Roseanne's Summer Vacation- Chapter 7

Thally and Milena had zero luck finding colleagues willing to go on a trip. This Herculean effort was done entirely by Milena’s mom over the weekend. It was the 8th of July already. The girls were waiting at the Bydgoszcz Main Railway Station, the building of which looked from the street level like a broken sewing machine.

Milena was prepared like Lara Croft for an expedition deep into the Peruvian jungle. She had a backpack with her. To match the khaki colour scheme of her luggage, she wore a cotton T-shirt, shorts, and glasses. Thally, on the other hand, had a big sports bag and she wore a plain tracksuit.

“What is it with you? A sleepless night?” Thally asked her companion with concern. “The bags under your eyes are as big as potato sacks.”

“I’m fine,” Milena answered with a horse voice. “It’s just I didn’t get enough sleep because my mom was rummaging through my room with a flashlight in the middle of the night.”

“What for?”

“She wanted to make sure I had everything I needed. You know what she’s like. She won’t let me go without a nebuliser, sunscreen, pills for motion sickness—”

“—contraception pills, lubricant, I get it,” Thally finished for her, winking.

“Oh my god!” The whole station could hear Milena’s cry of shock. “Why do you have to be so vulgar?!”

***

The hangover was splitting Nika’s head from the inside. To give herself courage before the unwanted trip, she dyed her hair a neon-like mixture of blue and green, and she went to a friend’s party last night with a wheeled bag. Unfortunately, she passed out at some point during alcohol consumption, but some random cat fidgeting with her hair managed to wake her up just in time to catch a tram to the railway station.

Now she was enjoying the last bit of a Camel cigarette. When it burned entirely, the girl threw it on the ground and went down the street underpass that led to the station.

Inside, she considered getting a hamburger at McDonald’s, but there was little time before the train’s departure. Instead, she went into the Inmedio newsstand to buy a new pack of cigarettes. She had emergency supplies for the trip, but it never hurts to have more.

“Traditional Camels, please,” she said to the shop assistant.

“Are you eighteen?” he asked.

“Well, yes,” Nika wasn’t lying.

“Show me some ID.”

Nika obediently opened up her wallet to get an ID card, but there was none. She quickly searched through her pockets. Her hands fished out some stained change, Orbit chewing gum, and half-rotten Chupa Chups.

“Darn it, I left my ID card and my school ID at home,” she said. “My homeroom teacher is gonna kill me.”

“No ID, no cigarettes,” the shop assistant declared.

“That’s just reverse ageism,” Nika pointed a finger at the man. “If a wrinkled midget came in just now, you wouldn’t ask them for an ID. Only honest, good-looking high schoolers like me have to suffer the humiliation. I’m reporting this shop to the Ombudsman of Po.”

“Is there anything else I can help you with?” the assistant asked, implying with his tone that the girl should leave.

“Yeah, I would like an energy drink.”

“You need to show an ID.”

“Goddamn you… Newsagent Nazi!”

***

It was the morning after Roseanne’s seventeenth birthday. The celebration was peaceful and limited to family and Natasha. That was Roseanne’s general preference every year. She also wanted to invite Emily Champignon, her other friend from high school. However, Emily was unfortunately unavailable, because she was on a bike journey across the Karakoram the whole summer. However, Emily did send a birthday card from the Khunjerab Pass.

“What did you think about the gift I gave you?” Natasha asked from behind the wheel as she was driving to the railway station.

“You mean the Unbound Trilogy box set? It’s very nice, and thank you for getting it for me,” Roseanne smiled.

“I hope the next literary adventures of Vincent from New Orleans will be as exciting as the original ones.”

“I wish I could read them right now! I don’t understand why my dad wants me to go on this seaside trip.”

“Maybe he wants you to get out of the house more.”

“I am getting out of the house, and a lot for that matter!” Roseanne sighed. “I think he has this weird fixation about Gdynia. He wanted to take me and Cho there last year, but he was too busy at work. I guess he didn’t want me to miss another opportunity when he heard about the trip on the phone.”

“Stop overthinking it, Rosie,” Natasha smiled. “We are going to relax and have fun at the sea for the next five days. You’ll see.” Natasha parked the car in front of the station, but as soon as the two unbuckled their seatbelts, a huge force blasted the rear end of the car. “Holy shit!” Natasha screamed.

Judging from the strength of the impact, the driving girl was convinced that the rear bumper of the Honda was totalled, but it didn’t even suffer a dent. As it turned out, a car backing out of the lot accidentally bumped Natasha.

The girl addressed a middle-aged driver, “Are you fucking blind, you git?!”

“Don’t be such a wiseass, you teenybopper. I’m calling the police!” the driver shouted back.

“I AM the police around here!” She took out the Beretta M9 pistol from behind her trouser belt and reloaded it. At the sight of this, the driver hit the gas pedal and disappeared from the parking lot, leaving the sound of screeching tyres behind.

“Now you have become a deaf-mute?! Come back here, you sissy!” Natasha screamed. Roseanne touched her back.

“You brought your service gun with you?” she asked.

“Didn’t you? One can never be too careful. Especially when you leave home.”

 Back to Section Break The First Day <----> Move to Chapter 8