Sometimes I wondered if some things really existed in this world or we just believed they existed. Could it be that we think these things didn’t exist because we don’t always get what we want.
At times when we seek for love, we don’t usually get the kind of love we always dream of. In some cases when we get that love, we still feel like something is missing just like the last piece to complete a game of puzzle, without the last piece it’s an incomplete game.
Sometimes we are just like pawn in a chess game, we are sacrificial lamb to atone for some people sins. We never see it coming, do we loose our focus? Or do we trust others too much when we become too desperate?
We seek for happiness but we get sorrow, hardship, torment in return. Some one once said happiness is free but I always doubt the subject matter based on my instinct or should I call it my philosophy?
I decided to give the subject a second thought after a conversation with a friend when she said happiness is free but I need to make peace with myself to feel it. “Happiness is free but you need to open thy heart to feel its beauty” – Ogunsola Ayobami Samuel. I guess making peace with myself is a price I need to pay after all everything comes with a price.
When I was told I need to make peace with myself, those words hit me like a cyclone. I was like aren’t I in peace with myself? Telling me I didn’t have peace with myself is equivalent to telling me I didn’t love myself. But can a man not love himself? Then again I thought about it, if it could be because I never had the things I wish I had. Perhaps! Could that be the reason?
Like telling me to make peace with myself wasn’t enough, I was asked a shocking I never once thought I could be asked. You can imagine how shocking it could be to be asked “Do you know who you are?. Who am I? That’s a big question but unanswered one.
I realised that if I really want to be happy with my life no matter what the circumstances may be, I need to make peace with myself. I’m not doing good to anyone by making peace with myself, it’s something I’m doing for myself. People with different belief coexist at a place if that can happen among people then I should be able to make peace with myself.
But there is a question I can’t find answer to yet “How do I make peace with myself? I hope I get some clues from your comment.
Our parents are not our parents
They are the guardian life has given us
We came through them but not from them
They may give us their love but not their thoughts
For we have our own thoughts
They may house our bodies but not our souls
For our souls dwell in the house of the future
Which they cannot visit, not even in their dreams
They want us to be like them
At times makes us do what they dream of not knowing we are pursuing their dreams not ours
And if eventually we abandon their dreams to pursue ours
It becomes everybody ‘s waste
We should obey our parents and it is their duty to listen to us.
For that is the reason
They sent us to school
To learn how to think for ourselves.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
Happiness is and will always be the most sought after, yet most elusive, of all human desires. Day in and day out, many search for happiness, but end the day empty-handed. It isn’t something we have to have permission for or that a factor or a person has to determine before we have it. It’s free!
It is that feeling that comes over you when you know life is good and you can’t help but smile. It’s the opposite of sorrow or sadness. Happiness is a sense of well-being, joy, or contentment. When people are successful, or safe, or lucky, they feel happy. It is a state of mind created within you I.e in the mind that gives you a sense of satisfaction, emotional well-being, and physical well-being. It is a state of relaxation and pleasure. Happiness is free and a choice because, it does not necessarily mean that everything is perfect or that life is not good, sometimes, it is your choice to choose whether you want to be happy or remain sad and weighed down by the things that are going on in the society.
Two is that you have the power to love yourself and make things happen. Love who you are, love what you do, do what makes you happy, and eat what makes you healthy. Soon, you will find yourself happier in situations and happy enough to make the right choices.
I have noticed that doing what makes you happy, is a sure way of staying happy. Never let anyone talk down on your happiness. Anyone who does that should never be your friend, safeguard your happiness by looking for people who love you as you are.
Staying away from those who talk down on your happiness is a way of letting them know that your life is what you make it and should never be controlled by what people say but rather what makes you happy and what you want it to be. I can remember fighting with my elder brother who loves to constantly make choices for me but forgets to consider how I feel and what I like.
It’s unfair to not have control over your life and over who you are. Take control of your life, do things that make you happy and healthy! Because happiness is free and it is a choice.
Julius and Julia walk home hand-in-hand, just soaking in giddiness. He says that even with the most delicious food, if you eat it too fast, you’ll get indigestion. He doesn’t want them to get indigestion of the heart by going too fast.
Julia asks a little wistfully, “What if there isn’t much time?” and he scoffs that it’s not like she’s going to die tomorrow. She’s so happy to just sit there holding his hand that she insists on one minute longer.
Julius mom arrives with pastries for him, and they jump up in alarm, barely managing to unlock their hands before she comes up to the roof. She wonders what Kate was doing here so late, and julius awkwardly invents an errand she was here for and sends her home.
Julius mom catches on right away and comments on kate’s level and size, and warns him not to even try foot-acting in front of her. She knows they’re dating and calls him out on it, but he shoves a pastry in his mouth and ignores her.
Julius insists that there’s nothing going on with him and Kate , and she says he can call it whatever he wants, just as long as he’s using condoms. He groans and asks if she really wants to be talking about this stuff with her son, but she says it’s better than him making babies by accident. Truth. Listen to your mother!
She finally leaves, and julius rushes to text Julia that it’s safe to come back. She’s relieved to hear that it went okay, and pouts when he says they should head inside. She mentions getting enough sleep earlier at the motel, and he gets all fired up again at the mention of the motel, and bans the word altogether.
In the middle of the night, Julia sneaks out of kate’s room and into julius’s, to watch him sleep. She lies down next to him and is actually able to touch his face, and she sighs, “You’re a ghost—how can you like him for real? What are you going to do? You’re crazy.” She tells herself that it’s okay because she’s just enjoying the feeling of being in a relationship, though she doesn’t sound convinced.
Kate comes outside to get a glass of water and runs into Julia as she’s coming out of julius room. Julia quickly says she was just wandering about because she was bored, and feels awkward when kate sweetly calls her aunty.
In the morning, julius is the one sending Julia little signals in front of the others, as he winks at her to meet him in the locker room. He feeds her herbs to keep her healthy in the sweltering heat, and she presses his hand to her face, calling that her best medicine.
Felix interrupts them to tell Julia about a phone call for her, and looks curiously over at julius , who’s doing a terrible job of acting natural. She picks up the phone and doesn’t realize that it’s julius’s mom on the line, and when she asks for her birthdate, she accidentally answers with her own, not kate’s.
Not knowing this, Mrs Jane reads the fortune at her request, and says that this girl is already dead. Mom says that can’t be and tells her about catching Julia and Kate together last night, and Mrs Jane realizes that she’s talking about Julia . She gets hopeful to hear that they were together late at night, but deflates to hear that they were simply talking. **********
Officer John drops Lisa off at the restaurant and waits to greet julius , and happens to hear Julia humming a familiar tune. He remembers her singing the same song at her Dad’s restaurant years ago, and the way she’d smile to greet him.
Kate does the same now, and it makes him eerily fixated on her. It continues to bother him when he’s at work, as he remembers Dad’s shoelaces tied in Julia’s special way, and he looks up Kate’s information on the computer.
That night, John opens up his drawer and takes out the cracked cell phone that was hidden away. He contemplates the phone and then takes out a suitcase that’s filled with scary serial kidnapping and/or murder gear and broken security cameras, and tosses the phone inside too. ********
On their way home from Julia’s dad restaurant whom they both ran into at the market earlier that day after julia had introduced him to her dad as a friend.
Julius squirms like a big baby when Julia gets ready to prick his finger to relieve his indigestion, and she asks why he ate two whole bowls of rice. He says that it was the polite thing to do in front of an elder, and he felt bad for the him(Julia’s dad) , who had such sad eyes when he talked about his daughter passing away.
He’s feeling better by the walk back, so she requests more handholding. He’s only happy to oblige, and looks a little sad when she breaks contact to run over to a playground. He chases her around, and then makes a big fuss when she trips and falls.
He sits her down to check her foot and treats her so tenderly that she swoons all over again. He wonders why she’s staring, and she replies, “Because I like you. I like you so, so much.” There’s a long pause as they look at each other without saying a word, and then they sit on the swings together, holding hands.
She says that she was too busy to do anything but work, and she thanks him so sincerely for all her new experiences that he darts up and declares that they’ll go on an overnight trip.
She asks why he changed his mind when he was so against her trying to jump him before, and he half-mumbles an admission: “I changed my mind. I want to go on a trip with you. I’m not going to hold back anymore, so you’ve been warned.” It’s her turn to be stunned silent.
Meanwhile, Julia is in a very different mood on the other side of the wall, and leaves kate’s body to go visit Mrs Jane in the middle of the night. She terrifies her awake, of course, being a ghost and all, and tells her about the trip with julius.
She thinks that’s good news, but wonders why Julia looks so sad about it. She doesn’t understand it either—tomorrow she could get what she’s been wanting all this time and finally resolve her grudge and move on…
Julia finally declared that she is not happy and she liked julius so much. The things he says to me, the way he looks at me, the way it feels when he holds my hand—they’re all things I’ve never felt before when I was alive. They’re so warm, and I feel like my heart is softening.”
Mrs cuts her off in a grave tone: “Get it together. Do you know what the most dangerous thing is to a ghost? It’s feelings. You think you’re a person and hurt and feel sad, and happy. And that’s where greed comes from—the greed to remain among the living, even as a malevolent ghost!”
She warns her that malevolent ghosts are not the same as her—they never disappear and wander forever, stuck amongst the worst of people, causing evil. She clasps Julia’s hands and begs her to steel herself and resolve her grudge, and move on to a better place. Tears fall as she nods, knowing that Mrs Jane is right about what she has to do. Mrs Jane comforts her and hugs her close, and she cries into her shoulder.
Julia is subdued at work the next day, even when julius whispers his plans to get them out of here as early as possible today. Mike chooses today of all days to insist on a staff night out, and julius has to say no so many times that he ends up snapping at him.
Julia takes the morning to go see her Dad, thinking that it’s her last day here as a ghost. She shows him how to do stuff more efficiently in the restaurant, and he picks up on the fact that she’s acting like they won’t see each other for a long time.
