Page 113 of Christmas at the Movies
A few days later, Nick tried on his Halloween costume in his bedroom. He had decided to go to the party as Luffy, a character from theOne Piecemanga series. He was wearing Mum’s straw hat, a red waistcoat from the back of Dad’s wardrobe and a pair of old jeans he’d cut off at the knee. He added Holly’s yellow scarf as a sash around his waist. Perfect – he looked just like the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates.
Nick had become obsessed with manga after Pam, the local librarian, had suggested he might like it. Most of his classmates had never heard ofOne Piece. But Nick was OK with being different.
Luckily, Nick’s family never made him feel like he had to change or follow the herd. Holly teased him sometimes, but Nick knew his big sister loved him and always had his back. When he’d been in Reception, and was struggling to make friends like Elliot, Holly had made sure nobody picked on him in the playground.
‘If you mess with my little brother, I’ll mess with you,’ she’d warned the other kids fiercely.
‘Come on, Nick,’ called Mum. ‘We need to go and collect Grandma from the station.’
Nick quickly changed out of his costume and hurried downstairs. He was excited to see his grandmother, because she always told interesting stories about her travels around the world. She hadn’t travelled anywhere since the pandemic, though, because of her health problems.
The countryside was ablaze with autumn colour as they drove to the station. The leaves on the trees made Nick think of crayon colours – Antique Brass, Raw Sienna, Brick Red and Burnt Orange. As they drove along, Holly sang the songs fromHairspray. She was playing one of the lead parts, so everyone had to listen to her practising all the time. It made a welcome change from theHamiltonsoundtrack.
Mum lowered her window a bit. The wind whistling through the gap made Nick’s ears hurt. He couldn’t tune out the sound. ‘Can you put the window back up?’ said Nick.
‘Yeah,’ said Holly. ‘It’s cold.’
‘That’s odd. I’m absolutely boiling.’ Mum put the window back up and wriggled out of her jacket.
‘Maybe you’re coming down with something.’ Dad gave Mum a worried look as she flapped her top around to create a breeze.
Mum groaned. ‘I hope not. I’ve booked a tour of Valley Vistas for this afternoon.’
‘Does Geraldine know that?’ asked Dad.
‘No,’ replied Mum. ‘But I’m sure she’ll love it. Pam and Vi say it’s a great place to live and designed for accessibility.’
‘Hmm,’ said Dad. ‘I can’t see Geraldine agreeing to a care home – she’s so independent.’
‘It’snota care home,’ Mum corrected him. ‘It’s a retirement village. She can still be totally independent. I’d just feel a lot better if she was living nearby.’
Nick could feel the worry in his mother’s voice. When Grandma had been ill with Covid, he’d been scared that she would die.
‘I’ll come with you,’ said Holly. ‘I bet I can help persuade Grandma. I’ll tell her that if she moves to Plumdale, she can see more of her favourite grandchild.’ She put her hands under her chin and struck a pose, fluttering her eyelashes.
‘You mean me,’ said Nick.
‘In your dreams,’ teased Holly.
‘I think your cousin Marcus might be her favourite,’ said Mum, as Dad pulled into the station car park. ‘He’s doing a degree in anthropology.’ Their older cousin and his siblings lived in Edinburgh, so they didn’t see much of them.
As they waited on the platform for the train from Bristol, an express train whooshed past on the other side of the tracks. Nick suddenly thought of Elliot, the boy in Reception who loved trains. And then he had a brilliant idea …
‘There’s a little kid in Reception who has autism,’ Nick told the others. ‘He says he doesn’t like going to the cinema because it’s scary.’
‘That was like you when you were little,’ said Holly. ‘Remember when you freaked out when we sawSpider-Manin France – that was totally embarrassing.’
Nick didn’t remember that time, but there had been lots of other movies that had upset him when he was little.
‘Could we maybe do special screenings at the cinema for people like Elliot and me?’ Nick asked his parents.
Dad looked puzzled. ‘How do you mean?’
‘Well … we could keep the lights on low during the movie,’ suggested Nick. ‘And make sure the volume is quieter than usual.’
Dad stroked the stubble on his jaw thoughtfully. ‘That would be easy enough to arrange …’
‘And people could get up and leave if they need to,’ said Nick, getting more and more excited about his idea.
