To My Dearest Roseanne- Chapter 6
Enzo greeted Roseanne with his tongue on Friday evening. Roseanne thought she overdid it today because physical exhaustion kicked in hard. She barely managed to stand on her feet. Having swayed her way into the living room, she saw her mom watching TV.
"Hey, what's on?" Roseanne asked, trying to free her feet from large leather boots and white socks.
"Gremlins," Liz said.
"Gremlins! Part one or two?!"
"The one in which they get blown up at the cinema."
"Oh, I was hoping for the other flick. The one which has the Brain Gremlin in it."
"And to think you didn't like these movies when you were young."
"Excuse me. I was the one who wanted to watch Winnie the Pooh. You introduced me to the whole series of monstrosities."
Indeed, that was the truth. Roseanne's mom was an avid fan of the horror genre. Back in the 1990s, she proudly read Graham Masterton and Stephen King (in that order of preference). When it came to the realm of cinema, however, one, primary love was science fiction/fantasy horror. Liz loved the Alien movies, Predator, The Thing, Ghostbusters, and of course Gremlins. Of course, she diligently introduced little Roseanne to all these classics whenever they happened to be aired on TV. Oftentimes, Liz would drift into sleep, leaving terrified Roseanne to watch the fests of body gore, haunting, and insanity through her fingertips. Roseanne shall never forget when she watched Aliens for the first time, as a six-year-old. For weeks she was afraid that there was a Xenomorph either under the sofa or behind the curtain lurking to kill her. Dad had to check these places and calm her down every night before going to sleep.
"By the way, Dad called today," Liz said, "He got hold up with transhipment in Hel. Though it's really cold out there this time of the year, he went to the seaside and tried to visit the aqua park that has dolphins in it. It was closed, unfortunately."
"Oh, I remember that aqua park and the queue stretching from the entrance all the way to Tokyo! I immediately lost interest in seeing the dolphins. To tell the truth, I feel sorry they are being kept there," Roseanne said, recalling her summer sojourn in Hel a few years ago.
"Would you like to call Dad now, dear?"
"Nah, he may be sleeping in his cabin already. I'll try calling tomorrow."
***
Afterwards, Roseanne quickly hit the shower and threw her uniform into the washing machine. The dull-looking piece of cloth in monochromatic shades of brown, grey, and green was stained with sweat and dirt. Sadly, each student had only one uniform, which meant they could wash it two times a week at best before it had to be worn from Wednesday to Friday. Monday and Tuesday were non-uniform days during which Roseanne could dress up like every other high schooler.
In her bedroom, she turned on the TV and Enzo jumped on her bed. Before engaging in a wrestling match with the dog to get him off the bed, she received a Messenger notification on her phone.
"he y , Roxy, sup?" read the message from Kacper.
"Ugh!" Roseanne grunted, "Not him again."
Roseanne and Kacper used to date together for a very brief time. That is until Kacper was arrested by the police for illegal drug possession and sentenced to spend the remainder of the year in the juvenile detention centre. Roseanne felt so stupid that she gave her attention to this intellectually-challenged, ADHD-charged incel with an angle grinder in his head instead of brain.
"u mad at me or wat ?? want us to get back tegeder," he messaged again.
Roseanne took a deep breath and wrote back:
"Try hooking up with juvie broads who already get child support."
The response came almost instantly:
"U BEETCH! I GAWE ALLL 2 U! U CAN SUK HABIBI COOKS"
Roseanne lost her temper and typed in:
"Fuck you, you diarrhea-shitting gummy monkey. I hope they will grind your stick to a pulp and shave your asshole with a blunt razor, so you won't piss and shit ever again!"
Having sent the message, she immediately blocked Kacper.
***
There, done and dusted, she thought to herself and collapsed on a bed next to Enzo. Still, in a rush of adrenaline, Roseanne grabbed the phone again and called Emily.
"Yo, what's going on, sister?" Emily answered.
"Hi! Sorry to interrupt. Can you imagine that Kacper reached out to me just now?"
"The shithead?"
"That's right!"
"Girl..."
A conversation ensued between friends that lasted for at least an hour. Roseanne shared all of her PTSD flashbacks from her time with Kacper, whereas Emily commented on them like a professional relationship coach, even though her experiences with the opposite sex were little to none. All in all, Roseanne felt hatred that the idiot had the audacity to get in touch with her. She shouldn't have dealt with the pillock in the first place and wanted absolution for doing so. Thankfully, Emily exonerated her from romantic wrongdoings.
"You deserve better," Emily uttered the cliched proverb that should have been the 11th commandment.
"Thank you, Captain Obvious. I'm aware of that. Just dating is so exhausting. You give some guy a chance. You care for him. You become a bolster of his confidence, and the next thing you know, he dumps you for some dumb bitch."
"Talk about the spitting image of my divorced parents."
"Oh... I didn't mean it to sound that way. I didn't know, Emily."
"That's okay. I'm a big girl now and accepted the situation."
After the call, Roseanne felt somewhat better. The embarrassment after the interaction with Kacper was gone, but it was replaced with the embarrassment of her falling out with Emily yesterday. Granted, she was strange and annoying at times, but she always had her back. One time, when a bunch of girls from a different class started calling Roseanne names, Emily stepped into action like Ellen Ripley and beat the living shit out of crazy cows. This stunt cost her two weeks of suspension (which she spent riding her beloved Kawasaki Ninja).
Even though rough around the edges, Emily was a sincere friend.
***
Late in the evening, Roseanne helped her mom get into a bathtub. Liz forbade the daughter from bathing her. She wanted to do everything on her own. However, Roseanne wanted to help at least in some capacity. The daughter knew her mother couldn't lift herself even an inch above the wheelchair.
"It's okay, my dear. You can leave me be," Liz said when she was safely positioned in the water.
"You sure?"
"I'm not bathing myself for the first time. Go and rest. You had a tough day."
But Roseanne did not just go and rest. She did the dishes and turned on a vacuum cleaner. Enzo bounced around, barking at the machine, as if he were fighting a mechanical anaconda.
"Enzo, leave it! Goddammit!"
Roseanne tried to disregard the dog, but he managed to bite through a cord, rendering the beast from hell powerless.
"Great..."
With the skill of a gifted handyman, Roseanne joined pieces of copper and isolated the damaged section of a cable with duct tape. Afterwards, she cleaned the windows and helped her mom get out of the bathtub.
"You really didn't need to clean, sweetie."
"I didn't need to, but I wanted to," said Roseanne and kissed her mom on the forehead.
Exhausted, she collapsed on a bed. While wrapping herself around the bed sheets, she reminded herself about all the stuff she had for tomorrow: Take Enzo for a walk, pay the bills, go shopping, do homework, call dad.
Half-awake, Roseanne looked at the dark sky outside the window and thought to herself:
I know I can't complain, but I wish there were two of me. One Roseanne who could provide for the family, and the other one who could be the perfect student....
...I wish I could have been in two places at the same time...
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