Time After Time

“You…don’t have any large trunk?”

“I don’t have any large trunk, indeed.”

It was the days after Rose took care of her passport business when Gustav had offered to help her getting ready to England. The problem that Rose has was that she never really went far that she needed to pack up a lot of stuffs. That day, ten in the morning, he was helping her looking at the bag and clothes she had. It was going to be summer soon in Australia, but it would be winter soon in England.

Gustav just realised that she had a very limited winter clothes that wouldn’t be suitable for England weather—and he wasn’t even sure whether she could be just fine for English winter. Rose just smiled and laughed it off, “Oh, I’ll be just fine. I’ll get some new coat or something.”

Most of Rose’s clothes, after Gustav observed, were very classic. He could picture Angela dressing like Rose, only that Rose prefer brighter colours and more patterns compared to Angela. Flower patterns, animal patterns—anything natural, classic pattern. She was more than happy roaming through her clothes and she remembered where she bought all of them. It wasn’t really surprise him that Rose bought a lot of clothes from thrift shop.

He sat on her bed, staring at a one piece that would be okay to be wear by his mother because it was totally classic and any grown women could wear it, when he asked, “Now, Rose, you’re not going to tell me you’re that kind of different girl who doesn’t like clothes and fashion, aren’t you?”

Rose looked at him and she looked confuse for a while before she chuckled.

“Of course I’m not ‘that kind of different girl’. I like fashion. I like buying clothes, finding cute shoes, obtaining new hat or accessories. But that’s just one part of me, right? Maybe because I grew up with Angela and I really admire her that I dress kind of like her…but these wouldn’t be suitable for England’s winter temperature, would it?” she showed him some skirts that would be okay to be worn on a beach.

Gustav shook his head and laugh, “You’d need warmer clothes than that.”

Rose nodded and put them back in.

That was when he spoke, “I’ll buy you some clothes there.”

Rose stopped moving and turned around and something on her face was telling Gustav that this was something she had heard before and she was going to reject it. He could totally imagine Michael Jones-Andretti bringing Rose to expensive boutique somewhere on Sydney and she would look so good with the expensive dress and accessories.

But what she said was, “Really?”

“Yeah,” Gustav nodded, relieved that she wasn’t rejecting the idea.

“Is that okay on your part…?”

“Of course it is okay.”

“…Ah,” she nodded finally. “Right. Okay. It’s okay if you bought me clothes. I might find interesting clothes in England…I mean, if they can fit for Gabriela or Angela, that would be really nice…”

Gustav laughed because he should’ve seen this coming. Sharing things was very Rose-like.

“Right. Anyway, I think you should purchase new trunk for this trip. If you want to go looking at some now at the shops, I can help you picking the best one—I mean, I do travel a lot.”

Rose’s face was shining and she smiled so big and nodded so fast—and Gustav thought the preparation for Rose to go to England couldn’t be more fun.



They were already out and ready to go to the shops when Rose stopped and blinked furiously.

“What is it?” Gustav asked, leaning his face down to her level.

Rose smiled apologetic smile. “I, uh, lent my car to Fraser…so I guess we need to take the bus.”

“I don’t mind at all,” he responded quickly—because Gustav truly didn’t mind.

After taking the bus, they reached the shops on Crown Street. They went right to Myer to get some decent trunk. Rose knew nothing about it and Gustav told her about the relation between trunk’s brand, price, and durability. She nodded and listened to him with full attention and it made him happy. He suggested her to buy the best trunk in the store, because he had wished that after this, somehow, Rose would travel a lot to England after his life comes back to normal. They got a relatively big trunk and Rose had ordered so it would be delivered to her house. Then they went back to bus stop and took another bus home.

Rose must had been stayed awake most of the night because she looked very sleepy, according to Gustav’s observation, once they sat in silence on the bus.

“Rose?”

“Mm?” she turned her head around and held back a yawn.

“You’re very sleepy,” he said that as a statement.

She nodded and her head bobbed a little to front. Gustav couldn’t help but think she was cute that she was this sleepy. He motioned to his left shoulder and he told her, “Here. Use my shoulder and take a little nap until we get to our stop.” Nodding, Rose put her head on his shoulder and fell asleep right away. She breathed very gently while she sleeps and the driver smiled when his sight met Gustav who smiled back.

Gustav didn’t feel okay with waking her up because she seemed so tired, so he just sat there until the bus hit the same route three times. After that, he decided that he’d just carry her on his back anyway once they reached their stop. It was a beautiful day. There were clouds clattering bright, blue sky, but it was still a really beautiful day nevertheless. Gustav walked as gentle as possible while Rose tightening her arms around his neck once in a while out of her consciousness.

She mumbled sometimes in her sleep while he was walking back.

Some of her mumbles included, “Dad? Mum? It’s okay now. I have him. He’s taking me to England.” Rose muttered something about vegemite and passport afterward, but Gustav didn’t listen anymore because he was busy smiling.