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Chapter 7: ROSIE

Now, ladies and gentlemen! Oh, it’s just you? No one else is there? OK. Well, then, lady…it’s time for the moment you’ve been waiting for since you picked up this book- THE FINAL CHAPTER!!! Don’t give me that look. We both know that from the moment you started reading you wanted to finish reading. Even if you enjoyed it sometimes, there were times when you were just like, ‘Oh, my freaking gosh, dude!’ You are, after all, reading so you can finish. If you’re reading for something else, well, then kudos- I’m very proud of you. Be sure to pick up your medal on your way out. Now, enough with the time wasting. Let’s get cracking!
Like I may or may not have said before, herein lies my favourite part of the book. I’ll tell you why, first, before I get to it. Not that this book isn’t ‘free’ enough but like any person mentally collected [or completely insane] enough to write a book, there are set guidelines. Mine were different from the conventional but they existed anyway. Did you get the past tense? Yes! They did exist. Not anymore. If this was wrestling, it’d be a no-holds-barred match. What? We all have a past! For me, that included watching wrestling, don’t judge me. In any case, I’m taking the gloves off, so to speak. Alright, I should stop saying stupid phrases. I’m going to tell you what I think of Rosie, how I see her, random things about her and I’m just going to have fun with this.
You probably think that from what I’ve said so far, I’ve given you the run-up on this woman’s personality. In telling you her hobbies and whatnot, I might have unintentionally dug deeper and revealed the person behind those things and her affinity or relation towards them. I apologize for that. In this chapter, however, I will tell you my intention. I want to inform you of the tiny things that make up Rosie. Everything else before this chapter, we can just take and put in any other random girl but she would still be a complete stranger as compared to Rosie. You might think that if I take the frame of all things mentioned before and put it in a separate, empty shell of a human, that human would be Rosemary Loise Rivers. She wouldn’t. Here’s why.

I met Rosie on the 10th of August, 2014. In the time that I’ve known her, I’ve picked up more than a few things about her. Things you’ve read in this book, schedules and anything that just makes me familiar with her. Don’t worry, I’m not a stalker. I guess I should tell you the truth now, about my true feelings towards Rosie, but something tells me you’ve known all along. Well, since you already know, I don’t have to explain anything. Rosie…she’s special. I’m not talking about her being special to me, no. This isn’t about me. This is about her. And she’s just special, OK? Sheesh!
When I say that, I could be referring to the hundreds of thoughts parading across my mind at super-speed at the moment. I’ve known her for only 9 or 10 months but I feel like I’ve known her my entire life. And beyond. If I had the time, space or permission to explain that last part to you, I would, but I can’t. I hope nothing disturbs me – I’m in the zone! She’s beautiful. Not just on the outside, although that’s pretty hard to ignore. I’m talking about her mind. Her heart. Actually, her heart isn’t beautiful, it’s pristine. Her mind is like nothing I’ve ever seen. I actually haven’t seen her mind- I’m not, like, a brain surgeon. But I see it!
I’ll just start by getting the fact that she’s a reflective person, out of the way. Which isn’t always a bad thing, but she thinks about the past a lot and it affects her. Since her past isn’t filled with the rosiest of memories, you can guess that they don’t affect her in a good way. Because of that, she gets rather negative at times. As we speak, she’s actually quite hopeless concerning the circumstances she’s trapped in at the moment. I won’t tell you what these circumstances are but just know that they are pretty bad. They’re really bad. Oh, dear, she has the worst life in human history! OK, you’ve got me – I’m exaggerating. You probably also got that I’m doing it for a reason. Now the fun begins.
Her life is indeed bad but her state, something only she’s in control of, is worse than any problem she’s facing or has faced. What I’m saying is, Rosie has been shot by a gun but in her mind, she’s already dead. Don’t worry, nobody’s been shot. But I’m making the point that, as bad as Rosie’ s life situation is, her mind tells her that it’s worse and she’ll never get out of her slump if she continues to think like that. As someone wise once said; you can’t go forward when your mind is going backwards and you can’t produce a positive life from a negative mind. The bible has a tripped out version of this. Those two are actually derivatives of that. A good tree can’t bear bad fruit and a bad tree can’t bear good fruit…or so it goes. OK, this isn’t a self-help book.
What I’ve said on this aspect of the matter is very much open to interpretation but I’ll move on. As much as Rosie may claim that she’s lost all hope, I don’t believe that’s true. In her daily routine, or once in a while, she engages in actions that no hopeless person would engage in. She goes to school, she doesn’t just slash her wrists and end it, she dresses up pretty nicely, she eats, she laughs, she entertains, she allows herself to be entertained, she sings(badly), she swims, she runs, she jumps, she studies, she enjoys, she breathes, she lives, she loves, she smiles…you get my point, right? Actions speak louder than words.
