RESIDENTS

Emily's Dinner

Emily wakes up to a weird morning, she finds Tiwa and George having breakfast, she sits at the table, gulping down water from the glass cup

Tiwa : Mom are you okay ?

Emily : Yeah, I'm alright baby, sorry I ruined your first dinner party in a while...

George ; (stands up to leave for work) Perhaps I could get you some pills, to help you relax

Tiwa ; Mom are you sick?

Emily; ( gives George a bad look)

Baby I'm fine... I'm not sick

George; (kisses Tiwa and Emily on their head )

Dad's off to work ... (makes a flight sound) Peeeew...

( Tiwa laughs , Emily sighs)

Tiwa; Mom , when am I going to school?

Emily; Uhmm, Tiwa , your Dad and I agreed we'll take turns to teach you at home, and you'll help by studying on your own as well.

Tiwa : Okay , I better get to it now.. will you teach me now?

Emily; Well, I could, but I think you should uhm, revise on your old books for now, I'm just gonna ask you questions on them later . (Emily stands up to leave )

I wanna try and see if I could find a library or something around here.

(she pats Tiwa on her back , goes to the room, wears her jacket and leaves the house)

(Emily fears she may be hallucinating, a community with weird people and a strange girl that appears to her out of the blue, she begins to look around the Estate , taking a deep look at every girl she sees passing by, and every house and every windows. As she continues, looking so distorted and unsettled, suddenly her body brushes past a soft entity, she continues to observe so intently not minding whatever hit her or she hit, waking up at the sound of the crashing of clay pot , she realizes she had just bumped into a person who is there on the ground picking up her flowers, she begins to apologize, helping her to pick the flowers)

I'm so sorry, I wasn't looking.

Rachel; You must be new ( she stands up , and returns her flowers to the shop, Emily enters with her , feeling apologetic)

Emily; Yes , we moved here a few days ago.

Rachel : So nice to see a new face , you're here alone ?

Emily; No, I'm with my husband and daughter. The neighbors, they, made a dinner party to welcome us , I guess some part of the Estate don't participate in everything, as I don't recall seeing you there ...

Rachel ; Are you sure?

Emily; What??

Rachel; That you didn't see me? because I saw you , I was at the party

Emily; Oh, really. uhm, I guess I thought I saw everyone

Rachel ; No you didn't, because you passed out. (smiles )

Emily; ( chuckles) Well, regrettably I did.

I guess I'm having it difficult to adjust

Rachel : Would you like some flowers ?

Your husband purchased some here yesterday

Emily: Oh , right. I didn't, come out -- with cash, maybe next time

Rachel : Oh it's free, for you .

(seeing as Emily hesitates , )

I'd very much like to make a friend ---

Emily: Right , Okay , thank you

(she receives the flowers )

I'm Emily

Rachel ; Rachel.

(Emily nods, and turns to leave )

You should host a dinner too. it is customary, bad things will happen if you don't

Emily: Excuse me? ( she turns back to face Rachel)

Bad things will happen ?

(looking all frightened)

Is that supposed to be a joke , Rachel?

Rachel; ( smiles ) Of course it is, the Residents love every chance they get to celebrate something, it's been that way for decades.

Emily; O-kayyy , will do

Rachel : Just don't pass out again !

(Emily turns to leave )

Thanks for the flowers, I'll treat them nicely

(As Emily exists the shop , as though she hadn't heard enough of it , and as traumatizing as it sounds , Rachel sends a chill down her spine with the same saying )

Rachel : Welcome to Roseville --

(Emily pauses for a while, and walks away, she continues on her self given quest, and arrives at the clinic where George works , she makes her way into reception and asks after her husband)

Emily; Excuse me , I'm here to see Doctor Bello.

Glory : ( lifts her brows , exhibiting her rude attitude with body languages that Emily finds quite unwelcoming )

And you are ? A patient?

Emily; (smiles and leans in on Glory's desk)

A wife !

Glory; Oh , you are the wife, mmm ( continues to lick her strawberry stick candy, she stands up and leads Emily to George's office)

This way -- madam (she chuckles)

(knocks on the door)

Doctor ! Your madame...( She opens the door)

Emily; Nice office Babe.

(she hands him the flowers )

George; Thank you Glory . You can leave

(Emily smiles as Glory makes her leave)

Emily ; You won't be bored, You have a funny looking Assistant.

George; Thank you for the flowers. How's Tiwa ?

Emily; Studying... I was taking a stroll, and ended up here .

George ; I should have taken you and Tiwa on a tour sooner , the Estate is quite cool ,the more you know of it the better you feel.

Emily : There's even a lake, saw it on my last stroll.

George ; For real ?

Emily; Yeah ...for real, but it's spooky , like every part of the Estate is .

George ; Emily, we'll be fine , I promise , no matter how spooky this place poses to be , I will protect us .

( he stands up , moves closer to Emily, holds out her hand and kisses it )

Emily; Honey, we're going to host our own dinner, I hear it is customary.

