RESIDENTS

The Dinner

Tiwa finds herself walking in a spooky garden, then a girl with big eyes and pale skin walks up to her, "play with us" she follows the girl who is holding firmly to her hand, when she arrives where the other children are, they happen to all have big large eyes, and Tiwa seems to have just found out that not just did they have large eyes, their fingers are long and dark "I'm sorry but I have to return home now" she says looking terrified, the children begins to pull her by her dress, and all of them saying "Play with us, play with us" laughing maniacally , Tiwa who can no longer bear this , pulls them off of her and begins to run, the children with large eyes running after her until she arrives home, flings open their door, reaches her room and jumps in to her body, and that is when her screams begin....

As the unknown caller hangs up , Tiwa begins to scream so loudly that George and Emily hurriedly runs to her room

Emily and George rushes to Tiwa's room, getting her up from the bed

Emily; Wake up Baby, mommy is here , Tiwa !

Tiwa's eyes opens wide, sweating profusely, and panting heavily...

" Mom , Mom "

Emily pulls her close "honey get some water " George brings some water as Emily continues to calm her baby girl

Tell me what happened in your dream Baby.... Tell me

Tiwa drinks a little ....

Some children, very scary children, were chasing me and laughing so bad.... they looked so awful and had big eyes , they were running after me mom, I ran as quickly as I could and that's how I got back into my body ....

Emily; In to your body? What?!

George: You mean that's how you woke up , you must have been really scared

Tiwa: (frankly) No ,I entered my body, I ran into the house and entered my body, Mom!

Emily: It's alright honey, it's alright, okay.

George seems to be having a difficult time accepting Tiwa's dream narration, he walks back to the bedroom, picks up his phone , keys and bag, Emily arrives in the room

George, George! What is this attitude?

George; No , seriously, don't tell me you believe that narration, entering back into her body, what does that even mean ?

Emily; What? are you attacking my child ?

George; What do you mean, I'm not attacking our child Emily, it's just absurd, first night at the new house and she's chased in her dream by children who looks like ghosts, and she jumps back into her body ....common Honey, I think it's all made up by her brain, seeing how creepy Mary was with us yesterday.

Emily; Sighs in disbelief

George, you're not sounding like yourself, tell me you're not creeped up by the place , what about that call?

George; Its true, isn't it, you did sleep out, alone ,one of the men must have seen you out there, or the Estate security

Emily; Security? Does this place have anything like that, to you? you know what I think?

I think you're just trying so hard to make this place work, and you're going to neglect anything that happens to us here , because your choices brought us this far..

George; Okay, Okay,

leaves the room with anger written all over his face , Emily Stares at him with so much displeasure as he opens the door and drives away.

George arrives at the Estate Clinic where he is to work, he makes his way to the front desk

"Hello , I am George Bello, you have been expecting me "

Front Desk ( Glory) : Good morning Mr George, we have been waiting for you, I am Glory, I'll show you to your office .

George; My office? that's rather fast, I thought I would be having an interview with the higher up

Glory smiles as she leaves her desk leading George to his office , they walk past the lounge where patients who are recuperating are sitting and Nurses are attending to them, Glory who's also dressed as a Nurse waives at some of them on the way

Well there's no higher up, it's a Clinic , mainly for the residents of the Estate, the higher ups should be the Sarumi's , They built the Estate you know.

George; Oh , this is it , not bad ....

he expresses as he walks around in the office, sits on his chair, opens the laptop

It is nice ...

Glory ; lifts her brow as she smacks her tongue , giving him a seductive look

Now you are our higher up . Are you starting out today, so I can fill you in on all the cases we have ?

George; Feels a little uncomfortable at Glory's seductive expressions

uh , uhmm, Nope, save that for tomorrow, I moved in just yesterday , still have a lot to do.

He stands up and leaves the office, Walking side by side Glory who's also heading to her desk...

So Glory ? I'll see you tomorrow

Right outside the Clinic is a convenient store, he stares at the store for awhile as he stands outside the clinic, he sighs.

Emily is anguished by her thoughts, she sighs and sighs again , then she stands up from the bed , picks up a jacket and puts it on,

"Tiwa , I'm going for a walk , honey"

As she opens the door not minding Tiwa's silence , George arrives, pulls over the car and walks up the Porch with the paint can and a bottle of wine and a small bouquet of flowers in his hands, he hands the flowers to Emily, who ignores him and walks past him

George; Where are you going?

Emily : for A walk....

George : smells the flowers, he enters the living room and places the bouquet on the dining alongside the wine he bought

Calling out to Tiwa

"Tiwa it's time to paint that room Pink"

Everything feels so unfamiliar, an Estate filled with people who has a particular pattern of smiles on their faces, Emily could never get used to the feeling this new place gives off, she shakes her head as though pitying herself, as she receives the same awry smiles from each woman standing on their Porch, some looking out through the window, her eyes keeps investigating steadily, she really wants to know whoever it was saw her late at night as she laid right outside unaware, as she arrives at the bench, and flashes of her lying on it flashed through her head, she sucks her lips, dipped her hands in her jacket pocket and continues to walk, she notices the house just opposite the bench, and the boy who kept staring at her isn't there now, her walk continues....

