To My Dearest Roseanne- Chapter 13
The pain radiating from the twisty folds of her brain was unbearable, but at least she was in her own bed.
Roseanne felt that all the memories of the previous day were nothing but a nightmare. Yes, a dreadful, foamy, slimy nightmare. The type of which she used to experience back in primary school. She dreamt of being on a ship in outer space, the vessel was abandoned and the lights were dim, but she was not the only passenger. Oh, no, there was no alien from the Alien movie. In her nightmares, Roseanne would always stumble upon a big, black boar who was sleeping, wheezing, and grunting.
Roseanne knew for certain that the moment this boar woke up, it was going to eat her alive, and she couldn't even escape it.
...escape...
....wheezing...
...fear...
The sensation of sheer panic made her wake up.
***
Evidently, Roseanne was no Harry Potter to cry about the living conditions in a tiny bed. She was so grateful for having her bed, which her dad patiently put together from ready-to-assemble appliances. It was already dark outside, but her small desk light was turned on. Roseanne felt like a 5-year-old again.
Suddenly, a figure entered her room, covered by darkness. She instinctively sensed that it was her mother. Mom oozed the aura of warmth and care she was craving for. And mom could walk! She was able to walk!
She put a cup of hot tea on the bedside table and caressed Roseanne's hair. Then, she touched the forehead, looking for signs of a fever.
"I'm fine, Ma. Please sit down." Roseanne said.
She sat on the edge of her bed.
"How I wish you could read me a bedtime story or sing a song, just like back when I was little."
The figure fidgeted in the darkness nervously, but eventually decided to say:
"Well, all I know are Winnie the Pooh's stories and a bunch of K-POP songs."
It wasn't Liz's voice, it was Roseanne's!
Then, the figure leaned over into the faint stream of light and Roseanne saw her face, the face that belonged to her.
"YOU AGAIN!" she shouted.
"Please, please, please, don't get excited again. I'm real and I'm not going to hurt you," Roseanne's mysterious twin explained while caressing her hair. "You have suffered a lot today. Allow yourself to have some rest and let me explain."
Roseanne still tried to comprehend what was going on, but the situation was clearly beyond the realm of logic.
"Well, fire away. Explain yourself. Which planet do you come from, lasergirl?" Roseanne asked sarcastically.
"I beg your pardon, but I'm not a being from outer space! My name is Rose Anne Cho. I was born on the 7th of July, 2008 in Seoul. The surname Cho–also spelled as Jo–is written with a Hangul symbol resembling a stool placed on a reversed table, and it has many different meanings, such as the beginning of something, a royal court, a candle, or something second."
Rose Anne Cho looked quizzingly at Roseanne who was still in a state of disbelief.
"You are Roseanne Juzynski, born on the 7th of July, 2008 in the Land of Po. We look the same, we sound the same, and our age is the same because we are the same person, but... how shall I put it? Different circumstances set the chain of events that led to our existence. By complete chance, I was able to see... and feel instances of our life. At one moment, I was walking on the street, and the next thing I knew a rain of sparks engulfed me. It showed me your life as if it were a demo tape, and it led me to you... At least, I think that's what happened... You can call me by my surname if it's easier for you."
Roseanne raised her eyebrows.
"So... this is like some alternate reality Marvel shit? Doctor Strange, Spider-man, Michelle Yeoh, and stuff?" Roseanne asked.
"Don't ask me, I'm not a rocket scientist!" Rose Anne Cho laughed. "All I know is that I could experience your life, and even learn a bit of your native language. And that experience in and of itself was a calling for me to come to you. I followed the path of sparks, and all of a sudden I found myself in the middle of a field! But luckily, I knew your address."
The information dump was crushing Roseanne with its weight.
"Well, shit. You are well-versed for a person who started speaking the Language of Po today," Roseanne said.
"In all honesty, I acquired most of the vocabulary from you, but the inflectional nature of your native tongue is a bit cumbersome and nuances of the slang very misleading. For example, what does 'zajebiste' mean? People would say this pointing at my dress."
"Oh!" Roseanne laughed. "It means that something is super awesome, as like 'Fucking A', pardon me."
"That's quite alright." Rose Anne Cho smiled. "I must say your language is quite exotic to me. At home, I do better with English than Korean, shame to admit."
"Wow! So you are like... a multilingual person."
"Not really. English was the first language I acquired in my childhood. Then, I had to start learning Korean in school. The process is painstaking, and I feel I won't fully grasp that language, but I do make an effort to use it frequently."
Roseanne didn't even realise that she already felt at ease in the presence of an individual who was, or at least claimed to be, the alternate version of herself. She felt she knew her all her life, and quite understandably so. Perhaps that is why she mistook her for Mom when she woke up. Roseanne carefully examined Rose Anne Cho and wondered what kind of life she had in South Korea. What did she experience? What people did she meet? What school did she attend? How did she spend her free time? Who did she prefer: Brad Pitt or Edward Norton? Most importantly, how on earth did she end up in South Korea?
"Do you have the same parents as me?" Roseanne asked.
Rose Anne Cho thought carefully about the posed question for a long moment until she answered, "We are of the same appearance, so it goes without saying we have the same parents. However, we were born into different worlds... so our turns of events are incompatible."
"So in that case... Does your mom walk in your world?"
The feeling of ice-cold water spreading across the innards hit Rose Ann Cho immensely. Her muscles tensed so hard that she nearly became breathless. Before she was able to open her mouth and say something, a mobile phone ringtone slit its way across the silence like a knife in the dark.
"Shit, dad's calling!"
With the speed of the lightning bolt, Roseanne grabbed the phone and rushed out of the room to talk to him. Rose Anne Cho was still sitting on the bedside frozen in her position, contemplating and eavesdropping at the same time.
"Everything is fine Dad... No, Mom is washing herself right now... Yes, I'll tell her... She'll call you back if she doesn't forget, you know her."
It was heartbreaking for Rose Anne Cho to see an alternate version of herself lying to her father. But she knew Roseanne was forced to do it due to an unfortunate situation she ended up in. Indeed, it wasn't an all-joyful experience to get to know about her life. In the whirlwind of fireworks, she was able to see little Roseanne admiring fairground rides (but not having enough money to buy tickets), sneaking into a local cinema through the side entrance (just to see Paddington, Mission: Impossible, and James Bond), or getting through kindergarten without going on field trips (to avoid paying high transportation costs).
The examples were numerous but this is not to say that Roseanne was living in chronic poverty. She always had different things to wear for school days, she could afford a proper lunch meal, she had a roof under her head, a dog, and two loving parents. The family income might have been low, but at least they didn't have any debts to worry about. Roseanne seemed content throughout her childhood because she had a caring mother and father whom she could count on, but nevertheless, Rose Anne Cho felt distraught to see her struggling so much at the age of 16.
Perhaps this was the purpose of my coming, she thought, to help Roseanne get through a difficult period of her life.
It was all too confusing for Rose Anne Cho. She was just returning back from the bookstore, having finished a pleasant conversation with a friend, and, in the blink of an eye, BAM... she found herself in the Land of Po, over eight thousand kilometres (and God only knows how many galaxies) away from her home.
She didn't regret it, though. On the contrary, she greatly enjoyed having experienced this magical mumbo jumbo that made her fall from the sky into this alternative world. Finally some breakaway from the aimless boredom of daily existence.
Yes, Rose Anne Cho felt grateful for being able to meet Roseanne. She didn't want to come back to Seoul.
In fact, her own wish came true.
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