To My Dearest Roseanne

Chapter 36

An hour later the police came pounding on Roseanne's door. The girl opened in shock, Enzo barking behind her. Two policemen stood in front of her.

"Are Robert Juzynski and Liz Juzynski at home?" one of the officers asked.

"No, I'm their daughter. What is going on?"

"Are you Roseanne Juzynski?"

"Yes."

"That's not true, Roseanne Juzynski is missing, who are you?"

"I'm telling you, I'm Roseanne Juzynski!"

"You're coming with us."

"You have no right!"

The officer blocked the door with his boot. Roseanne stomped on his foot in a flash. The man groaned in pain and withdrew, but his partner stepped in and, with one swift movement, grabbed Roseanne around her waist.

"Let me go, goddammit!"

Roseanne hit the assailant in the back with her fists, and the man rolled in half. She was about to pull his weapon out of a holster when the ordeal was interrupted by an unexpected visitor.

"What is going on here?" Robert asked.

"Dad!"

Roseanne rushed to Robert who was standing on a staircase. She wanted to hug him, but the father pushed her behind him, shielding the daughter away from intruders.

"Who the hell are you? I don't believe you are real cops!"

The officers tried to compose themselves after shuffling off with Roseanne.

"Are you Robert Juzynski?" asked the officer whose foot got stomped.

"I'm not going to answer your questions. Now get the hell out of my sight before I call the real cops!"

"Please, we can show you our badges and ID cards," they did that in front of Robert and Roseanne. "It's all a misunderstanding. We responded to a call that your daughter got trapped in a hospital."

"Trapped? But my daughter is right here!"

"Yeah, I didn't go anywhere," Roseanne said.

Then, the horrific realisation hit the girl. They didn't mean her but Cho.

***

Robert argued during the whole route to the Asclepius Health Center, recounting many instances in which police brutality led to arrested suspects dying in custody. The policemen were silent the whole time at the front of the patrol car.

When they arrived, Roseanne was amazed by the magnitude of servicemen at the parking lot. It was already dark. Firefighters with heavy equipment cut through the gutter entry and made their way to the space under the entrance stairs. There was nobody inside.

"No! She had to be there! I saw her go in. This can't be happening," a woman in a white uniform cried out.

"We have a missing child on our hands," some officer announced via walkie-talkie. "Register her in the system asap."

Roseanne felt as if everything was happening in slow motion. She tried to understand what was going on, but the whole affair was too overwhelming for her. How Cho ended up in this situation? This and many more questions were running through her head until someone tapped her on the shoulder.

She turned and saw Emily. Her face was sad and eyes red from tears.

"She... she had to go," Emily said.

"Go? Go where?"

"Back where she came from. She got very sick."

Roseanne wanted to ask another question, but Emily placed in her hand the uniform and a piece of paper.

"She told me to give you this..."

Roseanne looked at a neatly folded uniform with her surname on it. She was about to read the note she received when somebody shook her from behind. The girl nearly fell on the ground from impact.

"Oh my God, you're here. You're alive!" Emily's mother broke out in tears, squeezing Roseanne as hard as she could. "I thought you wanted to hurt yourself."

Then, she looked at the girl's face. There was no sign of dying skin and no spots anywhere. It was completely healthy.

"What the..." said Molly and examined Roseanne from head to toe.

"Is there something wrong with my daughter?" Romas asked.

"Emily, I mean my daughter, brought her to the hospital. She was very weak and kept vomiting. We thought she had radiation sickness."

These two words "radiation sickness" punched Roseanne right in the guts. Now, she knew what happened to Cho.

"Well, as you can see, Roseanne is perfectly fine."

"I'm sorry," Molly had a confused look on her face. "I guess it was a misunderstanding. Just wanted to help, that's all."

Without saying anything, Robert grabbed Roseanne by the hand and turned away. He had a heated conversation with one of the officers, and eventually asked the patrol car to escort them back because the distance from Borówno to Bydgoszcz was too great to pass it along on foot.

In the car, as the emergency lights were reflecting back on the streets, Roseanne kept thinking about Cho. Was her alternate self alive? And if she was alive, where was she?