She tamps down her tears and says that she just might be busy for a while and can’t come as often, and he promises to do as she instructs. She thinks to herself that she might never see him again, and Dad should stop thinking about her and be healthy and happy with Alex now.
Julius makes sure to close early and tells Julia to pack and meet upstairs. He notes that she seems quiet, and when he guesses that she’s just so excited that she can’t express it, she goes with that. But she looks sad when she’s alone, and has to pep-talk herself into packing and going on the trip. She knows she has to stick to her original plan and go, but she wars with herself for wanting to stay just a little longer.
Julius gets delayed when his Mom calls him drunk, and he asks Julia to meet him at the train station. She sits on the rooftop thinking back to all the things she’s experienced with julius , from their first kiss to their first handhold, and decides to put one foot in front of the other.
John watches as she leaves and then creeps up to the roof, where the dog barks at him aggressively. If he IS possessed and dogs can see ghosts.
He roots around Kate’s room and finds all of her ghost-warding paraphernalia, from scythe to strings of garlic, crosses, talismans, and ghost-warding beans. He throws them angrily, perhaps having connected all the dots between Julia and kate.
Julius arrives at the bar to pick his Mom up, only to find her totally sober. It’s not even a surprise anymore that she lied about that, but then Bella arrives too, and his mom invents an excuse to leave them alone.
Bella suggests a walk on their old college campus, and tells julius that she actually saw him first when they were in school, but he seemed so uninterested in her. She wonders if maybe they were so comfortable around each other and so used to each other that she didn’t know her own feelings.
He tries to cut her off, but she asks to speak first, knowing that she might not be able to get it out. But he cuts her off anyway since his news has to come first, and tells her that he has someone special in his life. She can guess that it’s Kate without having to be told, and gets embarrassed at the rejection, wondering how she’s going to face him from now on.
Julius takes a moment to call Julia because he’s late to meet her at the train station, but she doesn’t answer. She’s actually still sitting in the playground in their neighborhood, purposely ignoring the call because she thinks he’s at the station looking for her.
She stares down at her phone and apologizes for not going: “But today isn’t the day. I can’t go like this. I know it’s selfish, but just a little longer… a little longer.”
She comes back home and calls out to julius , ready for him to be mad at her, but then he arrives behind her and starts apologizing profusely for not showing up. He assumes that she left her phone behind and waited for him, and she doesn’t bother explaining that she didn’t go either.
He makes it up to her by cooking her a fancy dinner, and tells her that he’ll always cook whatever she wants to eat. She says that what she really wants is fried intestines, and he cringes, but agrees to do it if she’ll forgive him for tonight.
Julia is surprised, and he admits that he’s been dragged around by those feelings for a really long time, and letting go feels like a relief. He turns to her and adds, “What I’m saying is, you have to take responsibility for me. You’re dead if you abandon me.” She reaches out to touch his face, and he brings her hand up to his lips to kiss her gently. He kisses her softly on the lips before leaning them down into the tent, where he lies down on top of her and starts to unbutton his shirt. He reaches down to unbutton hers, and she squeezes her eyes shut nervously.
Do you think love is enough? Or we need other ingredients?
My name is Janet, but I prefer the sleek version, Jane. After graduating from the prestigious Harvard Business School, worked in my chosen field for more than three years, and seem to be having the time of my life. Mom reminded me that I am yet to “perfect” my life with marriage.
Not that I don’t wanna date or marry, but love, to me–both in a dating relationship or just friendship– should be mutual and each member should be committed and loyal to each other. The problem I had was the one-sided loyalty and commitment.
I once had a boyfriend who used and dumped me. Initially, I knew he didn’t love and obviously wasn’t loyal to me, but because I wanted to have a man to call “my man, ” I forced myself on him. He would cheat on me, steal from me, beat me, and still claim to love me. When he finished with me, he broke up with me and left the state.
From that moment, I concluded that in a relationship “the respect, love, feeling, loyalty, and care is meant to be two-sided.” Never, ever will I ignore the red flags that might signify that someone does not love me back.
I often find it unsettling when I see young people fall in love with people that do not even care about them. They tend to develop tingly feelings for the other person while that same person has little or no feelings for them. This usually leads to a height of emotional suffering and sometimes depression.
My coach once wrote something on his WhatsApp status. He wrote and I quote: “Don’t love me, be loyal to me because loyalty births love and respect.”
Don’t conclude that someone loves you until they prove they are loyal to you, until they have proven to you that they love you for who and what you are. That doesn’t mean you should be something or someone bad.
Never overlook the importance of loyalty in a relationship. Loyalty is what makes your partner committed to the relationship and what makes you both keep the flame of your love burning.
The Virgin Ghostess Chapter 9 By Ogunsola Ayobami Samuel
Julia steps out of kate’s body as julius is kissing her, which means Kate awakens in the moment and is rendered speechless and wide-eyed. Frazzled, she excuses herself and hurries out, trying to get her thoughts in order.
Thankfully julius follows her out, wanting to talk this out and arrive at some kind of understanding. He’s flustered by his own actions and stammers awkwardly, but tells her that this isn’t a mistake—he means it for real.
