4338.216 · August 4, 2018 AD
All the Nice Bits
For one whole day, nothing goes wrong. Mum makes scrambled eggs on toast, brushes Rose's hair with patience she hasn't shown in weeks, and takes them exploring like a family with nowhere urgent to be. There are finger buns from a bakery and a glittery notebook chosen just for Rose. But kindness this careful has a weight to it. A detour into a chemist yields nothing visible, and something gets buried in a public bin. By evening, as Mum braids Rose's hair and whispers promises about tomorrow, the tenderness starts to feel less like recovery and more like someone saying goodbye without using the word.
Rose wakes to the unfamiliar sound of peace — birdsong, warm food, a mother who looks almost like the person she used to be. The day unfolds with a gentleness that feels deliberate: a proper breakfast, clothes chosen with care, a walk through the neighbourhood where Mum buys Rose a notebook for her stories and lets her wear the DREAMER jumper like armour against everything they've been through. But the surface keeps catching. Mack picks a postcard and Claire flinches at the idea of sending anything. She disappears into a chemist and returns empty-handed, then buries something in a public bin with the urgency of someone covering tracks. The shopping strip's warmth gives way to a silent walk home. That evening, Claire braids Rose's hair with the slow, measured attention of someone performing a final act of care. She promises a park tomorrow, deflects questions about Aunty Amelia, and when Rose asks about her father, offers only a cryptic "something even better than Daddy." Rose falls asleep clutching her new notebook, unable to shake the sense that this beautiful, borrowed day was not a beginning but a preparation — for what, she doesn't yet know.
