Roseanne's Summer Vacation- Chapter 22
It was late afternoon already. Thally and Nika loudly complained that they’re hungry and too tired to walk back to the city centre. To calm them down, Mr Orville suggested going by bus to the Riviera shopping centre for lunch.
The Riviera Centre was the largest department store in Pomerania. It had two storeys, so the height was modest, but its length stretched across an entire street. Mr Orville became a guide through a maze of colourful shops to the dining area where they could choose from the regular fast-foods and traditional lunch joints. The girls got two hours for themselves in the facility.
Thally, Milena, and Nika immediately rushed to order at KFC. Roseanne and Natasha, in contrast, saved some time by taking what was on the display in Orient Express.
A dreadful chef was towering over customers and breathing on their necks. “Don’t touch that spoon! If you leave it in that pan, you will mix the food!”
Luckily, the two friends avoided the tableware-Gestapo. They bought Japanese noodles and crunchy chicken rolls. They were so hungry after extensive walking that it took them less than fifteen minutes to clear the plates.
Natasha took a sip of lemonade and let out a burp after filling up her stomach.
“Let’s go shopping,” Roseanne suggested.
***
Their first stop was H&M, where Roseanne was hoping to buy a decent T-shirt. She looked around the aisles, searching for something that would catch her eye, but nothing seemed interesting. Natasha dug out a T-shirt with an image of an anthropomorphic dog eating ramen. It seemed great, but there was only an extra-large size available. It would look on Roseanne like a flag on a pole.
They were about to head to Zara when Roseanne thought she heard a familiar voice. She stopped and listened attentively.
“100, 200, 300 Po credits. Keep the change.”
It was Tae-jun!
Roseanne circled among the aisles with the swiftness of a guerrilla fighter in a jungle. She located the target while hiding between the suits. He was moving in her direction. Roseanne maintained her cover, carefully calculating the distance separating them. Three seconds passed and—
“Oh god. Please forgive me, mister. I’m so clumsy.” Roseanne bumped into Tae-jun out of nowhere. His shopping bag fell to the floor. The boy picked it up without a hurry. It took him a few good moments to register who was in front of him.
“Roseanne? What a surprise!”
“Indeed it is!”
“Well, by golly. I can’t believe it myself,” Natasha emerged from behind the aisle with a sarcastic smirk. “What a small world.”
Roseanne pursed her lips, clearly communicating that Natasha should save it. Before the friend could respond, Tae-jun laughed cheerfully.
“To be honest, I thought we’re gonna meet again sooner. Unfortunately, I got held up by a side hustle last night, so we missed each other at the hostel.”
“But you are here now,” Roseanne remarked. “Are you busy by any chance?”
“I have a day off as a matter of fact. All this free time for myself.”
“Splendid. Then you won’t mind accompanying two ladies on a shopping spree?”
Tae-jun looked confused, but retained his smile, “You want me to hang out with you?
“What do you think?” Roseanne shot at him with her eyes. Her gaze screamed incite.
“I’m cool. Let’s do it.”
***
To Natasha, it was just a fun time with a foreigner, but to Roseanne, it was a full-on date. With Tae-jun beside her, she felt as if she were flying in the air. She made sure to tell him how they spent the morning at a ferry terminal and in Orłowo.
Their first stop was a place called Sweet Factory Store. Tae-jun knew this shop very well because you could buy not only candies, but also chocolate lollipops, bubble gum, and many other products. The two friends salivated immediately at the sight of sweets, so they stuffed their bellies with colourful samples of every imaginable category.
“Oh shit!” Natasha cried. “My intestines are going to burst!”
She ran quickly to the toilet. Tae-jun suggested to Roseanne that while waiting for her friend’s return, they could use a photo booth.
“A photo booth?”
Roseanne knew these were quite popular for nostalgia reasons, but she never used them. Tae-jun already pressed his credit card to the terminal and invited her inside.
Behind the curtain, Roseanne tensed up in an enclosed space because she had no idea how to pose next to the boy wonder. He was all about smiling and being chill. She, however, barely held up two fingers to the camera.
The photo shoot was completed. Tae-jun looked at the set of five tiny photos spit out by the machine. “You’re looking so sad, Rosie.”
Rosie! He called me Rosie! The girl couldn’t believe what she heard and blushed.