He grabs her tight in a hug and blurts, “I don’t know whether it’s from the start, or when you changed and pursued me, or yesterday, or today. But one thing I’m sure of—I keep missing you, and when you’re not next to me I’m uneasy.” Then he pulls back to look at her stunned face and bursts out, “So what the hell—let’s go for it.”
He asks her to say something, and kate clumsily fumbles for words; she reflexively bows and says, “Th-thank you.” She tries again to say something, but he interprets her response as okay, asking if she likes him back. She nods and replies, “Yes, julius .”
He pulls her in for a softer hug this time, and from a short distance, Julia watches, looking rather morose. She tells herself to get a grip, since she’s a ghost (“You’re not Kate !”), which is interesting.
As they clean up the restaurant together, julius takes over mopping duties from kate , lifting her up onto the counter to seat her there as he cleans. Noticing her still-wet hair, he brings the fan close to ostensibly dry it for her, smiling uncontrollably all the while. They just grin at each other bashfully like adorable lovesick fools. ********
Officer John gets a call that his partner, had an accident, and rushes to the hospital. He was the man in charge of Lisa’s hit-and-run case, so she and her mother are worried to hear of it.
John seems genuinely shocked to hear of his partner’s condition; he was found unconscious in the parking lot, his phone and wallet taken, and there was no CCTV footage to see what happened. *******
Kate heads to her room, pinching her cheek to make sure this is real. Julius thumps on their shared wall, telling her to sleep well and dream of him, “But that’s not an order, it’s a suggestion.” She agrees to, and he goes to bed giddy.
Julia joins Kate to ask how it felt to hear his confession. Kate admits to fearing that it’s all only a dream, but Julia chirps that they’re well on their way to their win-win solution, where the ghost resolves her grudge and Kate gets her man. Julia tells her to trust her, and they fist-bump.
In the morning, it’s Julia in the body who greets julius as he steps out of his room. He looks dead tired, though he says of course he slept well: “Why, did you think I’d be unable to sleep because I was so excited?” Well, I think that now.
She just grins and points out that his eyes are bloodshot. He tells her that they should take care to keep this quiet around the other employees, and she assures him that she has that much control.
At work, though, he struggles to keep his poker face on, which is difficult with Julia tagging along like an adoring puppy. The others wonder what their deal is, and he tells her almost panickedly not to be so obvious, a warning she blatantly disregards while sending countless filled text messages.
Julius tries to remain professional but calls her outside to chide her for the distractions. She wheedles cutely at him about how she wants to do something for their first day as a couple, suggesting an overnight outing—and if they should happen to run out of things to do, they could always duck into a motel to “get some sleep,”
Julia half-finds her behavior adorable, but he also sticks firm to what he feels is appropriate and says that he wants to treat the relationship seriously and thoughtfully. She pouts at the constant put-offs, but he says that if she wants to date him, she can’t rush ahead all on her own; she has to match his slower tempo.
Mrs Jane arrives outside the restaurant as Julia is heading in, and hurries to assure her that she’s not here to capture her. So they sit down for a chat, and mostly she wants to check that her mission is going well. She’s excited to hear that they’re dating, and Julia says it’s practically a done deal and she’ll for sure earn her passage onward from ghost-dom. Mrs Jane admits to letting her get away on purpose, and since she’d be in huge trouble if that got out, she urges her to succeed no matter what.
Julius mom calls out Mrs Jane to ask about a worrying dream she had about her son , asking what it means that he was wandering in a field of dead flowers. But she said says it’s not a bad dream—in fact, splendid flowers would be a warning sign, while dead flowers indicate keeping misfortune at bay. Mom is thrilled and relieved, though I am not convinced . *********
John looks decidedly shifty as he enters his partner’s hospital room and reaches down toward the oxygen mask on his face. He pulls back immediately when his sister enters, though she hurries out to get a doctor when her brother stirs awake. John tells him that he’s in the hospital and asks if he remembers what happened to him, and relaxes when his partner replies no.
John is all solicitousness now and reaches over to mop his partner face with a handkerchief… and his left wrist comes into the man’s direct sightline. This triggers a memory of his attack, and the arm that wore that same watch. ******
After the restaurant closes, the staff heads home, blurting excuses to go home to avoid being roped into another night out with Mike. Mike accepts this tonight, but makes vague references to something happening tomorrow.
Julius texts Kate for a date tonight, and Julia jumps to get ready, deciding she can make “it” happen with or without an overnight trip. He takes her to a fancy restaurant for dinner, though the date is partly another cooking lesson. He gets a little jealous when Julia takes a bite and exclaims that it’s delicious, asking, “More than my cooking?” She angles for some skinship by playing footsie under the table and then moving to sit next to him, but disappointedly complies when he tells her to go back to her seat.
As they climb into his car, julius gets nervous when Julia gets all into his space, though she says innocently that she’s just putting his seatbelt on for him. He seems to like that, but he jumps when she leans over to supposedly brush something off his clothing, “Where are you touching?!” He stops the car, all rattled and wound up, and when he starts to scold her, Julia retorts that she’d like him to follow through and scold her.
