Excerpt: Happy-Space (working title)

Aunt Lacey looked at her watch. "We should be there in about an hour and a half."
An hour and a half of being underground with no natural light and no view. Emmie was not thrilled with the prospect.
She was about to pull out her notebook when a thought struck her.
"I wonder if I can do what I did to Aunt Lacey and Uncle Wiliam again to Aunt Lacey." She wasn't sure what she had done, exactly, but Uncle William had looked almost happy for a moment, and she thought she'd like to see Aunt Lacey look happy, too. If she could just get her to look at her - really look at her - and open up that wall behind her eyes...
"Aunt Lacey," she began. Aunt Lacey looked at her. "What do you wish for?" Emmie asked, trying to look as deep into her eyes as she could.
"Wish for?" she asked. For a moment she seemed puzzled by the question, then Emmie watched the gears shift in her brain, translating the question into her way of thinking. "Hmm. I wish for pretty things - nice things. A big house, outside the city, like the ones we saw. Although, I'm not sure I'd really like to live so far away from everything. But there are some big homes closer to the city - but you have to be very rich to afford one of those. But that's what I'd really like." She had stopped looking at Emmie, and the wall in her eyes was thicker than ever. This wasn't working.
Emmie tried to think of a different question. Something that her aunt couldn't turn into wishing to be rich, which seemed to cause her to be less alive than ever.
She decided to be bold. She looked her Aunt right in the eyes again. "Aunt Lacey, did you ever wish for children?"
She looked at Aunt Lacey just the way she had looked at Uncle William, with the same small smile. 'Come on, you can tell me,' she thought.
Aunt Lacey startled, as though this was the last thing she had ever expected Emmie to say. "I - well -" her brain seemed to be trying to formulate an acceptable response.
'Come on, come on, don't make up an answer," Emmie thought hard at her. "Be honest." She focused intensely on Aunt Lacey's too-blue eyes, willing the wall to break down.
Suddenly the wall seemed to crack, and Aunt Lacey's eyes were filling with tears and light.
"Yes," she whispered. Then, suddenly, she sat up straight and blinked. The light went out of her eyes. After a moment she said,
"What did you say, dear?"
Confused, Emmie answered,
"I asked if you ever wished for children."
Aunt Lacey laughed that glittering laugh. "No, my dear, I never did. Children aren't for everyone, you know. I've had many other things to focus on in my life. I'm very glad to have you as my niece, but I never wanted any of my own."
"But I thought - " Emmie began without thinking, then stopped.
"Thought what, dear?"
"I thought you said that you wanted children."
"Really? I don't think so, dear." She laughed again.
Emmie sat thoughtfully. Now she really wanted to know what had just happened. As far as she could tell, Aunt Lacey had no memory of her first answer.