After countless weird smiles and forms of greetings, she arrives at a lake, turns out their Estate has a lake view anyway, feeling the cold breeze as her hair fly past her chicks, she remembers the moment George tells her he had lost all of their money, George voice keeps echoing in her head,

"Babe I think I've been scammed all of our money, our dream house is gone"

that heart wrenching line of words keeps piercing through and through her ears and it's as though the cold breeze is adding up to her misery, she turns to leave the lake, and in that moment , A girl standing right in front of her

Emily gasps and moans loudly with so much fear, the sight of the girl completely puts her off guard, she blinks repeatedly , breathing out loud, as the girl waives at her , smiling like the women of the Estate, Emily contemplates for a second if she should just smile back, or just waive at her , finally she gives her a short waive , walk past her without stopping....

Emily arrives at their street, right beside her house is a basketball ball pitch , the women are busy putting together fairy lights and bulbs ,some are setting tables while some are placing dinner dishes on the tables , Emily walks towards Mary who seems to be the leader of these weird women,

" Uhm Mary, thank you so much for setting these up , even though it's completely unnecessary"

She smiles as these words fall right out her lips, but then her smiles turn into a frown when , the women all turns to look at her, only this time , they're not smiling or waiving, but glaring at her, Emily quickly realizes she had dropped a bomb, she smiles again

"I'm sorry, uhm, is there anything I can do to help"? She asks , throwing her question to all of them, immediately they return to their appointed chore and wouldn't mind her but Mary ...

Mary ; It's Okay Emily, just go get ready for dinner .

Emily: Right ? Right. I'll just go get ready.

She Opens the door of their fully detached apartment, and heads to the master bedroom, George walks in...leans on the door

George: You're back ...

Emily; They're uhm, ( sucks her lips) getting dinner thingy ready, they're all out there at the basketball pitch

George; Oh , Okay

Emily; We better get dressed now, I mean this is for our sake, and I think we should be the first people there.. Where's Tiwa?

George; We're done with painting, I'm sure she's getting ready for the dinner party, she seems thrilled about it

( walks towards Emily, places his hands on each of her shoulder behind her , as if massaging her ,Emily who seems uncomfortable by it , shaking him off)

You used love my hands doing this...

Emily; Right? ( she sighs)

George; Honey , about earlier , I'm sorry I didn't mean to....

Emily; It's Okay... really it's fine... I guess we're both under the same pressure here, I know you want us to find this place comfortable, we'll try, as weird as it seems , we'll try...

George: Thank you honey, I love you

(kisses her left shoulder )

Tiwa arrives in the bedroom putting off the couple's little moment thing, "how do I look mom"?

Emily; (Smiles) You look great as always baby....

Outside at the basketball pitch, a soft rock music is playing, and the women, dressed for dinner , are chuckling, laughing and gisting, and hugging each other while holding their glasses of wine , each of them, their husbands and children sitting so statically at the tables as though they had been fixed to the chairs, but the women are busy making up for the strange mood, the Bello's arrive , Emily seems to be in the smiling seeing as things looks a bit different than it's been since they moved in... George pats her on the back "This is it" he says, Emily holds firmly to Tiwa's little hand, as George carresses her back , they walk into the party,

The women each take turn to hug Emily, George and Tiwa makes their way to a table with a tag on it "Welcome to Roseville" They sit, while Emily is busy exchanging hugs , George reaches out his hand to the man beside him, they exchange the weirdest handshake George has ever had, after a few seconds of struggle to retrieve his hand back to himself, the man finally let's go and says "Welcome to Roseville, we're pleased to have new neighbors"

Finally they all sit, and begin to eat , Mary leads by saying a short opening speech.

Mary : In as much as I don't really know what to say, I'd just like to welcome the new family, it's really wonderful to have new people amongst us... You see the Estate has lost its touch and it's no longer fun, but with the new people we finally have a reason to party again! So welcome to Roseville....

Everyone applauds as Emily and George thanks them ,bowing and smiling.... In that moment , in a distance she notices a figure watching them , she takes a deeper look, and it is the same girl that gave her the chills at the lake, Emily gasps as the girl who's just standing there continues to creep her out, she looks away, holds Tiwa's hand , looks back again in the direction where the girl stands, for a couple of seconds , she's not there , but then she appears again, even closer, Emily gasps, and begins to pant, she grabs the table cloth, squeezing it hard in her hand, the dishes and wine glasses begin to clash, and the voice of George echoing in her ears " Honey, Honey, are you okay? , I think I've been scammed all of our money, our dream house is gone" , her eyes becomes smaller, her visions blurry, her panting echoes, her face thuds on the table , she faints...