He’s ready to return home for the night, but she insists that they have to do more on their first date. He agrees to go for some shaved ice, following Julia as she leads him along… to a hotel. She feigns surprise and fakes leg pain to get him to agree to go inside, and now he looks genuinely upset and pulls her aside for a serious talk.
He asks why she likes him, half-disbelieving that he even has to ask, “Is it me you like, or my body?” Julia says she likes both, and that it’s not strange for young, healthy couples to want to have sexual relations. He says he’s conservative when it comes to relationships (she hangs her head at that) and that there should be some kind of a progression, not jumping ahead from the start. “It’s because I like you!” she says. “If you like me, you should be cautious,” he replies. She points out that he was the one who kissed her and is now talking about progression, and huffily steps away to (sarcastically) respect his wishes.
John returns home in good spirits since his crime is safely undiscovered (or so he believes), and starts to open a bottle of wine. Lisa sighs over the criminal, saying that heaven will send its punishment, and not one second later John cuts his finger on the bottle opener. When she reaches to check on it, he flings her arm aside so hard it takes her aback, and he apologizes and suggests a late-night walk.
Lisa talks about how it was nice to meet up with her university friends, reminiscing on how good that time was. She comments that John doesn’t speak much of himself, and asks how it was growing up in an orphanage, and being adopted multiple times.
She wonders, “Three years ago, if she hadn’t met him at the hospital, and so I didn’t regain the desire to live again, what would have happened? I probably wouldn’t be here now, would I?” John agrees with her. She reminds him that he’d told her then that people don’t all live or die as they want. She asks what he meant, and he says he doesn’t remember. ******
As julius and Julia arrive back home, she pointedly keeps her distance, honoring his conservative wishes, and hammers in the point by speaking in elaborate speech like a servant to a king, bidding him good night. He says she doesn’t know how he feels, and in his own room, he tells himself with effort that he can do it—he can hold back and endure.
Next door, julius’s ranting about julius frustrating conservativism, which is an unexpected obstacle to her plan. Kate on the other hand, thinks it makes him appealing—his seriousness and sense of responsibility—though Julia doesn’t appreciate her siding with her thwarter.
Kate perks up when julius calls out to her from outside, though Julia instructs her to play a little hard to get. So she just peeks out the door to look at him, though she doesn’t do anything further.
In the morning, the other chefs realize that it was Mike’s birthday, which explains his veiled comments yesterday. This is worrying news, because they know Mike will want the whole birthday party, congratulations, expensive gifts. The guys suggest flat-out denial as a tactic, and agree to feign ignorance rather than get roped into some elaborate mess.
Mike skips into work in high spirits, humming the Happy Birthday song. He chuckles to himself expecting a surprise around every corner, and snaps at everyone once he realizes it’s not in the plan.
The disappointment puts him in full drill sergeant mode, taking issue with every little detail like messy hair and long nails and excessive height (“What are you, a model? You punk, go get a bowl cut or go to a plastic surgeon and get uglier!”). The assistants suffer through the tirade, sticking to their plan, but suppose that it may be easiest to just give Mike something and be done with it.
Felix speaks up, saying that he received a clothing order in the mail this morning, and a freebie belt came with it. What if they give that as a gift?
So while Mike fumes about how he’ll make everyone work like beasts today, they come in singing and present him with the gift. Mike brightens and opens the gift, making them tense when he asks if it’s fake leather (which it is) before laughing that he knows it’s totally real. He even asks if it’s too expensive, and he feels so great that he offers to treat them later (and happily takes julius ’s credit card when offered). *******
Julia dad and brother Alex head home after grocery shopping, and Alex complains about the tedious errands until Dad replies that Julia did them all the time. As they cross a bridge, Dad pulls out an apple and places it on the railing Julia liked apples, and this is for her. Dad looks mournful as he asks why “the bad kid” did it, and Alex takes his hand in support. Hm, did Julia jump and commit suicide? Yet John sees them a short distance away, and the tone grows darker, suggesting more to the story.
John insists on giving them a ride in his car and ushers Dad along. As he looks down, he sees Dad’s shoelace tied in a distinctive knot—and thinks of when Julia did that for him once (before she’d died). When John comments on it, Dad replies that kate was the one who tied this lace. This certainly strikes John as odd. ******
After the restaurant closes, the staff heads out to celebrate Mike’s party. They invite julius along and he starts to consider it, but Julia pipes up (still peevish at him for rejecting her advances) that he won’t want to, since he’s so conservative and all. Julius goes with it, but looks pitifully sad about it.
As the group goes, john watches from a distance, taking particular interest in Kate .
They gorge on chicken and beer, and at one point Kate slips away. Felix goes out looking for her and finds her whispering to a motorcycle light drunkenly. He laughs at her cuteness, and sits her down in a chair while she asks him for guy advice “about my friend” whose boyfriend didn’t like when she made advances. She asks if guys generally dislike it when the girl makes a move, and felix replies that it’s one of two things: He doesn’t find her pretty, or he likes her so much he wants to wait and build trust. The first type of guy is ordinary, but the latter is a really decent guy.
