Within the Realm of a Dying Sun

She stepped out of the car. She moved down here for the summer because of her job. It was only supposed to be for a few weeks. Somehow, she had doubts about that. It wouldn’t be a surprise if she wound up staying here longer.

The woman stretched her neck from side to side. “I’m here.”

She turned when she heard the car door open behind her. A man with red hair stepped out of the car.

“This is it,” he said. The woman lowered her shades.

“I hadn’t expected it to be so…” she said. The man tilted his head to the side.

“Green? Space? Empty?” he suggested.

“Dull,” she said. The man frowned. Okay, he wasn’t expecting that.

“Is it that bad?” he asked. The woman shook her head.

“It’ll do for now,” she said. The man watched as she walked by him. He frowned and shrugged to himself before following behind. This was going off to a good start, wasn’t it?

Oh boy…

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The pair thought they were going to take it easy the first day. Fat chance that was going to happen. It didn’t take long for them to come parading by the door.

The pair had just gotten inside and started unpacking when there was a knock on the door. He looked up.

“What is that?” he asked.

“The door, obviously,” she said.

“I know that. But who is that?”

“How should I know?”

There was another knock at the door. The pair looked at each other. They both had the same question in mind.

“Are you going to get it?” The man and woman blinked.

“Me?” he asked.

“Yes! Go get the door,” she said.

“Why me?”

“I don’t know! Just do it!” She gave him a stern look with her arms folded across her chest. He rolled his eyes. There was another knock on the door.

“Coming!” he shouted. The man turned and walked to the door. He looked out the peephole. He couldn’t see what was out there fully. A person stood outside.

“Who is it?” she asked.

“Uh… a person,” he said. The man glanced over to see her making a face at him.

“I can’t tell,” he added. His partner rolled her eyes.

“Then open the door, you pillock!” she shouted. “They already know we’re here. You might as well.” The man shrugged and rolled his eyes.

“Fine,” he said. He opened the door. An old lady dressed in nice clothes and gold earrings stood in front of him, grinning. The man blinked at her.

“Uh… hi?” he asked.

“Good morning!” the old lady said aloud. She and the man stood there for a long pause.

“I’m Lily Foster,” she said. The man blinked. Lily held out her hand.

“What’s your name?” she asked.

“Phillip,” he said.

“Nice to meet you, Phillip,” Lily said. “We’re going to be neighbours!” Meanwhile, the woman looked up, blinking. She made an odd face when she set eyes on the old biddy. Right away, she didn’t have a good feeling about this.

She was right to feel that way.

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Lily wasn’t the only one to go and meet the neighbours.

Annie sucked it up and decided to make her presence known. She got started on making the cake. This was going to be a strawberry lemon cake.

“Dustin! Get the truck ready!” Annie shouted.

“Yes, auntie,” he said back. The young man hurried out the back to the delivery truck. The woman got to work on the cake. Crusher looked over his shoulder before he went out the door. Annie hummed to herself as she started mixing in a big yellow bowl.

She wasn’t the only one going to check out the new neighbour either. There were more coming. It was just going to take the whole day to do it. Lily was the one to get things started.

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Somehow, Lewis, Clyde, and Muriel were watching from the bushes across the street. They all looked at each other.

“Should we go over yet?” Clyde asked.

“No,” Lewis whispered. Muriel shrugged and shook her head. They watched as Lily stood in front of the door of the new house.

Meanwhile, their leader looked ready to fly away.

“Can I come in?” she asked.

“Uh…” Phillip said with a blank stare.

End