Work Text
Rosa’s cheeks sting from the cold breeze kissing across her face. She tightens her wool peacoat around her waist and shoves her exposed hands in the snug pockets. Her boots crush fallen leaves littering the pavement sidewalk with a satisfying crunch as she makes her way to the tiny apartment she shares with three other students from her college.They’re not local New Yorkers either, so she’s been getting an earful from them about how cold, crowded, and expensive it is to live here in the Big City. As a southwestern girl, Rosa sympathizes with their complaint, yet still delights in the unpleasantness of the experience. They don’t know what it’s like to have died and come back to a new world that includes literal aliens. As cliche as it sounds, dying changed Rosa's perspective on being alive. Chilly weather isn’t so bad when she knows what it’s like to be stuck in a frozen timeless abyss. Daily inconveniences like rent, food, and transportation aren’t such a big deal after losing her agency to the power of glowing alien hands. The shock of the city’s hussle culture is nothing compared to the shock of air filling her lungs and her heart twitching again after ten years of stillness. Rosa can’t explain all this to her new friends, not without exposing her old friends back home for their otherworldly abilities and her own biological peculiarities in consequence of her resurrection. Even if she can’t share everything about herself to her new friends, they get to have a different side of her that people back home aren’t privy to either.New Mexico’s Rosa is foolishly bold, fiercely protective, and either shamed or pitied for being damaged. The desert knows her struggle with self worth and how hard it was to step out of the shadows. That Rosa is also officially dead. New York’s Rosalinda gets to be unapologetically creative, mysteriously alluring, and allowed to be imperfect as she finds her footing in an insane world. The city knows Rosalinda as an autumn leaf showing how beautiful it can be to relinquish dead things.While death changed how she savors life, becoming sober changed how she lives it. Rosa is pleasantly greeted by absolutely no one once she gets inside her apartment; the sweet sound of silence indicates her roommates must be out for the evening. What a sweet treat privacy has become in these close quarters, which is why she plans not to waste an opportunity to speak freely on her virtual date.She gets into her comfiest sweats, lights a few candles for esthetically pleasing ambient lighting, and grabs her carved pumpkin from the window to place strategically out of her laptop’s camera view frame. She waits excitedly for her Zoom software to boot up while she spins her pumpkin around to check over every intricate detail she had cut into its surface. It wasn’t necessary to put so much effort into it, but any chance to win over some friendly competition between her Roswell friends is worth it. Four windows pop up on the screen; the first one shows Liz and Max waving at her as they huddle together in front of their lit and crackling adobe fireplace. “Sistaaa!” Liz squeals in a sing-song voice at Rosa to the theme of 90s sitcom Sister Sister, which Rosa replies with the second twin verse “Sistaaa!”Michael, Alex, and Dallas wave hello from another screen as they cram together sharing beers on Alex’s yellow couch. Loud music blares from another room along with an obnoxious whirring noise that drowns out their voices. “I can’t hear you guys over the frat party going on in the background! What is that?” Rosa shouts at them.A separate window suddenly pops up featuring Isobel, Maria, and Bonnie crowded around a blender in the kitchen. “It’s a sorority party actually!” Isobel, clad in cat ears and painted whiskers, corrects Rosa with all the sass she can muster. Fitting for the catty girl to be catty, Rosa shakes her head with a smile. Maria dons a witch hat and fake nose while pouring more tequila into the pitcher behind Isobel. “No! This is a coven ritual! We’re making…” she cackles dramatically for effect, “...potions!” Bonnie can be seen dancing around the counter drunkenly sipping from her party cup completely oblivious to the camera.Rosa gets a nostalgic pang of homesickness through her heart at the sight of all of them sharing space with each other and having a good time. All except one.