In the house Zack was revelling in the fact the police had visited and the house had apparently been robbed. He turned to his little sister and said, ’You could have been murdered in your bed in the middle of the night, do you realise that?’ causing little Lucy to burst out crying and run to her mother.
Zack burst out laughing instead and ran upstairs to play on his computer where he had a pirated copy of an18+ certificate game in which the player had to shoot innocent people in the streets, rob banks and run a prostitution racket. It was Zack’s favourite game and he had become a fast and expert player. He had only just loaded the game when he heard his mother’s call from downstairs.
‘Zack,’ she shouted, anger in her voice. ‘What have you been saying to Lucy? She’s sobbing her heart out, now you come down here this minute and apologise to her. And where is your brother? Is he up there with you?’
‘Dunno where he is,’ replied Zack.
‘Well find him and you come down here immediately.’ She felt exasperated just talking to Zack these days.
When she finally managed to assemble her children in the conservatory Rebecca took a stern and serious tone with them. ‘As you are aware,’ she said, ‘The police have been here because we may have had a break-in during the night and many different things have been stolen.’
‘What kind of things?’ piped up Zack.
‘It doesn’t matter what things Zack. Now pay attention. Your father and I have been assured that there is nothing to worry about so I don’t want anyone alarmed, and that means Zack, that I don’t want you alarming Lucy with your silly ideas. Have I made myself clear?’
They all nodded, except Zack who was looking out of the window and thought he saw something happening round by the dustbin.
‘Zack,’ shouted his mother, ‘Stop day dreaming. I said, have I made myself clear?‘.
‘Yeah mum,’ he mumbled.
‘Right, well I think we should all play a game,’ said Rebecca. ‘A nice family game we can all enjoy.’
‘I was playing a game upstairs,’ answered Zack.
‘Not one of your awful computer games Zack. Something we can all enjoy. How about Monopoly?’
‘Oh no,’ said Zack under his breath, looking at his brother Jake and sticking two fingers down his mouth pretending to make himself sick. Jake started giggling.
‘Jake, you go and find the board for us, there’s a good boy. Lucy and I will play on the same side. That’ll be nice, won’t it darling?’ she said to her daughter, who finally smiled.
‘But mum….,’ said Zack.
‘No buts Zack. For once you are going to learn how to join in with this family. Now run along with Jake and get the board. It’ll be nice for us to play a game together for once, besides it looks like it’s going to rain.’
‘Mummy,’ said little Lucy, ‘Why didn’t we have any juice for breakfast? The juice machine is my friend.’
‘Because darling, we couldn’t find the juicer. Don’t worry we’ll get a new one. Now who do you want to be when we play Monopoly? Would you like to be the old boot again?’
‘But mummy Jenny was my friend,’ continued Lucy. ‘She wouldn’t go without saying goodbye. Did the naughty men take her?’
‘I don’t know sweetheart, but you’ve got lots of other nice imaginary friends you talk to.’
‘But Jenny wasn’t imaginary mummy, she was my friend. I used to talk to her and Sam. Has Sam gone as well?’
‘I don’t know who Sam is darling,’ said Rebecca getting a little exasperated. ‘Oh look here are your brothers, now let’s have a nice game of Monopoly.’
*