Page 52 of Christmas at the Movies

‘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 from Hairspray.

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 the Hamilton soundtrack.

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’s not a 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 saw Spider-Man in 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.

‘People can do that anyway,’ Mum pointed out.

Nick thought about all the times he’d had to take a time-out. He always felt self-conscious when he got up and left. ‘Yeah, but at special sensory-friendly screenings people wouldn’t have to feel embarrassed about disturbing everyone else in the audience.’

‘True,’ agreed Mum.

‘And we would only show nice movies,’ added Nick. ‘Nothing that will upset people.’

Holly frowned. ‘Different people get upset by different things. I hate spiders, but you don’t mind them.’

Whenever there was a spider in Holly’s room or in the bathtub, she made Nick get rid of it. He would trap it under a cup and let it out in the garden.

‘Maybe we can provide content warnings,’ said Mum. ‘So people know in advance what to expect.’

‘So can we do all that?’ asked Nick hopefully.

Mum and Dad looked at each other and then nodded.

‘It’s a wonderful idea,’ said Dad. ‘Cinema should be for everyone.’

Mum gave Nick a hug. ‘I’m so proud of you, sweetheart. I wish we’d thought of this ourselves when you were little.’

‘Yeah, it’s a really good idea, Nick.’ Holly tousled her brother’s hair affectionately.

‘Did you have any ideas about what movies we should show?’ asked Mum.

Nick grinned. He knew exactly what the first movie should be. ‘The Polar Express.’

He couldn’t wait to tell Elliot about the sensory-friendly screening the next time he saw him at school. And perhaps he was imagining it, but Nick thought he could hear Santa’s bell ringing in the distance.