If Walls could Talk

The year is 1984, Ashley, a young curious, courageous and independent 15 yr old girl lives in a rundown section of the city with her mom and two younger brothers. Her family doesn’t have much, but they have each other.

Ashley spends most of her time looking after her younger brother Bryan, and Jonathan, they’re twins and busy as hell when they get going so she always had her handful. They respected Ashley, so they weren’t too hard on her for the most part. There isn’t much to do for work in this town, Ashley’s mother, Christine works two jobs. During the day she’s a manager at the local Inn and at nights she’s a waitress at the local diner. Christine works her fingers to the bones every day just to provide what little her family survives off of. It wasn’t much, but on days they could sit down at the table and enjoy a meal, all of the problems of the world disappeared and it was just them, and that was more than they could ever ask for. Ashley’s father passed a few years back in a car accident, It’s been hard for them to move forward. Bryan and Jonathan were too young to remember, but Ashley wasn’t. She misses her father everyday, so does her mother. That kind of pain doesn’t fade, they’ve just learned how to live with it…

Things take a turn for the better when Christine one day receives a letter in the mail about a major job fair being hosted by Wilbur Corporation. She’s been trying to get a better job for years, two jobs a day was wearing her thin and she wasn’t making much either so anything would be better at this point.

This wasn’t your ordinary job fair, it was extremely fancy with all the bells and whistles. Christine felt the universe swinging in her favor, and she was right. She blew the shoes off of every recruiter there. By the end of the event, she was walking out with three job offers. She was ecstatic, and awestruck, things hadn’t been this great for her in so long she forgot what it felt like.

The job she takes comes with an amazing compensation package including a week long getaway at the Wilbur ranch for her and her kids. She rushes home to tell the kids and they don’t know whether it’s real or if it was one of those scams. Bryan and Jonathan immediately jump on board, but Ashley isn’t sold.

The week of the trip finally arrives and the excitement beamed through their 3 bedroom apartment like a bolt of lightning. Judging from the pictures in the pamphlet, this was going to be a week like none other. There were four Olympic swimming pools, chefs available around the clock, individual suites stocked with fridges full of whatever snacks they desired. This was truly too good to be true, at least in Ashley’s mind. The pamphlet didn’t do the actual ranch any justice. Pictures were one thing, but to actually walk on this land was another, it was truly breathtaking. For a second Ashley is convinced that maybe this wouldn’t be a bad thing. As they arrive they see other black families walking up and from the looks of it, it doesn’t appear there were any white people on the premises.

4 families including Ashley’s walk up the cobblestone driveway towards this massive brown door. Each of them was amazed by the size of the property, the architecture was amazing, the stone outside of the house appeared old, this place had been standing for a long time. There were three large bay windows along the frontside of the house. The stairs to the front door were perfectly placed, as if they were laid just yesterday. This place was truly a sight to see.

The door swings open and out walks the first white person they would see all week, Mr. Wilbur himself. Rick Wilbur was quite a mystery, allegedly made his fortune during WW2 supplying both sides. He was a soft spoken man, gentle even, but something about him was off to Ashley. Everyone else loved him, almost as if they were under a spell. The week started off good, but people started to go missing and soon Ashley finds out all of her suspicions were justified. She learns the true reason they were invited to this ranch and why her mother was offered this position. They were too deep in the game at this point, nobody believes her and she’s beginning to look crazy. She tries to warn the other families, but that only makes things worse, now she must figure out a way to escape with her family and survive this weekend's getaway turned fight for survival….