“Where’s my hermano?” Rosa asks before another screen appears showing Kyle in his scrubs and white medical coat at his work desk.“I’m where I get paid to rip out guts.” He teases with dark enthusiasm. His joke is met with boos and disapproving raspberries. Liz is the only one who relates to his line of work and laughs. Max looks at her wearily with side eyes and slides a few inches away out of caution.“Ewww. Ok, well speaking of carving, are you guys ready to eat shit instead of candy tonight?” Rosa grips her pumpkin offscreen ready to thrust it in front of the camera so she can watch them all weep from the beauty of it. “Hold up, Michaelangelo! Give the plebeians a chance before you unveil David.” Liz directs Rosa, then addresses the whole chat room. “One at a time going clockwork, show your pumpkin and we’ll all vote afterward in the chat box. Winner gets a coupon for a free catered dinner this Thanksgiving courtesy of all the other participants.” Rosa suddenly feels her throat constrict on the verge of tears at the mere thought of her dad’s home cooked meals. It has been a busy and atrociously expensive semester at school this year with her latest studio class in three-dimensional art. That means she’ll have to be selective about which holidays to travel back home for, and it’s looking like Thanksgiving might not make the cut. While New York has its magical charm during the holiday season, she’d gladly give it up for a plate of some proper Christmas tamales. “Alright, you start us off Miss Mistress of Ceremonies.” Isobel offers. “Call me Doctor of Ceremonies, PhD.” Liz giggles mischievously as she runs off camera. “Ok, ready!” Max’s arm stretches off screen behind the laptop but instead of twirling it around gracefully to showcase Liz, the laptop spins uncontrollably and crashes onto the floor. Their screen goes fuzzy and garbled for a few seconds as Max’s panicked voice can be heard cursing at himself and Liz’s exasperated groan, “Really, Max? Another one!”“At least he didn’t blow it up this time.” Rosa rolls her eyes at her technologically deficient brother-in-law and quietly picks at her manicure as she waits for them to get themselves together. A few other digging remarks poking fun at Max’s expense make Rosa snort laugh, including Isobel sighing “Liz! Fire your Igor!” and Michael teasing “No wonder the other aliens left E.T. behind!”There’s a rustling sound as the screen clears up to show a scary closeup of Max’s face peering into the camera. “We’re back. It's fine! I got it insured!” He gives them all a thumbs up and his most charming half smile that he uses to cover up his dorkish nature with a cool cowboy persona. The camera refocuses on Liz standing next to a big plastic tank on the dining room table with four pumpkins, or what used to be pumpkins, occupying a bed of dirt with each pumpkin in progressive states of colorful fuzzy decomposition. Liz gestures proudly at her grotesque terrarium of death, “Subject: Pumpkin Life Cycle Experiment. Here I have grown mold spores of different colors by selecting bacteria that break down the pumpkins at different rates. In the end, once the pumpkin is completely dissolved, the remaining nitrate particles enrich the leftover seeds in the soil. We will see new pumpkins grow in their place. Now depending on the type of bacteria…”Her science lesson is interrupted by loud snoring noises. Rosa laughs sympathetically and gives her sister the time-out hand signal. “Times up, Dr. Frankenstein! Very nice, but I think you could sum this up with the honest explanation that you forgot to decorate your pumpkin and it rotted. Am I right?” Liz stares at the camera in stoic silence. The way her mouth twitches angrily gives away her ruse red, or rather green, handed. Max can be heard holding back his laughter while placating his wife in an overly loving and sympathetic tone, “You did great, babe! They’re just too stupid and jealous to get it.” Liz narrows her eyes at her husband and points at him with a devilish smirk gracing her face, “You just dug your own grave, Cowpoke. You're next!”Their screen is jostled around to face the kitchen area where a single pumpkin sits atop the counter. It’s covered in a series of carved circles and repositioned pumpkin stems to configure a rudimentary representation of a horned steer head. It looked like something a fifth grader would make but Rosa is surprisingly impressed by her brother-in-law's rendition. “Titled: The Next Skull On My Wall.” Max gestures at the cow face pumpkin then redirects the camera to zoom in on one of his many cow skulls that hang above on the walls around the room. His friends snicker at the dark connotation except Kyle, who takes immediate offense at everyone’s reaction to his own dark joke earlier. “Oh! Now who’s the macabre monster around here?! While those two,” he points to Liz and Max, “are glorifying death, I’m honoring life!