“Let’s try again!” Tae-jun said, starting another session.
Roseanne tensed up again, but out of the blue, Tae-jun’s hand surrounded her neck. Before her mind could register what happened, he hugged her tightly. Then, he let go as quickly as he grabbed her.
She nearly shouted from surprise. Gut reaction made her hit him in the shoulder. Obviously, he was simply fooling around to make her smile. Roseanne’s face was red hot from increased blood flow.
“There. Much more radiant,” he said.
The girl nearly choked when she saw the printed photos. Her mind went into meltdown mode. It’s insane. We look like a couple!
***
Natasha was waiting for them outside the booth. Roseanne couldn’t help but show her the photographs printed on a small strip of film.
“They look very nice,” the friend whispered. “You should keep it somewhere where they won’t bend.”
Tae-jun overheard the advice. “Good thinking, Natasha.” He reached for his wallet.
Roseanne hid her copies in a smartphone casing. When the boy put his set inside the wallet, a different photo fell out of it.
Natasha kneeled to pick it up. “Oh, is that your brother or cousin?” she asked at the sight of a pale, Korean man in glasses, with chubby cheekbones, and a square-shaped hairstyle, looking directly at the camera.
Tae-jun snatched the photo immediately, startling Natasha. He got angry, but caught himself in time not to show it.
“Yeah… He is a distant cousin.” He cleared his throat. “Hey, let’s step outside. I want to show you something.” The boy immediately grabbed Roseanne by the arm and led her to the exit. Natasha followed in confusion.
***
“Okay, Mr Orville. I’ve got a mission for you.”
The teacher just wanted to peacefully finish eating chicken de volaille with French fries, but the shadow of Thally and Nika obscured daylight in front of him.
“Can’t it wait?” he asked.
“No, because it’s an emergency,” Thally said.
“What type of emergency?”
“I’ve run out of smokes.”
Mr Orville sighed. “Then why doesn’t Nika give you some of her winter supplies?”
“She won’t because she’s a cheapskate.”
“I’m not smoking.”
“I know.” Thally shuffled her feet. “But you can buy some. I’m only seventeen, and Nika left her ID at home.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Absolutely yes! Please, pretty please. I had only one pack and it finished already. If you don’t, I’m gonna kick and scream like Damien Thorn taken to a church in The Omen.”
“Don’t care, never watched it.”
Thally bit her lips. “Okay, if you don’t, then I’m gonna kick and scream like Damien Thorn’s mom in The First Omen. Believe me, you wouldn’t like that.”
Mr Orville barely chewed on the last few fries. He threw the plastic fork on a plate. “Will you stop pestering me?”
“I will if you buy!”
“Damn it!”
The teacher got up with a sigh of resignation. Thally knew he had never bought cigarettes in his life, so—apart from money—she also prepared a shopping list beforehand. He took the note with toxic brands highlighted in bullet points.
The seller at the newsagent’s greeted him with the formal “How may I help you?” not even smiling. Mr Orville looked hesitantly as if the police were to circle him around and bust for illegal buyout of tobacco, but then he reminded himself he is an adult.
He started reading the list: “I’d like one pack or regular Camels, two packs of green LMs with long, thin fags, and three strawberry-flavoured e-liquids.”
The seller put the orders on the counter and then declared, “We don’t have strawberry e-liquids.”
Shit! What do I do now? Mr Orville thought intensely for a while. He then said, “Do you have any other flavours?”
“There are Coca-Cola ones.”
“Daughter! Daughter!” Mr Orville called. It took Thally a whole minute to grasp that she was the one being addressed. She entered shyly.
“Yes, daddy!” She bent her knees a bit, as if the squatting position was to fool anybody that she was smaller. This made the seller just eyeball her suspiciously. “What’s up?”
“There are no strawberry liquids for Mom, and I don’t know if it’s okay to buy Coca-Cola ones.”
“Oh!” Thally moved her hand back and forth to demonstrate it’s not a problem. “She’ll be A-okay. I guarantee it.”
“Give us the liquids then.” Mr Orville paid the money. Thally was eagerly packing her treasures into a bag.
“Goodbye,” she said while blissfully squatting away.
The seller escorted her with a scornful stare.
“What are you looking at?” Mr Orville’s anger kicked in. “My daughter is suffering from osteoporosis.”
Comments
Post a Comment