Rose

        She descended the stairs to the large room, where Booker sat with his nose buried in the newspaper as usual, in front of the fire in an armchair. She hoped that he would like to see the surprise. With a radiant smile, she stood in the middle of the room and called out to him.

 

"Booker, look at this! Do you like it?"

 

"Yeah, its great. Amazing even. You know I always like it."

 

"But you didn't even look!"

 

        She hated it when he did it, and she knew it was deliberate. Booker was a tease at times and seeing her upset humored him. She would humor him right back, the best way she knew how.

 

        She stretched her hands forward, and pushed. It took her a solid moment to get the tear open from scratch, but the result was worth it. Booker only raised an eyebrow as he heard the fabric of reality rip with the all too familiar rippling and buzzing. It became worrying after a moment as the tear noises did not cease but got louder and closer. In a bat of an eye, Booker found himself sitting on a stump of a tree, while the walls and the fireplace were replaced by snow. Booker could only see a snowy field and trees around them.

 

        "Are you going to look now, Mister DeWitt?" Elizabeth said with a coquettish voice. "I'll have something special for you later on if you do."

 

        Booker could only sigh, Elizabeth always got her way. Served him right for messing with her in the first place. Sometimes he wondered how much of a child she still was, but denying her was impossible and he didn't mind at all, despite putting on the annoyed appearance.

 

        "Alright I give in, what is that you have..."

 

        She stood right behind him, draped in pure white, almost indistinguishable from the snow around her. The only thing standing out were her wide brown eyes that stared at him expectantly, while her smile was disguised behind a rose that she held close, with her little finger sticking out.

 

        Booker got up and came up to her, bearing a playful smile of his own.

 

        "If this isn't a beautiful sight then I'm the king of England."

       

        It was exactly what she wanted to hear. But as Booker got close to her, he suddenly lost the smile and his brow furrowed in confusion. She could do little to stop herself from giggling, still holding the rosebud close to her lips.

 

        "Wait something's not right..." Booker's eyes now focused on hers and drifted up and down her body, as if looking for something. he momentarily stopped and looked at her hand, with her little finger sticking out right as if holding a teacup instead of a rose.

 

        "Aren't you going to ask where I got a rose from in the middle of December?"

 

        "Elizabeth, were your eyes always brown? And why are you holding your pinky like that?" The dumbfounded look on Booker's face was becoming too much for her and she barely stifled a giggle.

        "There's something wrong going on here... are you real?"

 

        It was too much for her and she burst out laughing. Booker's facial expressions were priceless, a just punishment for ignoring her earlier.

 

        "Why don't you come over here and find out?"  

 

        The annoyance on his face was real enough, but he did not hesitate to approach and touch her cheek with his hand. She took the rose and put it in her hair, before returning the gesture and wrapping her arms around him.

       

        "So, where did you get that rose from in the middle of December?"

 

        A girl's gotta have her secrets." She flashed him a pearly grin.

 

        "And the eyes? A secret too?"

 

        "No, just some contact lenses."

 

        "What lenses?" The tears were an endless source of amusements and Booker knew it was one of those things. but that did not make it any more surprising.

 

        "I will tell you later, I'm getting cold." She let go of him and took a step back to open a tear back to their home. But the joke wasn't over yet, she knew him by the book.

       

        "Brown or blue, you look just as beautiful," Booker said as they walked though the tear, hand in hand.

 

        "Thank you....daddy."

 

        "What?"

 

        The tear begun to shrink as the pair walked through it and laughter of a young woman could be heard as it closed, kicking up a cloud of powdery snow.