We catch the part of Rosie that is negative, in the act because that part makes Rosie proclaim hopelessness - but since that [hopelessness] isn’t the case, Pessimistic-Rosie doesn’t have what it takes to stop Rosie from living positively. Boom. It just proves there’s hope. It proves that there is a pure place where the strength to do all those things is coming from. Already, I think you’re starting to see the beauty in her mind. Beauty isn’t in the eye of the beholder nor is it appealing per say. Beauty is nature showing you what it is, not what you prefer it to be, and still making you love it to the depths of your core. Have you ever looked at a sunset or a starry night? Any natural thing you find pretty will do. You look at it, and the fact that you can’t change or modify what you’re looking at is ever-present, yet this sight makes you fall absolutely in love with it. It sort of teaches you to marvel at what it was meant to be- beyond your comprehension- and in the moment, it’s enough. Though if you could modify it, you might, but you probably wouldn’t know how to and you’d just ruin it for everyone. That’s how Rosie’s mind is like. It surprises you. Sometimes it does something you’re familiar with so you can feel connected to it, but whatever it does, you just marvel.
If you want to get a better understanding of what I mean, think of a TV show you watch over and over, a song you listen to in the same way or a person you’ve loved for longer than you think might be necessary. You don’t care what people say or think. All you do is dwell on it and it sparks something inside of you that leaps for joy each time or spurs familiarity and eternally limited contentment- You know that that song you love only lasts 3 minutes and 49 seconds but in between, it feels like forever. You just want to watch The Big Bang Theory or Bleach, listen to Skillet or classical music or look at the night-sky every night. You just want to experience the beauty. To beauty may come randomness and Rosie is, in my opinion, the queen of randomness. She’ll say something completely ridiculous and find a way to make it make sense. It’s like writing a story about a flying a man and to make people ‘believe’ that he can fly, you give them a reason that doesn’t make sense. What do we call that? Storytelling…Creativity…Inspiration. That’s her every day.
Even when she’s having bad days, she has the gift to make at least one person near her, happy. I’ve had that honour. I shall not populate this book with blatant clichés like, she’s funny, charming, bubbly, goofy, stubborn, short-tempered, compassionate, kind and weird. NO! I won’t say that. This is no place for such things! When I say she’s funny, though, I don’t mean in the conventional sense. She makes pretty bad jokes but in her demeanour, she exhibits silliness and humour in a pure form that even when she says a bad joke, you can’t help but laugh. She’s very headstrong and doesn’t like being told what to do. She’s strong. Adding that up on your scientific calculator may say, ‘control freak’. Is she though? Not really but she does like being in control and strongly dislikes it when she isn’t. She likes doing things her way and even when she realizes she might’ve have taken a wrong turn, she sticks with it. I don’t know if it’s to prove that she can do it or feed her pride but, nonetheless, she works hard!
She’s very smart. Book-smart. Common sense in the moment isn’t her strong suit though. Before you think I’m insulting her, here’s what I mean: She’s blonde (No offense to actual or dyed Blondes – I’m just using the stereotype). Froogle matters found in everyday interaction can get beyond her but there’s no doubt that she’s very intelligent so she understands the important stuff. She’s retro and Goth. I’ve already told you about her love for rock music but she’s also almost old-school [in a sense]. She’s quite anglicised but I mean, she takes pleasure in the simple things in life like aw-ing at babies, JAZZ HANDS, believing in love, high-fiving and just having an aspect [I can’t quite put my finger on] that makes me say things like, ‘She’s retro’.
She’s very much into dark and sinister stuff but her outward demeanour sometimes wouldn’t suggest it. Maybe it does when she’s being anti-social. She’s got the feel of a ‘social butterfly’ in that her weirdness is appealing and attractive but she intentionally shuts down and becomes selective when the moment becomes her. Like, when she’s around people she doesn’t know. She’s highly imaginative and expressive. When she’s talking, she truly embodies the phrase, ’body language’. She uses her arms, bobs her head, switches between several facial expressions [normal and weird] and she just goes with the flow. So if you watch something dramatic with her and you ask her to explain to you, prepare to relive the drama, in an even more exciting and interesting manner.
