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: