The Stranger

It was Cassandra's day off and she had slept in. She woke up feeling miserable and ill. She thought of the happenings of Monday night and felt tears prick her eyes, She had felt really emotional the last few days, she assumed it was the fact that she knew she would have to move. She got out of bed and went downstairs for a shower. There were empty cerial bowls on the table, and she guessed the kids had made thier own breakfast and gone to school. They had made her a bowl too, but it had already attracted the flies. She left it for the maid to clear up and went back upstairs to choose an outfit. When she was dressed she looked out of the window, and noticed a big van a few streets away. It looked like a moving van. Someone had finally moved into the huge Moroccan Mansion. She smiled.
"It'll be nice to have a neighbour!"

Rafaele Felicidad had always lived in Italy. His parents were very rich, and gave him all he wanted. He had a very well paid job he was a successful football player for a famous team, and seemed to have the perfect life, he was very happy. But he was missing having a family, he had always dreamed of having kids. So when his job offered to move him out of his small Italian village and to a strange Suburban city to become a SimCity football star, he didn't refuse. It would be nice to have a fresh start, and maybe meet someone. Although he seemed unspoiled and a very nice person, he loved to have his luxuries, so he brought the biggest house Pleasantview had to offer.
He had just finished unpacking his removal van when he saw a shadow on the floor.

Cassandra had decided to walk over to the house and see the new neighbour. She caught sight of a man walking over to the gate and sped up to talk to him. Even though he had never been anywhere except his village, Rafaele was fluent in English.
"Hello" Cassandra said, noticing how attractive he was and blushing.
"Hi" he smiled. Cassandra looked like a very pretty woman to him indeed. "Can I help you?"
"Oh, It's just I saw your moving van, and I came over to say hi. Hi" Cassandra said awkwardly, and blushed even more.
Rafaele was struck. He had never seen a woman this beautiful before. He felt a bit strange around the tummy. "And a hello to you too"
"Are you from Italy?"
"Yes, your town seems very strange to me at the moment, at least this house and the weather is like home."
"Do you like the change?"
"As a matter of fact I do very much so. Especially when beautiful women such as yourself walk past and chatter to me" He smiled, he was impressed with himself at how well his English was holding up! "Would you like to come in for a drink?"

It wasn't long before him and Cassandra were in his hot tub. He felt extremely shy, he thought he was falling in love with Cassandra. She was so easy to talk to, she make jokes and was really interesting. He had never liked someone so much so quickly before, and was slightly nervous whenever she said his name. Little did he know Cassandra was feeling almost the same way. Even though she felt sick and tierd she was having a really great time with Rafaele, or 'Rafa' as he told her to call him. It was almost as natural as being with Don, but with Don she had to pretend not to be herself, but Rafa seemed to like her even though she knew she was boring him. She eventually ended up telling him all about the house situation she was in Rafa suddenly smiled.
"I have many spare rooms. Many, many. I was hoping to maybe rent them out, I do not want to live alone. But maybe you and your big numbers of children could move in instead."
Cassandra was suprised. "Oh wow! Well, I'd love to, but the kids..." She stopped talking there. She was very tempted but Rafaele's offer, but her children may not appreciate moving in with a strange man, no matter how big his house was. But she so wanted to live with Rafa! She knew it was sudden, and she had only known him for about 3 hours, but he seemed so kind, and she really did need somewhere to stay.
"The kids...?" Rafa asked. He was praying she would say yes.
"Well, ok. I'll move in ASAP if that's good with you." Then she suddenly started crying.

Rafa was completely thrown. He put an awkward arm around her, and tried to cheer her up. "You do not have to move in if you do not want to. What is the sadnesss for?"
"Sorry {sniff} I've just been crying a lot recently. But I'm just so happy I don't have to have the bother of looking for a place big enough. Thank you."

A few weeks later moving day had arrived. All of their belongings were in boxes ready to go, the only pieces of furnature left out were some garden chairs for the kids to sit on.

The taxi arrived on time, and they all climbed in. "Bye house!" Martin said, waving out of the window. Bella wiped tears away.
"I don't want to go!"
"Mother! What about Grandad's grave?"
"I like Rafa's house! I want to go!"
"Shut up Joseph."
"What? It's big, it had a pool!"
And it was among the arguing of four moody and tierd children and the smell of car fumes that Cassandra felt a small movement in her abdomen. She put her had there and felt that her stomach was slightly bigger than it had been a week or two ago. And she knew exactly what had caused it.