Maybe it began as an obligation for her, but it didn't stay that way. As soon as Fred was tucked into bed we just went for it. Sophie had this thing where she liked to do it in different rooms in the hotel. This started after Fred walked in on us one night. Fred sleepwalked. You'd hear him tottering along down the hall, speaking to himself, and you'd have to go out there and take him back to bed. Anyway, when he opened the bedroom door we were hard at it.
"Dad?" he said, looking blearily at us.
I felt Sophie go tense on top of me.
"Go back to bed, Freddie," I said.
"Okay," he said, and turned around and walked out again.
I thought it was hilarious. Sophie was worried. She said that seeing your parents fucking could cause Psychological Issues (her magazines again). Fred didn't seem to remember it the next day, luckily. But after that we used other rooms, or jammed a doorstop under the bedroom door.
Sophie's hair slowly returned to its normal colour, and I didn't see her in makeup again. She'd gone straight back to wearing jeans and t-shirts. The other clothes had been too uncomfortable, she said. I would have liked to see her in them again, but the way things turned out I never got to.
YOU ARE READING
Hotel Ambrose
FantasyTwo runaway children steal a baby and attempt to raise it themselves in the world's most haunted hotel. To Ben and Sophie the abandoned hotel seems like the perfect place to hide. No adult will ever find them there. Within its strange walls they ca...
