A look of horror comes across Officer Mike's face

The antique glass door knob reflects Officer Mike’s uniform as he enters John’s Aunt’s house. Glancing behind him at Patty and Adjin on the front porch…

Officer Mike

‘You two stay outside…go back by the curb…’

Patty and Adjin run off the porch and to Ocean Blvd. Patty glances to her left and quickly to her right….but with the fog and sea mist can only see about 10 feet in either direction.

Officer Mike jumps a bit as something touches his hand. Oh it’s just the  Irish lace on the curtains he thinks.

Officer Mike

‘Margaret! Johnny!’

The house doesn’t answer. And in its silence…the house seems to say it will be there long after the people in it are gone. So far since 1910…the house has been right. Officer Mike’s eye goes to the over turned chair at the dining room table. He fights the bit of fear rising in him. The table and chairs are heavy…oak. And as long as I’ve known Margaret…she has been a neat freak, he thinks. Someone ran through here in a hurry, he unsnaps the button on his holster.  The tiny, glass droplets on the chandelier twinkle like chimes…there is a breeze coming through this house.

Officer Mike

‘Margaret! Johnny!’

Officer Mike walks more cautiously as he moves slowly towards the kitchen. A cold breeze touches his face as he strains to peer around the corner. The kitchen is empty. A chair appears to have been pushed away from the table. And the damned back door is open, Officer Mike thinks. He walks onto the back steps and looks at the shadowy garden. Creeping clouds of mist roll among the stalks of dead Hollyhocks. He turns and goes back into the house and shuts the door.

Patty, sees the shadow of a man go in front of the windows.

‘What’s taking him so long to go through the house?’

Adjin

‘That shadow was Officer Mike…right?’

Officer Mike

‘Anybody?’

He rights the over-turned chair as he walks through the dining room and back into the living room. He looks up the stairs to the dark. As he walks up the stairs he hears someone behind him. Quickly turning around, he realizes it’s the old stairs popping back up after he’s stepped on them. Their sound makes it seem like someone is following behind him. The landing at the top of the stairs is dark as is the long hallway up ahead. Such a dark night has murdered the moon. Flip on a light…no don’t Officer Mike thinks as he drags himself down the hall. First bed room…Aunt Margaret’s. His heart leaps into his throat…his training kicks in as he screams to hold still at the figure in the corner. He flips on the light and sees he’s looking at himself in an oval oak-trimmed mirror. The sight of himself looking so scared causes him to clear his thoughts and emotions.  He looks under the bed and approaches the closet. He opens the door…everything is neat and in it’s place. He goes back into the hall and peeks into the next two bedrooms.  In the bathroom, it takes forever to step closer and closer to the shower curtain. With one small leap he yanks back the shower curtain….a spotless bath tub.

Officer Mike makes his way down to John’s room. Clearly…there’s been a struggle here. There are clothes everywhere. A Harry Potter book is open, cover up on the bed. In the corner there is a wet suit and a surfboard. An Ipod dock  is playing Maroon5’s ‘Moves like Jagger’. An Irish Cross is on the wall next to a poster of Taylor Swift. No one is here. His head jolts towards the door as he hears a sound coming from down stairs.

Quickly he moves down the hall. As he hits the landing, he sees John’s dog Cat skip across the floor. Relieved, he sees John and Aunt Margaret.

John

‘See, he just wanted to have fun in the fog. We should all be like dogs.’

Aunt Margaret

‘What…going to the bathroom wherever and having (whispers) sex whenever they want.’

John

‘No good can come from continuing…Officer Mike?’

Officer Mike coming down the stairs.

‘Patty and Adjin called me over. They saw the front and back doors open and thought something happen.’

John

‘It did. Cat bolted. He couldn’t wait to run out into the fog and around the side of the house. So we ran out the back to catch him.’

Officer Mike

‘Your bedroom looks like a crime scene.’

Aunt Margaret to John

‘You see.’

Aunt Margaret

‘His room is dirty but he’s very clean.’

John walking towards the front door.

‘Come on.’

John at the front door.

‘You guys can come in. There’s nothing to be afraid of…’

Aunt Margaret

‘Well Mike. You must stay for my Irish Stew.’

A look of horror comes across Officer Mike’s face.

Letting the fog in

Patty

'...it's up.'

Adjin looks at Patty's Facebook page with the picture of her and the banshee from the boardwalk's Haunted House ride. Laughing...

Adjin

'I have such a gift...'

Patty

'Yeah, it's one of those gifts you pass on to someone else...it's called re-gifting...'

Adjin

'You will get a new guy from this. Men like women who are fun...in a good mood.'

Patty

'...well I don't want anyone who won't listen to me.'

Adjin

'...complain...but not right away...give him a chance to like being with you...'

Patty

'...I do what I want...I don't want to hear this...if I want to talk about being upset...are you listening?...you aren't saying anything.'

Adjin smiling broadly

'...I know, right?

Patty pushes Adjin's shoulder and spins around to look through the foggy garden towards the back of John's house.

Patty

'Hey, the back door is open...'

Adjin

'Maybe Aunt Margaret is cooking...smokes gotta go somewhere...'

Patty punches his arm. She walks down the foggy sidewalk towards the front of the house. Adjin grabs the Banshee and follows her. Patty looks at the front porch.

Patty

'The front door is open too. Why? I mean it's damp out here...'

Adjin

'...my Auntie's cooking theory is correct...'

Patty stops

'Something is not right...I can feel it...'

Adjin joining her

'Oh no you don't. You've been afraid the whole way over here.'

Patty walks towards the front porch

'...well then you lead...'

Adjin

'...oh no...women can lead...'

Patty turns to look at Adjin

'...really Adjin? Is that all you've got?'

Adjin

'Lead on mamma bear.'

The front porch creaks as they walk up the steps.

Patty looks at the door...wide open...the misty breeze, moving the Irish lace curtains like some ghostly apparition. Adjin leans the Banshee against the house.

Patty, yells through the door.

'Hello? Auntie? John?'

She turns to Adjin.

'No answer and there's a chair turned over at the dinning room table.'

Adjin

'...and you announced to anyone lurking inside that we are here.'

Patty and Adjin look at each other and run back off the porch. They look up at the open door.

'Auntie's is an uber Virgo....neat freak. There would never be a chair left like that. John would...but he wouldn't cause it would bother his aunt.'

Adjin

'Dr. Phil's got nothing on you...Psychology 101 girl...'

Patty sees a car coming slowly up Ocean Blvd. It's a cop car.

my banshee completes me

Adjin pulls up on the side street next to John’s Aunt’s house on the Ocean Boulevard. The sea breeze makes  the fog and mist seem alive…billowing like the sails of a ghost ship through the archway leading to the garden.  Adjin steps out of the car, pushes the driver’s seat forward and grabs the banshee that used to stand in front of the Haunted House ride on the boardwalk.  He leans it against the garden archway.

Adjin to Patty in the car

‘Perfect. Now stand next to her and do something funny so people think you are fun to be with… and I’ll take a picture and we’ll put it on your Facebook page.’

Patty gets out of the car

‘Like… I’m fun?’

Adjin

‘Patty…you're moping...you haven’t been single a week.’

Patty goes over to pose with the banshee.

‘You’re nothing if you aren’t with someone.’

Patty waves her hand in the fog.

‘Look, I’m disappearing already.’

Adjin

‘Well, I don’t have someone and I’m not disappearing.’

Patty

‘You’re hard to miss…riding around with the banshee in your back seat.’

Adjin presses something on the back of the banshee.  It’s eyes light up purple.

‘I was gonna add black, thick rimmed nerd glasses.  To make her more attractive to the Princeton crowd.’

Patty

‘Yes, that banshee would scream Ivy League .’ 

Adjin

‘An idea…Patty, what if next summer the banshee screams test questions at people.  If x is the number of people eating greasy boardwalk food and y is the number of toilets with a 3.5 cubic foot areas,  what is y if y is the value of vomit it takes to fill the toilets?’

Patty

‘You know Adjin, I’m shocked no woman has swept you up yet.’

Adjin takes a picture of Patty kissing the banshee

‘I know…right.’

Patty looks at the picture and they send it to her Facebook page

Patty

‘Life after Don. I’m no longer faceless.’

Adjin

‘Should I put one of me and the banshee on my Facebook page.’

Patty

‘Well, girls will know you don’t go by looks.’

Adjin

‘She completes me. She had me at…

Adjin presses something on the banshee.

The banshee screams

 

Visability is life

Patty climbs through the passenger side window of Adjin's car. From inside, the fog and mist make it impossible to see much beyond the car's front bumper.

Patty

'Never thought I'd say this, but I feel safer in your car.'

Adjin makes the banshee manikin lying in the back of his car moan. Patty jumps and they both laugh. She looks behind them at the banshee.

Patty

'God she's big. She didn't look that big on the boardwalk.'

Adjin

'People liked it. It gave me boardwalk cred.'

Patty

'I had cred when I was with Ron. I've been taking down pictures of us on Facebook. You know, people have unfriended me. Not in a nasty way. They just disappeared. Or not being a couple...I disappeared to them. My Twitter Pat loves Ron account is o.k. But then I have a big Gay following. Next time I'd better use Patricia loves whoever...'

Just then, a hand comes out of the fog and slaps the front of Adjin's car...as if to say don't move...I'm here.'

Pat and Adjin laugh...startled.

Pat

'If you aren't visible...you know....online. You're nothing. Like you don't exist. But what am I gonna post? Scared myself in a foggy walk'

Adjin

'I think a lot of highly visible people are bores. The stars talking about themselves or selling something. The politicians lying. Americans have become fame-whores. And we elect and watch fame-whores.'

Pat

'wow...Adjin you never talk...'

Adjin

'I listen. No one listens. Or cares. You know Patty...being Muslim...maybe I learned not to care what people think. Every 9/11 I feel bad for the people killed and me.'

Adjin drives forward in the fog towards John's Aunt's house.

Pat

'Yeah but being less...I don't know...I feel less. Like I exist less. Like this empty vacation town...fading into the fog. Invisible.'

Adjin

'I'm gonna prop the banshee up next to John's Aunt's garden. And you are gonna stand next to it....and I'm gonna take a picture of you and we'll put it up on your Facebook page....'

Patty

'Title?'

Adjin

'Me? Gone? 'More like Gone Gay for Banshee.'

Patty laughs

'I'll do it. I'm fun without Ron. I'm gonna do whatever I want.'

Adjin

'Wanna scream like a banshee.'

Wait, 'til I press the button. 1,2,3.'

The banshee, Patty and John scream and head off into the fog.