“ His defense doesn’t give him the redemption he’s looking for when the Zoom room erupts into a digital chorus of horrified screams as he holds up a surgical tray to the camera. Laying on it is a dissected pumpkin painted blood red complete with exposed stringy pulp to represent an anatomically accurate heart. “¡Dios mío! Get this American Psycho disqualified!” Rosa yells between melodramatic dry heaves.“Oh, c’mon! This part is cute!” Liz defends him by pointing out the printout of a meme speech bubble adhered above it that reads ‘Ermagurd! Cherst Perns!!’ Kyle sheepishly admits one of his RN’s added that part to give his artwork some levity. Rosa relents and starts a strained applause for his effort. “Y’all ready for my horror show next?” Michael announces as his screen goes dark and jumbles around chaotically while he carries Alex’s laptop outside. It settles on a series of pumpkins lined up along the porch with each one featuring various car malfunction alerts such as check engine, high temperature, low tire pressure, and change oil. Michael gives Alex a pointed look while wryly explaining, “I consider these signs scarier than that stupid movie Signs you made me watch.” His creation gets a positive round of laughter for creativity and relatability. “Well if you think a bill from your mechanic is frightening, try going to the DMV with one!” Dallas takes the opportunity to show off his creation which is placed, or rather parked, next to Michael’s in the driveway. His pumpkin lies on its side covered in aluminum foil with gutted out windows to look like an airstream trailer supported by four mini pumpkin tires. “Guys, this is pretty much what Michael sold me. Consider it to scale.” “Heeeyy!! That’s a million dollar home in today’s market!” Michael defends his old residence in jest. Dallas still gets a bunch of sympathetic laughs and sincere kudos from the group just for daring to do that kind of paper work with Michael. “Ok, well here’s something that not only pisses everyone off but also scares any IT worker.” Alex reclaims his laptop and brings it back inside the house where his pumpkin sits on his desktop. It has a classic jack-o-lantern triangle face drawn on with only half of the pieces cut out of it. The pumpkin weighs down a sheet of copy paper underneath it with a printed warning that says, ‘Download Incomplete. Insufficient Bandwidth.’Alex gives Michael a side eye and a sly smirk, “Who knew all aliens couldn't handle Earth technology? Especially when it comes to downloading porn.” Michael takes mock offense as their friends collectively laugh at his expense while Max gives Alex a vindicated fist bump emoji in the chat box.Isobel steals the attention next by bumping Alex out of frame to shine her phone light under her face while staring menacingly into the camera. The growl in her voice adds to the sinister vibe, “Yes, my darlings, laugh and joke but don’t forget what this holiday is really about…” she pauses for dramatic effect as a toothy smile creeps across her lips, “...fear.”The screen shifts to a view of her pumpkin sitting on the ground covered in a sparkly black cloak as her fingers dance over it as if doing an invisible spell. “Avert your eyes or dare to behold evil in its purest form! The source of all female annoyance!!”Her friends give a collective groan at the prolonged theatrics.“Izzy, YOU are the source of MY female annoyance right now!” Michael bellows from the sidelines as the other boys nod in solidarity. “Doctor of Ceremonies, Ph.D, concurs. We gotta wrap this up before Christmas.” Liz cuts in dryly.With a disappointed huff, Isobel wiggles her fingers and flings the cloak off of the pumpkin with her telekinesis. “BEHOLD! TRUE FEAR!! Duh duuh DUNNNN!” On the ground sits a perfectly ordinary pumpkin save for meticulously carved text glowing villainously with flickering candlelight. It reads: ‘THE MALE EGO.’ Instead of shrieks of terror, her creation and its presentation is met with raucous laughter, applause, and howls of solidarity especially from Rosa. “Alright, let the real witch of the party take you for a ride!” Maria steals the laptop for a journey into the kitchen/turned bar/turned sacrificial altar where she gingerly picks up a seemingly giant margarita garnished with whole lime skewered onto the rim. “This too was inspired by work, so I made this as a display for the bar. I’m labeling it Decor: Do Not Drink!”Her friends ogle in awe at the amount of detail on the green painted pumpkin cut to look like a chalice filled with ice and spiked onto a real glassware stem. Rosa gives an enthusiastic whoot in support for her long time friend’s creativity while also swallowing down a tinge of worry that Maria’s sculpture is her best competition yet.Maria and Isobel scramble to get Bonnie’s attention long enough to show off her creation in between fits of drunk giggles. Finally, the camera focuses on a serving tray holding a halved pumpkin with its seeds glued to the outside while red, green, and brown construction paper filling in between the ‘buns’ of an enormous hamburger.Bonnie manages to giggle out, “Ok so I love how holidays on Earth are usually about food. I don’t know if they come this big, but if I win, I want a hamburger the size of this pumpkin for Thanksgiving!”“Oooohh! You hear that? Bonnie likes some BIG meat! Don’t worry girl, we got you!” Maria teases as she and Isobel squeal with laughter while wrapping Bonnie in a sloppy group hug. Rosa’s smile drops a little as the others joke around and comment on their creations. She doesn’t want to be the jealous type, but the physical distance between them and her is painfully evident right now. It makes her feel especially alone in her new city where she isn’t as close to her peers as she is with these people. She remembers the lessons taught in AA about catching herself slipping into old patterns of self-isolation when she feels at odds with her surroundings.To combat that feeling, she decides to extend an invitation to get to know a new friend better, “Well done, Bonnie! You should come visit me in New York and show off those art skills!”Bonnie is caught by surprise since she came into the group after Rosa moved, so they didn’t get a chance to bond like she has with the others. Being acknowledged by the coolest girl in their group fills her with so much unabashed excitement that she presses her face into the camera shouting delightfully, “YESSS!! I’d love to! Show me ALL THE ART!”Rosa laughs and backs up from her computer with hands raised in protection against Bonnie possibly jumping through the glass barrier. When the rest of the group starts chanting “ROAD TRIP! ROAD TRIP! ROAD TRIP!” it fills her heart with warmth and slight panic that they might all be serious.“Whoa ok ok! Not everyone in one trip! My apartment ain’t the Hilton and it barely has one bathroom! A lot of my roommates will probably leave for the holidays soon anyway, so we’ll figure something out.”After she says that, Rosa catches a quick conspiratorial look between Liz and Kyle. “Rosa, you want to go next?” Liz asks their sister.Rosa nods hesitantly past the sudden dread in her stomach. For some reason she gets nervous that they might take actual offense to her creation. It’s very personal and not something the rest of them can relate to, but as they say in the art community: good art starts with audacity. Breathing deep, Rosa expels the ghost of New Mexico Rosa out of her body and lets New York Rosalinda take control. “First of all, I love you all and I miss being home more than I can even explain, but artists can’t deny the pull of their muse. Especially when it shines through their window every night. So without further ado, I present an homage to my second home.”She spins her laptop around to face the darker corner of her desk so the candlelight glow within will make the subtle carvings more visible. It's a cityscape of Manhattan complete with autumn leaves drifting in the breeze between the buildings; each leaf and building is carved at different depths into the pumpkin’s skin so the varying amount of light showing through gives the illusion of spatial depth within the picture. It’s her best attempt at sculpture yet, took thirteen hours to complete, and got her a well deserved A+ in her class. The best prize of all would be a nostalgic long-distance food delivery.Her friends gawk with their mouths open and say nothing for so long Rosa begins to think her screen froze up from a bad internet connection. “You guys still there?”They snap out of it enough to give a few guttural sounds of awe and appreciation. Isobel, ever the drama queen, walks off screen and declares she’s gonna go throw her own pumpkin in the trash. Kyle seconds her declaration and goes so far as to dump his bloody pumpkin mess into a nearby bin right on camera. Rosa is the only one to try and stop him.