Julia wails in frustration that it’s super confusing and she doesn’t know which it is. Felix speculates that it’s the latter: “You’re pretty.” She protests that it’s about her friend, and he advises her friend not to let him slip away and regret it.
At home, julius checks in on the Sunshine blog, wondering why she hasn’t updated lately. He wonders why the kids are out so late. They move through the usual progression of upbeat pop songs to the love ballads, which ends with felix and Julia singing together, heads resting against each other, looking super-cute in a problematic way.
Julius gets antsy waiting for Kate to return home, and grumbles at the stream of credit card confirmation texts he gets, letting him know they’re still out and having fun. He idles in his room, pacing and passing the time fitfully waiting and waiting.
And just as he’s really getting upset, he gets one last text: A bill from a hotel. Frantic, he calls Kate and yells at the phone to pick up, and finally gets a drunk Mike on the line. The guys have crashed there, and kate has “gone to shower.” Cut to: julius running down the street until he gets to the hotel.
Everyone’s passed out dead drunk, and he rouses Julia and tries to usher her out quietly. He picks her up and carries her out, anxious to get out undetected. Once outside, she’s so loud and boisterous that he ends up picking her up again and carrying her off, feeding her water to sober her up at a mini store.
She’s still snappish, and says he should have come with them if he’s so bothered, and he reminds her that she was the one who told him not to come. She says he totally didn’t read the situation right, and that it’s no big deal to crash with dudes in a hotel room when none of them even think of her as a woman. Julius bursts out, “Why aren’t you a woman? You’re such a woman that it makes me uneasy to death.”
He says she doesn’t know men, and that they can change in a second, and that she’d better stick to him like glue from now on because he can’t handle the anxiety. She notes that he’s always flip-flopping, having pushed her aside before, and julius returns, “Cancel the first one. Stick to me from now on.”
She’s only too happy to, and sidles up to his side and clings to his arm, sighing how nice this is. They walk back hand-in-hand, with him ordering her to stand even closer, and she cheerfully obliges. She asks if he doesn’t want to have sex, or if he’s just holding back the urge, and he sorta roundabout-ly answers that he’s a man too.
He takes her hand and says, “Let’s start like this. And let’s go slowly, for a long, long time, Kate.”
The Virgin Ghostess Chapter 8 By Ogunsola Ayobami Samuel
Once it sinks in that kate has just given her permission to possess her, Julia bounds over to give Kate a giant bear hug, squealing in delight. Kate stands there stiffly with her fists clenched, while Julia lifts her up and calls her pretty, and declares that they should be friendly now: “Call me aunty !”
Julia shows her Dad’s restaurant from across the street and says that it might not look like much now, but used to have lines of cab drivers out the door every day. She sighs that if she’d known she’d die so young, she would’ve done more, had a boyfriend, lived like everyone else. Kate asks why she died, but Julia doesn’t know since she has no memory of her death. Julia asks in turn why she suddenly changed her mind, and Kate admits that she used to be satisfied just watching julius from far away, but now she wants more. Julia encourages her to keep wanting more from life, and to stop holding everything in: “Live like a person, Kate !” She says that they’re one body now, and eggs kate on to be more assertive.
In the morning, it’s definitely Julia inside kate’s body, because the first thing she does is sidle up to julius and ask, “I read this in a magazine somewhere—is it true that a man is most… vital between ten and eleven in the morning? she actually looks right at his crotch while asking the question. He hurriedly crosses his legs, which just makes her convinced that it IS true.
Bella is mortified to remember her impulsive drunken kiss with julius as she heads to work, and julius picks up his phone to call her, but hesitates.
The restaurant will be closed for the next two days, and kitchen staff excitedly discusses their vacation plans. chef Mike seems at a loss for what to do, not that he lets on—he keeps asking what the others are doing, wanting to tag along. Julia is happy to learn that they have vacation days, and when she pushes Mike out of the way, the boys decide she’s back to being weird.
Mike calls his buddy and erupts in a whiny tantrum when his friend says he can’t get the next two days off to hang out. The others listen warily and agree to avoid Mike before he invites himself along on one of their vacations, and it works… until he goes straight to julius to suggest a staff retreat.
The others are horrified at the thought of spending their precious days off with their boss but can’t voice their dissent now, and agree through gritted teeth. Julia chirps that she thinks it’s a great idea, and at that, julius says they’ll go.
Julia watches intently as julius answers a call from Bella . She says she’ll head over to his neighborhood for a chat, and when he heads out to meet her, Julia trails after him thinking she’s being stealthy.
He calls her out from behind a potted plant and tells her to go home, and she swears that she wasn’t following him, but going to the neighborhood restaurant to see her friend (dad) . He makes her walk ahead of him then, and she grumbles.
Bella looks nervous as she starts to mention last night, but julius jumps in to say that she must’ve had so much to drink that she can’t remember a thing. She looks partly relieved to be let off the hook but mostly disappointed.
Julia brings drinks over to Dad and ignores little bro Alex’s complaints about the last time that she pretended not to know them. She makes sure that Dad is still exercising and says she can’t go for the next few days because of her retreat.
