's daughter. This is Harry and James. They're from the Titanic.'
'Wow, that's amazing. No wonder you were busy. How are the aliens doing?'
'There haven't been any Slitheen recently,' I say, 'so at least that's something.'
'Thank goodness for that.' We all say a little about what we've been up to, and Anna mentions the game of monopoly with no rules we played.
'We have to get you to stop; it's getting ridiculous,' Mum says.
'Never gonna happen,' Anne grins.

Alan makes a brief appearance to say hi and to tell us about the aliens they met. 'We met aliens that look exactly like the Fimbles.'
'Seriously?' Luke asks.
'She's winding us up!' Catalina says.
'No, she's not,' Mummy says, 'we met the Zodin before. They're stripy, and they're odd,' Mummy uses her hands to try and explain what she means. We all start laughing, and some of the lights flicker. 'You wouldn't laugh; you really wouldn't.'
'Do you have a light problem there?' Alan asks.
'That's just Sky. She has a habit of playing with the lights when she laughs.'
'Oh, okay.'

We finish the call just as Rani bursts into the attic. 'I found something worth investigating!'
'We've just been talking to Maria,' Luke says. He's about to say something else, but Rani interrupts him.
'Never mind that. Wait till you see what I've found.' Rani has printed out a news article from the Ealing Echo about the lightning at the BT Tower- the problem is, Mum and Mummy have already asked Mr Smith to investigate. Rani hands the news article to Mummy. 'There were these strange lights around the BT Tower. They're saying it was lightning.'
'Rani-' Mummy begins, but Rani cuts her off. This happens a couple more times until Mummy finally interrupts her. 'Rani, it was lightning. Mr Smith checked it out this morning. It was just lightning.'

Rani turns away from us. 'Oh. Right.'
'Maria's been helping aliens hide from the government,' I say.
'What?'
'Haven't you heard?' Clyde asks, 'she's the new Sarah Jane.'
'Oh!' Mummy says.
'Last week, she met aliens who look exactly like the Fimbles,' Luke says.
'What are Fimbles?' James asks.
'It's a children's TV programme,' Clyde explains.
'She was winding us up!' Catalina says.
'Sarah already said we met them before,' Mum says.
'That's cool,' Rani mumbles, and she leaves the attic.

We go back to doing odd activities for the morning. Everything is fine until Mummy gets off the phone. 'Have any of you heard from Rani?' She asks.
'Not since earlier,' Sky says, 'has something happened?'
'Gita just phoned; she said Rani was staying with us all day.'
'Why would she lie to her parents?' Harry asks.
'I don't know. I hope Rani wasn't upset about earlier.'
'What are you on about?' I ask. Luke gets his phone out and tries calling Rani.
'Well, I was rather dismissive about the lightning at the BT Tower.' Mummy walks over to us.
'She's not answering her phone,' Luke says.
'Do you think that's where she's gone?' Clyde asks.
'Sarah told her we'd already looked into it,' Mum says, 'but there's something else going on.'
'Then we better find out what,' Anne says, 'Oh, no! I seem to have left a really important book at Rani's house.' We all remain silent, and Anne looks at each of us. 'You not going to ask what book?'
'That's the lamest excuse if I've ever heard one,' Catalina says.
'But it might just work,' Anne hurries out the door and over the road.

Luke tries calling Rani again, but she doesn't answer. We ask Mr Smith to start searching into news stories that might interest Rani when Anne bursts through the door. 'She got an e-mail,' Anne pants, 'from an old mate. Sam Lloyd, Dalbeattie... missing people. Too many stairs!' Anne gives the printed out e-mail to Mummy, and she reads through it.
'Dalbeattie- Mummy, that's where I grew up! Rani and her parents might have lived there for a few years.'
'But Rani doesn't have a Scottish accent.'
'It could be because they weren't there long. Maybe only a couple of years.'
'I thought I could trust her!' Mummy says.
'Mummy?' I ask.
'Rani's been telling this boy about everything we do!' Mummy folds the e-mail up and approaches Mr Smith. 'Mr Smith, I need you.'

Mr Smith opens up with his regular fanfare, and it's a relief to hear it after the scare we had with Androvax. 'What can I do for you, Sarah Jane?' He asks.
'Sam Lloyd, fifteen. Living in a town called Dalbeattie. Can you find him?'
'Searching...Samuel Lloyd. Born 23rd June 1994. Currently resides in the St Anthony's Children's Home.'
'He's in care?'
'His parents died in a car crash in 2001.'
'Poor kid. Right, come on.'
'Where are we going?' Sky asks.
'Dalbeattie.'
'But that's in Scotland; it'll take hours to get there!'
'Ruby, can you teleport the car over there if we're all inside?'
'Yes.' We all head outside and bundle into the car. Mum hangs onto the handle of the door and teleports us.

