My mother thinks I’m dead.

Roux’s thoughts weren’t so morbid every day. Usually she’s awakened by happiness and sunshine and rainbows and puppies. But today, October 25th, was her mother’s birthday, and for the fourth year in a row, she couldn’t give her a present or a kiss on the cheek.

She laid out the outfit she had prepared the previous night: tank top, ripped jeans, beanie, and boots. She gave her favourite flannel a quick iron and threw the clothes on. Her cell buzzed, and she flipped through her notifications while trying to find a good station on her ariamp.

She started brushing the corners of her eyes with silvery makeup, but got distracted and started dancing wildly to her music. A bird landed outside her window, tweeting gently. She yelled, “hey! What’re you looking at?” at it. The bird flitted away, and Roux doubled up in laughter.

Her roommate flipped a finger at her around the corner. “What the actual f***, Roux?” she swore, smoothing down her bedhead and wrinkled pajamas.

Roux grinned and flipped the bird back at her. “Where’d you put my meds, a-hole?” she called out.

“In the fridge behind the goddamn juice.”

“Language!”

“Screw you, jerk!”

“F*** you, too, idiot!”

Then, she downed the pills in the box clearly marked “Wednesday,” slung her purse over her shoulder, checked her makeup one last time, and breezed off to work.

She arrived at the café to a chorus of “hey, Roux!” “how’s Zoe doing, Roux?” “is the new season of Doctor Who really that good?”

She grinned and flashed finger guns at everyone. “I’m great as heck, you?” “Zoe’s teething again, how’s Muffin?” “and yeah! The new Doctor really knows what they’re doing!”

Humming, she twirled around, put on an apron and secured her beanie on her head.

“– and they thought the poor bodyguard did it! How could th – oh! Good morning, Roux!” Mrs. O’ Malley greeted as she went over to take her order. The old lady’s eyes crinkled as she smiled. Her husband, an equally wrinkled old man, winked at Roux.

“What’ll it be today, Mr. and Mrs. O’M?”

Mrs. O’Malley didn’t even need a menu. “We’ll have –”

“– two black coffees with three sugar packets on the side, a small fruit salad, and the breakfast spread with extra cheese and eggs well-done,” she said in unison with Roux. Mrs O’Malley blinked, then burst out laughing. “Better make that two fruit salads. I wouldn’t want to be getting predictable!”

Roux blew a kiss at the happy couple and sailed off to put the order in.

“– heard one of the murderers goes to Stanford. Stanford!” her coworker was saying. He turned to the passing Roux. “Hey, Roux. Break a tie. Do you think they’re scapego –”

“No time, gotta work! Fav customers are in the café !” she sang, spinning around and almost dropping her notepad. She crashed into a small tv, changing the channel from some assassination on the news to a dog show. “I’ll fix it!”

Time passed before she knew it, and soon she was clocking out and tucking her perfectly folded apron into her locker.

On her way home, Roux passed by her favourite row of flower boxes. It was fall, and chrysanthemums were in season. They were purple. She loved purple. She made sure no one was looking and raised a little shadow gardener to carefully snip off the base of a bud. She tucked it behind her ear, resting just under the longest curled lock of blazing red hair. She sighed happily and kissed one of the remaining flowers. She could believe it perked up from her love.

An alert on her cell reminded Roux it was her mother’s birthday again, and she found herself missing her family in times like those.

They probably all thought she was dead, and frankly, it was better for them to think so. She had cut all ties with them to flee to the underground with a former sweetheart, where he unceremoniously ditched her.

“F*** you, Marius,” she said, flipping a finger to the sky. She was young and dumb and 14 and didn’t know any better.

She went back to reminiscing about her family, about her adorable little brother who was walking demon spawn, about lying on the couch with maman and papa, about her ambitious older sister who wanted to be a superhero even though neither of them had superpowers. Ah, how wrong they were, she chuckled. Hers had manifested as soon as Marius left her, and down in the underground, having powers meant having power. That, she had lots of.

She dug her key out of her purse and opened the door to her apartment. She was greeted by the sweet scent of her roommate's incense. Smoke curled around the palm-like leaves from their tropical plants, the lush, soft fur and lace lining their couches and chairs, the brand-new wall-to-wall telescreen. Nails clicked against the ground. Roux barely had time to react before a brown-and-black blur charged her full force. “Zoe! Assis!” she laughed as the huge German Shepherd started licking her face. She couldn’t tell if the dog was getting bigger or not, because at that point, she always looked like a blur who was about to jump her. She was big enough to knock Roux down though, and that definitely wasn’t easy given Roux’s track and field background and impressive height. “Alright! Zoe! Assis!” The dog absolutely didn’t listen and continued to run around, slamming her body into just about every surface in excitement.

“Woof!”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re family, too.”