Emma's Six- The Final Year

Potential Haunted House

Of course, Mum and Mummy decided to investigate a haunted house. Luke and I want no part in it, and neither do the queens, Harry, or James. 'Let's have a sleepover,' Catalina suggests, 'it will be great fun.'
'Let's do it,' I smile. So, for the night Mum and Mummy are away, the queens will come over, and we will have a sleepover.

After Mum, Mummy, Clyde, and Rani leave, we set everything up in our bedrooms. Luke and the officers decided to share while I'm sharing with the queens. We all gather in the living room to choose a film to watch and order pizza. The officers never had pizza before, so it will be a first for them.

Anne finds our massive collection of films, and we spread them out on one of the tables. 'People these days are spoilt for choice,' James says, 'how do you get through it all?'
'We don't,' Catalina says, 'not all of us like the same thing, so we end up not watching all of them together. But we have computers with DVD players, so we can watch them alone.'
'Or use Mr Smith,' Anne adds.
'Mummy will be furious if we do that,' I say, 'let's pick something we all like and watch it in the sitting room.'

We go through everything, and none of us can agree on anything. Eventually, we give up on the idea of watching a film until we find one we've never heard of before. 'What's A Night to Remember?' Luke asks.
'It seems to be Titanic related,' Anne says. 'Of course, it would be.'
'I bet we don't sit through this one either,' Anna says.
'How much are you betting?'
'Five quid?'
'Done.'
'Should we do this?' James asks. 'I still hear those poor people at night. I can never get them out of my head.'
'I never could either,' Harry pats his shoulder, 'and I don't think Emma ever recovered either.'
'It's not something you officers liked talking about,' Jane says, 'actually, we hardly ever talk about it with Emma's older self, but we never act like it didn't happen. We don't need to talk about it because we were all there, and we didn't see the point in dragging it out as we all hurt.'

We watch A Night to Remember, and we do all right- until they start playing Nearer My God to Thee. Once the first notes start playing, Anna starts crying. Jane turns away from the screen, and tears blur my vision. I bury my head in my hands and try taking deep breaths. I can smell the pizza that arrived earlier and the fizzy drinks we have out.
'Can we please stop?' Harry asks. Someone switches the TV off, and I finally lift my head up.

'Should we do something else?' Anne asks, 'monopoly with no rules?'
'I'm not in the mood for chaos,' I say, 'maybe another time.'
'A different game?'
Sky shakes her head. 'No thanks, Anne.'
'A different film?'
'No, thanks,' Jane says, 'I know you're trying to make us feel better, but it's not going to work. It didn't work for the past ninety-seven years.'
'Ninety-seven years.' Anne sits down with us. 'Whoa, it still feels like yesterday.'

After the abysmal sleepover, relief courses through us when Mum, Mummy, Clyde, and Rani return. It seems like the haunted house wasn't a haunted house- it, as usual, was an alien. Who thought?