Eezul

It seems my former Hope Street Studios colleagues Bee Tee and Cee Cee have bought (the dreamescape version of) my old Glasgow flat -

I enter the flat's bathroom, which is similar in terms of (basic) fittings but not in layout – the sink is now to my left inside the door, the rough timber carcass of it's framing exposed, a pool of water – so typically Cee, I think – draining from the soppy rust coloured carpet into a hole in the floor -

I am now in Bee Tee and his wife Ell's bed/sitting room, a dim and chaotic space – it could very well be a drug addict's abode – and am hoovering using an extension hose which to my frustration keeps clogging and jamming with fluff. I am constantly checking I have not accidentally sucked up anything of value. Their bed runs along the opposite wall to that of the window, by the door, and it is there, to my surprise, I finally find some children's toys, a selection of bright yellow trucks and suchlike -

It seems I am entering the the very same room for a second time, only Ell is now reclining (on a bed/sofa?) her top pulled up so she can gently stroke her exposed stomach. “Wow! You're pregnant again!?” I say brightly. The look of sheer hurt (and self-confusion) on her face stops me in my tracks! She pulls her top down. I then see their (2 year-old?) daughter who sits up on the settee. All I can say is, “Oh!” Anything else that springs to mind – praise, shock, reassurance – simply clogs and stalls in the thought process. Their daughter has a huge head the size of a football. It takes all my mental capacity to register and process this as her head swivels (not turns!) on its neck towards me to reveal a curious and ugly face. It looks like her skin/features are sculpted in some sort of crude 80s FX/animatronic stop-motion style, even more so when, in response to my pulling funny faces, she contorts her sparse features into grotesque caricatures, her thin lips curling over perfectly arranged small teeth, her eyes popping and bugging as she widens them mischievously, everything rippling and shimmering as she does so. I am speechless, haunted -

I make my excuse to leave, meeting Bee (and avoiding Cee?) in the hallway as I do so, rescuing his keys from the outside of the front door as I go. He thanks me, somewhat fuzzily confessing to doing it all the time (as I do too) -

Outside in the communal hallway I am taken by how busy it is, students coming and going to the flat upstairs -