To My Dearest Roseanne

Chapter 43

Loud pounding woke up Madame Yoshida in the middle of the night. It was Roseanne and Cho. After Roseanne's chivalric declaration, it seemed visiting the quirky Japanese lady was the only logical thing to do. She was an adult, and for that matter, the only adult who was a kind soul in Cho's lonely life. Even though their relationship never extended beyond the confines of the bookstore, Madame Yoshida functioned as the only person, the only friend with whom Cho could talk freely, without any worries or fear of judgement. It was thanks to Madame Yoshida and her books that the girl was able to pull herself together mentally and escape the caretaking clutches of the Catholic Church.

Much to the bookstore owner's surprise, Roseanne was visibly paler than from a few hours before and some gizmo kept making noise by her belt every now and then, but the girl was still fast and energetic. Cho loyally followed her side. Without beating around the bush, they sat the woman down and told the whole story from the moment Cho arrived at Roseanne's doorstep to the present. In the course of the erratic narrative conducted by the girls, Madame Yoshida asked many questions so as not to get lost in the maze of who's who and what they had done.

After the story was finally finished, Roseanne asked how to make it possible for Cho to return to her world. Having heard this question, Madame Yoshida looked at the girls like an aunt who's helplessly searching for some useful advice in the back of her head.

"Honestly, this sounds like a fairly nice idea for a novel!" she exclaimed. "Have you read F. Anstey's Vice Versa from 1882?"

"Oh, please. We came to you because you are the only one out here who knows Cho! If only there was some quantum physicist at hand," Roseanne said.

"Don't lose your temper, imperial girl," the woman slightly raised her voice. "Granted, I am not a quantum physicist. I am a person who likes reading books. Like Cho, I felt very lonely when my family moved from Osaka to Seoul in 1978, and novels became my refuge, my happy gateway to a multitude of different worlds where I could completely lose myself without even thinking about the hardships of daily life. I'm sure Cho felt the same zest when she stepped over my doorstep just a few years ago. My question stands: Have you read Vice Versa?"

"Yes, I've read it," Cho said. "It's a story about a father and a son who switch places and live each other's lives because of a magical stone brought from India."

"Highest marks, my dear," Madame Yoshida smiled. "That's exactly the point. Every story about people switching places, roles, and lives needs a MacGyver."

"Who? The guy from a TV show?" Roseanne asked.

"You mean a MacGuffin," Cho corrected.

"Oh, excuse me, yes, a MacGuffin," Madame Yoshida adjusted on her seat. "That is to say, a magical object that is a solution to your problems. In the case of Vice Versa, it was a stone. Now, did you come in contact with anything, be it either unimportant or unusual at the time this... portal opened between your worlds?"

Cho and Roseanne searched through the drawers of their memories.

"Not that I know of," Roseanne said soon after.

Madame Yoshida looked at Cho.

"Nothing out of the ordinary happened to me," she said. "It's just that the day before the shower of sparks fell on me, I visited the National Folk Museum at Gyeongbokgung Palace."

"What did you do there?" Roseanne asked.

"Nothing! I don't think I touched anything. Just took pictures and prayed. I made a wish."

"What kind of a wish?"

"I wished... I wished to meet someone from my family."

This made Roseanne suddenly recall something.

"Hold on a minute! I also made a wish before I met you. I was in my bed and I wished to be in two places at the same time... that there would be two Roseannes, one to look after the family and the other to ace it at school.

Cho squinted her head with visible irritation.

"How come you're telling me this right now?"

"Hey, you also made a wish!"

"That must be it!" Madame Yoshida screamed, snapping her fingers. "You two willed your desires to come true at precisely the same instant. Roseanne, on the day of making your wish, did you buy anything new and have it in bed with you?"

"No, I just played with my phone and put it down before sleeping."

"Cho, what exactly did you do at the National Folk Museum?"

"I visited the five-storey pagoda. Went all the way to the top and that's where I made a wish."

"I'm fairly convinced the answer must be there. We're going to investigate right now," Madame Yoshida stood up and grabbed the raincoat. She began shaking the pockets in search of car keys.

Suddenly, a stabbing pain drilled through Roseanne's spine. She couldn't catch a breath for a second and fell on her knees.

"Rosie, are you alright?" Cho jumped to her side, the alarm sound went off as annoyingly as the canned laughter on television. "The damn dosimeter again!"

"I have no idea why I get the symptoms so fast. Not even a day has passed," Roseanne whispered.

"At this rate, you'll be dead by morning," Cho declared. "We need to hurry!"

"I'm on it!" Madame Yoshida said while opening the bookstore door, "Under the urgent circumstances, it would be better to drop formalities between me and Roseanne. She can call me Yukie."

"Your grace knows no boundaries..." Roseanne grunted. "Was it so difficult to give me a lift in the morning, huh?"