Alex suddenly reacts like a jealous boyfriend, worried that she’ll be spending nights away with a bunch of guys, and tells her not to bare too much skin or put on lipstick, and to call him every night so that he doesn’t worry. Julia just looks at him like he’s got a screw loose.
Julius calls his brother-in-law John out for a drink, and sighs that he wished Lisa would join them on the retreat. He wanted to insist she come along, but she didn’t want to be a burden. Julius remembers how much she used to love going on trips, and asks if it’s too late to hope for any progress on her hit-and-run case.
John says too much time has passed for that, but assures julius that Lisa has him now, so it’s okay. Julius is appeased by that, and John lets his smile fade for a split-second when julius isn’t looking.
Julia steps out of kate’s body that night so that she can update her on what’s going on, and kate is a little shocked at Julia’s plan to seduce julius at the retreat, but quickly starts throwing out ideas for how to get it done. Kate says she’ll have to get a separate room and she’ll go buy a new slip to wear, and Julia stares at her in shock. They high-five, giddy with excitement.
The Sun staff arrives at the lakeside pension, where the owners greet them warmly. Their young daughter(prissy) joins them and points over at Kate and asks, “Why is there another aunty inside that aunty ?”Julia plays dumb, and the parents hurry the girl away.
They start to unload the cars, and Mike stacks so many boxes in julia’s arms that she can’t even see over the top of them. Felix takes them from her and complains that Mike is treating her badly.
Mike gets mad at Felix for daring to talk back, and asks if he’s kate’s boyfriend or something. Felix: “What, are boyfriends the only ones allowed to talk back? Fine, I’ll be her boyfriend then!” Julia gasps and skips off after him, calling him “Boyfriend,” and playfully declaring that today is the first day of their relationship. Julius pretends like it doesn’t affect him, but he suddenly looks so glum.
They grill out by the lake, and julius suggests a survival cooking game where the winner gets to put a dish on next month’s menu and gets two days off. They all make a mad dash for ingredients and start creating their dishes, and when Julia gets praised for her knife skills, julius puffs up to hear her say she has a really great teacher. Julius announces that the finalists are Felix and Mike, and the others clearly favor Felix ’s dish because they recognize that Mike’s is almost identical to something they serve at their restaurant. They drumroll as they wait for julius’s verdict. The outcome seems obvious, except when julius sees Julia chanting Felix name and cheering for him so affectionately, he calls out Mike’s name instead as the winner. Everyone except Mike is confused, and even julius knows he’s talking out of his ass when he explains why Mike’s dish was better.
The mood is lively after many rounds of drinks, and julius heads out to go buy more liquor when they run out. Julia sneaks off to join him, and says she’s here to protect him from virgin ghosts. Julius : “Who’s protecting whom? You’re the most dangerous thing here.”
He’s confused when she insists on taking a bicycle, and the ghost-seeing girl(prissy) watches them from around the corner with a mischievous look in her eye. It’s doubly confusing when Julia gets so frustrated at his slowness that she takes over, suddenly riding a bike like it’s no big deal. Him riding in the back makes for a funny visual too.
It’s dark by the time they’re heading back, and Julia says that it used to be her dream to move to the country and open up a tiny restaurant. Julius says she could still do that, but she says it’s too late, refusing to elaborate on why. She notices that his shoelace is untied, so she stoops down to retie it using her special knot that never comes undone. He gets all quiet and awkward while she does it, and agrees that it won’t come undone easily.
She links her arm through his and declares their sneakers couple shoes now, and refuses to let go knowing that he has his hands occupied walking the bike. He tells her to stop crawling up on him, so she actually starts climbing him like a tree, which is when Bella suddenly calls out to them. What? Okay, you are officially a killjoy now . Bella says she was in the area on a location scout and thought she’d drop by, and julia makes no effort to hide her distaste for her, muttering loudly that companies sure are lax on their employees these days. The guys are happy to see Bella and welcome her eagerly, much to Julia annoyance. It turns out that Drunk Felix is like the Cookie Monster but for liquor, and has to be put to bed before he embarrasses himself further.
The girls have to share a room after all that, making for a very tense night. Julia wonders passive-aggressively why Bella came all this way just to join in on someone else’s work retreat, and Bella counters that she can’t understand why she (referring to Kate still posssesd by Julia) lives in that storage room in the restaurant. Julia : “Why are you so interested in where I sleep?” Bella : “Why are you so bothered by my being here?” They lie down in a huff, then spend the bulk of the night making sure the other one doesn’t sneak out, and trying to stay awake and outlast the other.
The night wears on, and Bella finally falls asleep first, giving Julia the chance to sneak into julius room. She goes straight for his bed and snuggles up in his arms, and though she startles him awake, it’s not like he makes a move to un-snuggle her or anything.
When he drags her up again, she asks loudly if he has some kind of prejudice against sex, and he clamps a hand over her mouth and wonders if he needs to take her to the hospital again.
They head outside when they hear the pension owners calling out for their daughter, who’s gone missing. The mother says that she’s not right in the head (insane) and worries that she’ll cause trouble again. Julius and Julia help search for her, and Julia finds her in the woods, talking to someone (an invisible someone) about finding the kids.
