To My Dearest Roseanne- Chapter 38
May, 2024
To my dearest Roseanne,
I'm really gonna miss you.
Call it bad luck or cruel fate, but the powers in charge of the universe messed up my situation. I won't give up and try to fix it.
However, it means I have to go.
I do this with a heavy heart. I'm sorry. I was looking forward to meeting your parents and living with you like a proper relative. God be my witness, it was a wish I longed for! Please don't be sad. If anything, maybe it's for the best. Nobody finds out about me, so you won't get in trouble.
Take care, my dear little sister.
PS You'll always be my little sister, just as I am an older sister to you.
PS 2 Say goodbye to Enzo and Emily for me.
With best regards (hopefully, from my side of the universe)
Rose Anne Cho
The sound of a clock ticking away on the bedside table was the only sound that accompanied Roseanne as she was reading the note. When she finished, the girl felt emotionless. Her eyes didn't water with tears, her vocal cords didn't contract to produce a cry of despair, her heart didn't go loose on a wild racing feat. There was only a bottomless void filling up her guts, as if she were descending in free fall for all eternity.
The next week saw Roseanne's daily existence reassembled like a bunch of Lego bricks in a video game. Mom came back home and she was definitely more lively and more cheerful with the dad around. For a short amount of time, before Robert's another trucking tour, Roseanne could finally enjoy family life without any worries or a mountain of responsibilities.
But she didn't enjoy it.
Then, there was school. Roseanne put on the military uniform and began attending classes again, but she couldn't live up to the image of Roseanne created by Cho among peers and teachers.
"Rosie, let's do a speaking test for the Maturity exam in English, you know," Natasha suggested in excitement.
"Can you help me with this maths homework, please?" Isa asked.
Emily, on the other hand, wouldn't say anything. She would withdraw to the comfort of her mobile phone, clutching a helmet to her chest as if it were a teddy bear.
Roseanne either didn't feel like it or she just couldn't help her friends in need. Whereas Cho was a woman for all seasons, Roseanne thought of herself as good for nothing, and this attitude was very much reflected in her grades. Instead of standard B's and occasional A's, she would get C's and D's across the board. Even Sergeant Warwick was dissatisfied with her performance in PE and military prep. She gave up.
Her mind didn't even register when Mr Orville told her about the scholarship, which she (that is, Cho) won. She took an official slip from the foundation that could be cashed in at a post office and completely forgot about it.
***
Each day, she sat on her bed and kept scouring through the news, afraid to find any information about the morbid discovery of a body in a ditch or somewhere else. Thankfully, there wasn't any. However, Roseanne did stumble upon a Facebook group called "FREE MIERZWIN RESIDENTS FROM POWER CORP DICTATE".
The group was flooded with posts of the village locals chronicling the extraordinary events that happened to electrical poles from the middle of March to the end of April. There were pictures, videos, and even memes protesting against the irresponsible inaction of the politicians and emergency services.
Roseanne's eyes widened the moment she saw the latest updates on the group.
"Here's the kicker you won't hear in the media, folks. For a few days now, the electrical poles have been completely intact!!! Did Father Christmas come with a bucket of paint and a welding machine to fix the damn thing? Even the cables are properly aligned and the dirt is unscorched. It's like the explosions have never happened!!!"
Attached was a photo of shiny poles standing tall over the blossoming field. Some commenters wrote the post was fake, others proposed calling the UFO Research Center or the Heaven's Gate cult. A handful of people stated the picture is, in fact, real and the authorities are trying to cover up the whole shebang, hoping everyone forgets about the explosion incident.
"You need to physically come over to see it with your own eyes. The poles were restored to their original condition overnight," Roseanne read one of the comments.
Immediately after, the cogs in her brain started moving. The void got filled with seeds of an idea that soon exploded into a full-blown plan, which kept growing exponentially with each second. She was no longer in free fall. She regained control.
***
A knock on the door brought Roseanne to the ground like a slap on the face.
"Dad went shopping. Can I come in?" Liz asked.
"You don't have to ask, mom."
Liz pushed the handle and rolled her wheelchair in. She positioned herself by Roseanne's bed.
"Forgive me for my intrusion, I don't usually do this, but I wanted to ask you something."
"Fire away."
"To tell you the truth, I noticed this past week that you seem... off. Did something bad happen to you? You can't keep this bottle up inside you forever, hun."
Roseanne didn't know what to say, so she remained silent. Even continued with hesitance:
"If you don't wish to say what it is, I understand. But if it's because of me, if my unexpected illness and hospital stay overwhelmed you, then I should know. I'm sorry, my precious Roseanne. A mother should never be a burden to her child." Liz put a hand to her mouth to cover embarrassment.
Roseanne immediately jumped on the bed.
"Mom, no! It's not like that! Please don't say this!" She grabbed her hands. "I love you more than anything and you are never a burden to me, it's just that..."
"What, baby?"
"It's that..." Roseanne was frantically searching for the right words. "I lost a kindred soul recently."
The colour of Liz's face brightened.
"A kindred soul. You mean a boy?"
"No, a girl. The same age as me. We met by accident and she helped me when you were being treated."
"Oh, sweetie." Liz touched her cheek and massaged it a little. "It's great you had somebody to lean on. How come I didn't meet her?"
"Well, I wanted to introduce you, but she just disappeared out of the blue."
"You mean she ghosted you?"
"We can call it like that. To be specific, she had to return where she came from."
"Was she from your school?"
"No, Mom. But I showed her my school."
Liz massaged her cheek for a little longer and then caressed the girl's hair.
"I'm sorry to hear that you lost a friend. It can happen to anyone. Time is a great healer. By tomorrow, by next winter, or by your graduation, your heart won't be weeping over your kindred soul."
Somehow Roseanne found that hard to believe.
"Say, Rosie. It's the beginning of a May break. Maybe you can reach out to your high school friend and hang out with them?"
Roseanne's mind went ablaze upon hearing this suggestion.
"You really think so?"
"Yes, you mentioned Emily has a big house, so maybe all of you can have a sleepover if her mother agrees? I used to do that frequently with my friends back in the day."
"Oh, I will write to her right away." Roseanne got hold of her phone.
Liz smiled at the sight of reigniting the spark of joy in her daughter. Roseanne, on the other hand, wasn't happy because of her mother's proposition.
She was happy because it was a perfect opportunity to set her plan in motion.
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