We're in an empty car park, and Mummy gets the Sat Nav out so we can find the children's home. Thank goodness one of us has the postcode. Mummy finds the car park to the children's home, and we all get out of the car. 'It's been a long time since I've been here,' Sky says as she looks around. 'Can we explore a bit once we sorted this whole thing out?'
'We'll see,' Mummy says, 'I'll do the talking.' She leads us inside once she locks the car.

A woman is in the entrance, and Mummy heads over to her. 'Hello, we're looking for someone here, Samuel Lloyd.' The woman looks over each of us but stops when she sees Sky and me.
'Emma? Sky?'
'Hello, Mrs Chang,' Sky says. 'It's been a long time.'
'Too long,' Mrs Chang agrees. She looks at everyone. 'You want to talk to Samuel?'
'That's right.'
'He's in his room.' Mrs Chang leads us upstairs.
'Thanks, Mrs Chang,' Mummy says, 'we shouldn't be long.' She knocks on Sam's door.

'It's open,' Sam calls out, then he lists our names as we walk in and looks over at us, almost with a bored expression on his face. He is dressing casually, with a light blue t-shirt and a dark blue hoodie, jeans, and trainers. Sam's lying on the bed with his hands behind his head. His walls are light blue, and he keeps his room tidy.
'Alright, Sammy? How're things?' Clyde holds his hand out for Sam to shake.
'My name is Sam.' Sam sits up but doesn't shake Clyde's hand.
'Yeah. Er, Rani told us about you. Said you were good mates.'
'We were.'
'I know about your parents,' Mummy says, 'it's not easy, is it?'
Sam stands up. 'I was just a kid. I'm fine.'
'My parents died when I was young. I know that it's never fine.'
'I'll tell you where Rani is. You don't have to be nice to me.' Sam stares out of the window, then turns to us. 'She's with her.'
'Who is she?' Sky asks.
'The demon. It's at the fairground, set up a month ago. The people working there left everything behind; it will only be a matter of time before someone comes to take everything away.'

We leave Sam for a while and head outside. 'A demon?' Luke asks.
'Nah, it must be an alien,' Clyde says, 'we've got to get to the fairground and find Rani.'
'Someone should stay here and talk to Sam,' Mummy says, 'he knows more than he's letting on.'
'I'll stay,' Luke offers, 'I think I can get through to him.' Mummy nods.
'Come on, Miss Smith,' Mum says, 'we still need you.' Mummy smiles, and we head off.

'Sky, do you know your way around here?' Clyde asks.
'I've grown up here and visited multiple times since 1985. I know my way around.'
'Are you sure you know where we're going?' We are running through town- it's the only way to get to the other side in a relatively short time.
'I knew we should have brought Luke,' Mummy says, 'he moans less than you.'
'I run faster, though.'
'Hey, we were holding back so you could keep up,' Sky says.
Clyde starts laughing. 'Yeah. Yeah, right, yeah. Hey, Rani's going to be okay.'
'Easy to say,' Mum says, 'and if she isn't, we brought you all into this.'
'Not for us,' the queens, Harry, James, and Sky chorus.
'Like you had a choice,' Clyde says.
'What?' Mummy asks.
'We chose you; you didn't choose us.'
'No, I don't think so.'
'Well, you are getting old, you know, your memory's going.'
'Oh!' Mummy holds her hand out for Clyde to take. 'Come on. Oh, you're not going to take an old lady's hand?' Clyde shakes his head. 'I might fall if you don't.'
'It's all right. I've got my mobile, so we can phone an ambulance if your hip goes.' We continue running, then Sky stops. 'Sky, what is it? We're nowhere near the fairground.' I look over to see what Sky's looking at and stop.

It is the William Murdoch memorial.

Well, it is Dalbeattie. We would've found it, but seeing it... it proves that I have no choice but to go through with history. The memorial is evidence of what happened, of one of the victims who died that night. As much as I hate it, I have to continue, go through all of history and make it out the other side.

But it's also a reminder of my older self. Did she go to the memorial? She can't have moved away because of it; the town would've put it up before 1985. Emma must have left for another reason.

'We should keep going,' Sky finally says, and she leads the group away.