WHO Ros Capper & Gwen Robards •
WHERE Outside Tea & Tatters •
WHEN 29 November, afternoon
Ros wanders around town and finds herself outside of her mother's shoppe.
WARNINGS None!
Ros only understood a few things: she knew she was in Cuaditch, she knew that she was in the year 2020, well before her own year of birth, and she knew that the same thing had happened to other people.
Other people -- from other timelines, where her parents weren’t her parents. Other timelines where they had other children instead.
She wasn’t touching that just yet. She didn’t know where to start. She’d counted at least four siblings from her father, two sets of siblings who didn’t seem to know each other at all. And then there was her.
The last thing Ros wanted to do was to end up in the middle of what was already a chaotic situation, so she turned her phone off and walked away, literally and figuratively. She needed to sort out her own thoughts and decide how she wanted to approach her father before she actually did.
Cuaditch wasn’t too different, she thought as she walked past Twirl Park. Some of the buildings had changed, there were different shoppes, but the general feel, that was still the same. It still felt like home. She still caught the scent of saltwater on the air. Every now and then, she’d catch a whiff of whatever the nearest restaurant was cooking. It was comforting to know that even when everything else was in upheaval, some things were still the same.
Her feet found her way to her mother’s bookstore on instinct alone. Ros had seen photos of the early days of her mother’s shoppe, but seeing it in person brought a swell of emotion to her chest that she hadn’t expected. There were the window seats where she’d spent so much time reading as a child, a cup of her mother’s latest tea in front of her. Rows of bookshelves behind them, a wall of enough teas to satisfy nearly any palate. That day, her mother was standing in the front windows, directing a string of twinkling colourful lights along the frame of the window.
It was only after Gwen froze and met her gaze that Ros realised she’d been staring. Her eyes widened and she ducked her head, quickly turning to continue up the block.
Not even twenty seconds later, the door of Tea & Tatters opened and Gwen stepped out onto the sidewalk. “Hello -- was there --” Ros stopped, shoulders hunched. Could she walk away from her own mother, even if her mother didn’t know who she was? “You looked like you were searching for something,” Gwen added gently. “Or like you were lose.”
The answer to her question was no, she couldn’t walk away.
Ros turned, slowly, and met her mother’s sharp blue gaze again. “I was …” She was normally better at lying, but she didn’t have any quick excuses ready. Finally, she said, “I was looking for my mother.”
Gwen’s expression immediately turned soft, full of sympathy. It made Ros clench her fists tighter in her pockets. She’d seen that expression before.
“I can help,” Gwen answered quickly, eager to soothe whatever worries this strange woman had. “What’s her name?”
Ros had felt certain that her mother would recognise her. Wouldn’t a mother know her own young, even if they hadn’t been born yet? Wasn’t there something innate in that connection? “It’s all right -- I found her.”
Gwen frowned, head tilted to the side ever so slightly. It took a minute for the young woman’s words to register, and another minute for Gwen to process the bright blue eyes staring back at her. “You don’t mean --”
“Yeah.” Voice gruff, Ros nodded. “You.”
“But I don’t --”
“I know. I won’t be born for another six years.” She paused. “Five years and nearly eleven months.” The noise that escaped from Gwen was somewhere between a scoff and a gasp. “I know it’s hard to believe,” Ros added, “but I can prove it. If --” This had been reckless and stupid, she thought, because she didn’t know what she’d do if her mother turned her away now. “If you give me a chance.”
Now Gwen really did scoff incredulously. It was the most ludicrous, outlandish tale, but … the lanky young woman looked genuinely distraught. Gwen doubted that a stranger would come all the way to stand outside her shoppe and then try to run away if there wasn’t something truly upsetting her. She was determined to get to the bottom of it, whether the story was the truth or whether there was something else going on. “Don’t be ridiculous,” she answered. “Come inside. I’ll put on some tea and you can tell me everything.”