She takes off in a run and Julia chases her all the way to a cold storage warehouse, where the little girl locks her inside because she’s a ghost. She skips off back to her parents, and then julius goes off in search of her .
Julia decides that they can’t just sit here and freeze, so she ejects herself from Kate and tells her that she’ll figure something out. She passes through the wall and tries to focus all her energy on lifting the lock, but can’t manage it because it’s so heavy. But then she notices the firecracker and lighter that she dropped on the way in, and succeeds in picking up the lighter.
By now two hours have passed, julius gets everyone else up to help look for Kate. Mike complains about being dragged out in the middle of the night, and julius snaps at him that one of their family is missing.
He’s at his wit’s end, when suddenly the firecracker goes off in the distance. Julius knows right away that it’s Kate and takes off in a mad dash. He finds the lit firecracker but no one around, and Julia dashes back into the warehouse to get back in kate’s body and call out for help.
He pries the door open and grabs her in a fierce hug, awash in relief. She’s startled and says she’s okay, and the other boys all dash in behind him. Julius suddenly barks at her, all of his worry coming out in one long angry rant: “Are you crazy?! Were you thinking at all? What are you doing in here? Why would you come in here? I told you not to be so careless! Why don’t you listen to me?!”
She starts to make excuses, but he tells her there’s no way she’s okay after being trapped in here for two hours, and takes off his sweater to put around her shoulders. Felix suggests getting her out of here and offers to piggyback her, but julius stoops down to put her on his back first, and carries her out.
He mutters that her body is too cold for her to be fine, and the rest of the guys trudge along behind them, wondering how that firecracker went off by itself and why julius is so mad. Mike speculates that he must’ve been upset about the possible hospital bill, while felix looks over at julius and Kate with a knowing look.
Bella paces outside waiting for news, but when julius returns, he just walks right past her. They pack up and say their goodbyes in the morning, and the little girl waves goodbye to the Julia -inside-the-Kate , and Julia tells her not to cause any more trouble. Bella asks julius for a ride to the broadcast station, and finally gets some time alone with him.
At the police station, john’s colleague asks when his birthday is, because he might have a really great present for him. He announces that he found a top-notch technician to take another stab at fixing the broken CCTV from the time of Lisa’s hit-and-run, and John looks taken aback. He stops the other cop from calling julius and says he’ll call directly, and the friend heads out to go pick up the hard drive. *********
Julius drops Bella off at work, and she finally asks if he isn’t curious why she came all the way to his retreat. She guesses that he is curious but just afraid to ask, because he already knows what she’s going to say. She asks if the reason he’s drawing a line between them has anything to do with Kate , and when he hesitates to answer, she takes it back, regretting having asked. ********
John’s cop friend picks up the repaired hard drive, and then finds that his car suddenly won’t start. He gets out to look under the hood, when someone attacks him from behind, knocking him unconscious (or dead?), and smashes the hard drive underfoot. *********
Julia paces nervously, wondering if Julia is taking so long to get back because Bella is up to no good. She’s relieved when he returns, though less excited when he wants to go right back to the kitchen for more cooking lessons.
She complies for a while, but when she starts to complain about not feeling well, julius is worried enough to stop their lesson. He tells her to clean up, and she brightens up immediately. She stops to ask him why he got so mad last night, and he tenses up to be asked so openly.
She asks again but he can’t say anything in response, and he finally blurts that he didn’t want her causing accidents at the pension too. He snaps at her to clean up and stop asking questions, looking rattled at his own feelings.
Julia comes back with the hose but loses her grip on it when more water shoots out than she expected, and they both get doused before julius runs out to turn the water off. It’s not the most inventive trope, but now I see why Mom warned him to stay away from water.
He grabs towels and tells her to come closer so he can dry her off. With his arms around her and almost no space between them, the air shifts, and Julia actually gets a little shy and backs away.
Julius stares at her intently for a long moment before yanking on the towel around her back, and pulls her in for a kiss.
He kisses her again and again, and then suddenly… julia takes a step back, out of kate’s body. Kate eyes widen to find herself mid-kiss with julius , as Julia backs away from them.
We seek for happiness but we get sorrow, hardship, torment in return. Some one once said happiness is free but I always doubt the subject matter based on my instinct or should I call it my philosophy?
Like telling me to make peace with myself wasn’t enough, I was asked a shocking I never once thought I could be asked. You can imagine how shocking it could be to be asked “Do you know who you are?. Who am I? That’s a big question but unanswered one.
I realised that if I really want to be happy with my life no matter what the circumstances may be, I need to make peace with myself. I’m not doing good to anyone by making peace with myself, it’s something I’m doing for myself. People with different belief coexist at a place if that can happen among people then I should be able to make peace with myself.
Happiness is and will always be the most sought after, yet most elusive, of all human desires. Day in and day out, many search for happiness, but end the day empty-handed. It isn’t something we have to have permission for or that a factor or a person has to determine before we have it. It’s free!
The Pen Creative World 