George; A Dinner ?

Emily; Yes, It's an opportunity to correct my reputation, looks like the entire Estate sees me as a - weakling.

George: My wife is not a weakling, you're the strongest woman I know . And , Yes to the Dinner , how about we do that tonight .

Emily; What, are you serious?

( George lifts Emily up, as they both smile)

"Yeah baby I'm serious "

(he swings his waist both sides, making Emily do a twirl)

"I wanna dance with you Honey , tonight . "

Emily : Okay , Tiwa's gonna be thrilled , she gets a real party this time.

( As they laugh together,Glory cuts in )

Glory ; Sir, You have a Patient waiting at the reception.

George; They'll have to wait till tomorrow , or have a nurse attend to them, I'm wrapping up for today .

Tiwa , falls asleep after hours of studying, she finds herself in the midst of the children with large eyes, only this time they're not as scary as the last time, the same girl who held her last time holds her hand again)

"come , play with us

they take her to a play ground, sit her on a merry go round, and begins to spin her , soon enough she begins to find it to be fun, that she starts to laugh, so much that she laughs out in her sleep, in that moment George and Emily opens the main door and enters the house , the children with large eyes in Tiwa's dream hears the door creak and pushes Tiwa off the merry go round, which wakes her up)

Emily; Tiwa ! we're having another dinner , come on out!

( George walks to Tiwa's room, pulls her up from the bed , and takes her to the living room)

George; This time , Mummy is hosting the dinner .

Tiwa ; What?!

Emily! Yes baby!

(All for the dinner seems ready, as Emily makes haste to the basketball pitch, with a tray of desserts, Mary and other neighbors doing their usual part, making ready the tables and lighting candles, Emily flashes back on when she told Mary about the dinner )

Emily; (walks to Mary's porch, she knocks and the door opens )

Mary ; Are you here to apologize for ruining the first dinner In a long time, ruining our only chance to having a party?

(looking rather displeased, Mary queries Emily)

Emily; No, I'm here to give you another chance to party, this time I'm hosting-- tonight. (she smiles)

Mary ; I'll tell the neighbors, we'll be there .

Emily; Thank you Mary . Thank you, and I'm sorry for last night, I promise it'll be fun tonight ( she leaves hurriedly)

(Emily smiles as she remembers this, she places the Desserts on the table, George and Tiwa arrives , they all sit, and begin to dine, as a soft rock music plays in the background)

George; (right beside Emily leans towards her and whispers to her ear)

Babe , you know you look happy

(Tiwa notices one of the children in her dreams , right at the party in a distant table, waving at her , she waves back )

Emily; Yes, of course , being happy is my next goal.

( she chuckles awrily while scanning the entire pitch and the surrounding as far as her eyes can go, waiting to see if the strange girl appears again,

A woman begins to walk towards her obstructing her view of the distance , the woman holds her softly)

Rachel; Good evening Emily

Emily; Oh , Rachel, you made it

Rachel : Like I did the last time

(They both laughed)

Emily; Please do make yourself comfortable

(Rachel finds an open seat across Emily)

(George lifts Emily from the chair, and they make their way to the center of the pitch, ands asks for a dance , Emily hesistates , smiling shyingly , but George continues to urge her , Glory the assistant makes an odd entrance, she walks past the couple and eventually heads to a seat ,

Emily begins to dance.... The neighbors laughs and applauds them, others are busy gisting, Emily observes each and every one of them as they behave completely normal, she whispers to George)

Emily; Is this the same Roseville? it seems to be better tonight

George; I told you, it's not as spooky as you thought....

Emily; Your assistant seems to want your attention

George; she's not my assistant, she works at the reception, you saw that. --oh common

Emily; What? she's so weird , have you seen her walk?

George; Yeah I've seen it, it's creepy

(They both laugh)

(The women begin to hold each other to the dance floor as the music intensifies, they begin to dance , the men remain static in their chair, the children picks Tiwa up from her chair and begins to dance with her )

Emily; Looks like Tiwa made some friends

(Emily chuckles, as she notices Rachel in her seat, waving at her , and smiling awkwardly)

( Hours later, Emily and George are in bed , Emily's night tremmor returns , she stands up in her sleep , opens the main door and heads out walking barefoot on the street, she walks past the infamous bench, she continues to walk until she reaches a deserted part of the Estate, she sees a goat, and begins to walk towards it, she bends over , and leans in on the goat, caresses it a while, and begins to choke it to death,

she then begins to tear it's skin with her mouth, suddenly Emily realizes herself, covered in blood, her hands and mouth, she runs home, flings open the door, and rushes to the kitchen, begins to wash her hand thoroughly in the zinc, she removes her night shirt, cleans her mouth, washes the blood off the zinc, and the door knob, she ties up her night shirt and trouser in a black nylon and hides it under the couch, she wears another night dress, and resumes her position in bed , right beside her husband, gasping, terrified....)