“Well, I’m glad we timed that so no one has to follow up. Let’s start the vote! ” Liz tries to salvage the competition. “Why are we bothering? Obviously Rosa won! I gotta start up my tiny pumpkin house and go.” Dallas declares teasingly and jingles his keys.“I guess I could eat my pumpkin hamburger instead of a turkey dinner.” Bonnie sadly ponders.Rosa laughs to herself quietly over these exaggerations and tries to hide the smile splitting her face in half.“Wait! Wait! So we know Rosa won best pumpkin, but…who wins WORST pumpkin?” Max throws that idea into the ring, which makes Liz beam with a new idea. She leans into Max’s ear to conspire about it off camera.There’s a silent pause for a few moments before Isobel asks, “What would the prize be for that?” Liz ducks away and starts typing something in the chat box that no one else sees. Max relays the new rule, “Not a prize, but a penalty. Worst pumpkin has to pay for the best pumpkin winner’s catered dinner.” Immediately the mood perks up and a bunch of fingers point at Kyle in nomination of his medical waste as the worst. Some argue that Liz’s petri pumpkin patch should be given that honor instead, but Liz isn’t paying attention as she’s too busy typing. Kyle doesn’t fight for himself either as he is also too busy reading a private message in his inbox. Rosa’s suspicious wondering about what those two are conspiring is interrupted when Liz claps her hands for everyone's attention. “Alright! The public has spoken and the damned have been sentenced to pay for Rosa’s dinner with one extra caveat.”Kyle declares with faux disappointment, “We have to deliver the dinner in person.”Now Rosa is the one shocked into silence. “Wha…What? Wait! Does that mean…?” she stutters in disbelief. Liz flutters her fingers together under her chin like the mad scientist she truly is, “Oh, yes! New York better prepare for a New Mexican invasion because we’re coming to you, hermana!”Rosa can’t wrap her brain around it, “Both of you? What about Papi? You can’t leave him by himself on a holiday!”Max smiles and leans into the screen, “Well, it’s a good thing you’ve got a brother-in-law who can take care of things while he’s gone.” Isobel raises her hand, “And you have a kind of sister-in-law who’s a business owner and was a waitress at the Crashdown before!” “That’s your punishment for having an artistically deficient boyfriend. His absence sounds like a win/win.” Alex nudges Isobel in reference to Kyle losing the whole competition, but winning quality time with his estranged sister and her family. Rosa can’t help but get teary eyed, “I can’t wait, guys! Oh my God! This is so exciting and weird to have my two worlds collide for the first time!”Liz smiles adoringly at her big sister and takes in a moment of gratitude to see her healthy, whole, and fully alive. “I can’t wait to see your beautiful second home in person, more so I can’t wait to see how beautiful you are in it.” A round of collective “awwws” can be heard echoing around the Zoom room. Rosa smiles back and lets the tears overflow down her face without shame. She clears her throat to address the rest of her extended family, “Thank you for doing this guys! I know it’s weird having these gatherings online, but it’s nice to still feel included even when I’m not physically there with you all.”“You were always a part of the action, Ortecho. Even when you weren’t alive, you were the focus of this Pod Squad Posse.” Michael points out the light at the end of those dark days. The friends collectively share a moment of reflection over it and thank the stars above for bringing them to where they are now together. Bonnie then asks a genuine question for a lighter subject, “So, what are we carving for Christmas?”The Zoom room once again erupts into a flurry of suggestions, jabbing jokes, and the promise of home (or second home) wherever they are.