She’s talkative. Boy, she’s talkative. That’s an awesome thing because if she had all these things I’m talking about and didn’t have an outlet for them, we’d be in trouble. She’s a total nerd. She loves the supernatural, science fiction, anime and is just straight up science-y. She’s one of the few people whose days can be made or broken by something on TV, in a book or in a song. Though she’s all for the dark stuff, she’s afraid of the dark, weirdly. She thinks that aliens exist and that they are angels. I’m not completely sold on that theory but I don’t oppose it either. The bible has some really compelling evidence relating to that matter.
Oh, you thought I was kidding when I said she’s a nerd? Well, hearing about angelic aliens probably changed your mind, didn’t it? SHE LOVES MUSIC. She’s always listening to it and- wait, everyone loves music. Right? Then let’s move on. She’s quite awkward in a funny and adorable way. And don’t underestimate the adorable part – if she stood in front of you, looked up to you with those eyes of hers and said something [anything] softly, you would obey her every whim. It’s a mystery to me why she can’t sing. Since her voice is quite something. I wish I could make that sound less generic but by saying, ‘it’s quite something’, I’m not limiting your imagination when you imagine what I’m trying to say.
As aforementioned, she’s all musical [and stuff]. She used to play guitar, the cello and the violin. I hear that once you learn how to play a violin, you never forget though. She still plays the piano. Not done yet. She’s a poet or she used to be a poet. She prefers the latter but I’ve tried her on a couple of occasions and I can proudly say that she is a poet. A good one. To be honest, I had underestimated her before I saw her in action. As much action as poetry can contain.
She’s an artist, on top of being artistic. No wonder her mind is beautiful. You can even tell from her handwriting that she does not conform to the bland rules of marking up paper. I know she isn’t ‘innocent’ but she has a…purity to her. That’s all I have to say on that.
Alright, buckle up! We’re about to go into the speed round. What that’ll be is me randomly copying off the remainder of my source material to finish the section quicker. I’m not being lazy, I like mixing things up, quickly. Here we go!
She used to be a Chelsea ‘fan’ but now she’s a Real Madrid ‘fan’. Why the quotes? Because I’m a football fan and I’m allowed to put quotes there. Her favourite colour is red. I’d mention the other ones, like blue, but the list changes from time to time and I hate being inaccurate. I said something about me being familiar with her schedule, a few parts back. I’ll only tell you that on school days, she switches her phone off at 0620hrs and is on her way to school by 0640hrs (Yeah, her university is close enough to her house that she doesn’t have/get to live there). The time she wakes up is entirely up to her. She finds the getting-flowers-for-someone paradigm cute. She isn’t much of a Shona speaker.
She says, ‘’Oh, my god’’ in most of her sentences. And she says ‘’Like’’, like, all the time! She loves the rain and getting rained on. Just as long as it’s not too much and her phone is magically unharmed by that rain. She loves lightning. I love it too – as long as I’m in indoors. She’s claustrophobic. She has quite a lot of hair. It’s one of the things I lo- Hold on, you’re not supposed to know that. She has a lot of hair and any girl would be jealous. Even girls who like keeping shaved heads would be jealous. She ties it up most days but when she goes out, she styles it. She loathes tattoos!

She has a lightning-bolt shaped birthmark on the back of her neck. Yes, lightning bolt. Talk about interesting, huh? Even her birthmarks embody it. We’re almost done with the speed round. She has perfect vision. You could mouth profanity at her from a hundred yards and she’d know what you said.
I told you that I’d give you the reason why, if we put all that stuff about Rosie in another body that would also look like her, she wouldn’t resemble the original. Interlaced in this whole ramble of a chapter, you will find quirks, idiosyncrasies, tendencies, thought patterns, or lack thereof [in the event that I actually said nothing on her thought pattern], wishes, hopes maybe dreams and find that without these, the previously mentioned shell would not be Rosie. She’d be a knockoff. Let’s call her, Rosee. Rosee, without all the things that encompass this and the dying embers of the last chapter, would probably stumble through life with all of that within her and wouldn’t know how to implement or make use of them to create a fully functional, amazing Rosie. It’s like taking a work of art that was originally put on a large, 10 foot cylinder and putting it on an A4 piece of paper. It’s the same artwork but it will lose its individuality because instead of being on a large curved surface, it’s now on a straight one. [You might be thinking that Rosee is a slender girl that looks like she’s been starved her whole life as opposed to the more defined and curved Rosie. If you are, get your mind out of the gutter – You’re forming a connection where there is none! Though, that part about Rosie isn’t a lie] The observers of this work of art would find that when it’s on the flat-surfaced paper, it won’t make them change their perspective as they follow the piece, like it did on the cylinder. The fun of having to change your position, run around, jump up and down, tilt and turn your head to view the piece in completion would be substituted for simply darting your eyes side to side. That doesn’t sound very nice, does it?