Rose Duveteux

      Everything has started exactly that day. It was 28th of July...       28th of July, 2023.       A young mademoiselle Rose Duveteux was living in France, in a small town known Mulhouse. She was living there for about two years, in a tiny house on the edge of Mulhouse. Now, she is getting ready for an interview so she can get a new job.       “Damn, where the hell are my keys?” she asked, looking through the drawers in attempt to finds the keys from her house. “Here they are! I'll go now, Ray, don't be bored!”       She scratched her dog's ear gently and took a step outside the house.       After Rose closed the door with a key, she headed straight to the central street of Mulhouse.       As the taxi arrived to the final destination, she approached an Exhibition Center «Transafrik Art», where a young man in black jeans, white T-shirt and leather coat met her. His hair had a bright red color with a slight shade of scarlet.       He reminds me of someone... However, that's not the point...       “Ted...” he looked at her, as she spoke “Where are we going?”       “Forward.” he shrugged.       “I have a meeting in the evening, can I go?” Duvetuex asked and looked at her watch on the wrist.       Ted shrugged again, as if saying "do what you want" and went his way in the same direction.

***

      13:51.       “Ray!” Rose entered the house cheerfully and threw her bag on the floor. Her small orange corgi dog instantly rushed to his owner. “They accepted me for the work! I'm so happy right now, my dear pup! I'm so happy! I wonder, how the first working day will be like?” Rose asked Ray, while Ray rolled his eyes from pleasure of his tummy being scratched. “Fine, dear...” she rose from the floor and Ray barked started barking discontentedly. “It's time for me to go to Mary, she expects me to arrive at 8pm. I have to tell her about my new job!”       For the sake of the story, here's a small note that Mary is Rose's friend. They've been friends since school times, and now they are still thick as thieves.

***

      “Bye, my love!” Rose said and kissed Ray's head. “I'll be back soon.”       She closed the door behind herself with a key in her hands. As she caught a taxi, she went to the Thomas family.       Mary was living in her parents' house because she didn't have enough money to get her own apartment. Rose often offered Mary to move in with her, but always got a simple answer “No, thanks. I don't want to deprive your personal space...”       Of course, Rose never agreed with her, but she also didn't want to argue about it.       The car soon stopped near a pretty house on the «Rue du Ravin» street.       As Rose got out of the car, she got washed over with a wave of hospitality.       “Rose! I missed you so much!” Mary said, walking outside of the house.       “Mary! I missed you too! I have a good news.”       “Yeah, yeah. Come in!” Mary spoke in an imperative tone. “By the way, we have a guest here.” Rose looked at Mary with a questioning look. “Don't pay attention to him, he's temporarily here.”       “Fine. I hope he's as handsome red-haired person like you.” Rose smiled and took Mary by her hand.       The front door opened, two besties came in, giggling.       Rose saw a small living room in emerald shades which she knew since her childhood. A small sofa, an armchair, an antique chest of drawers, a torchere which was illuminating one of the corners of the room. It smelled like cinnamon in here. An orange cat was lying on the sofa peacefully, and a young man was sitting on the armchair... Is it Ted?!       When his and Rose's gazes met, the time flow slowed down. Ted tilted his head to the side a little and opened his mouth, looking at Rose with a complete incomprehension. Rose, in her turn, looked at Mary, who was watching her brother and best friend. Rose then turned her head to Ted, who seemed to lose his ability to breathe.       “What are you doing here?!” Rose and Ted exclaimed in unison. “And what are you doing here?!” they spoke at the same time again, and then started laughing loudly.       “I see who your friend is now.” Ted winked at his sister, and she rolled her eyes.       “And I was thinking, who does he remind me of?” Rose smiled.       “C'mon guys, do you know each other?” Mary asked, after which she looked at Rose and then at Ted.       “We met each other today on the "interview".” Ted said.       “What? What kind of the "interview"?” Mary asked, and Ted looked down at the floor. “Wait, Rose...” she looked at Rose. “So it is you, a new inspector?”       “New who?” "An inspector?" I thought I'm gonna be a detective.” Mary pursed her lips. I spilled the beans...       “Uh... Well, an inspector is the same thing as a detective. They investigate different things too...” Ted spoke, as if trying to protect his sister from other questions.       “Well, if that's the thing, it's OK.” Rose looked down at her feet.       “Rose,” Mary tried to draw her best friend's attention. “So, what is that good news you wanted to tell me?”       “Uh...” Duveteux nodded. “Well, you know it already. I am a detective now, or, as you said, an inspector.”       Mary didn't say anything as an answer and looked away silently.       Rose and Mary planned some gatherings, or a "hen-party". Actually, it was just telling different secrets to each other.       But now this unexpected meeting happened here, and now all three of them were silent and didn't know what to say.       However, very soon this awkward silence ended and three of them, Rose, Mary and Ted, were chit-chatting about different things: “What is your dream?”, “Do you like travelling?”, “What are your hobbies?” and so on.

***

      “Ray! I'm back, my boy!” Rose exclaimed, entering the house.       In a race with the wind, her dog was running downstairs and almost fell from the slippery stairs.       “Could you even imagine it? Mary's brother is my new boss!”       Ray barked loudly at Rose's words. She looked at the watch: 17:48, it's time to have a walk with her favorite pup.       “Are you ready to go for a walk, my boy?” Rose asked, expecting a long-familiar reaction.       Ray started jumping, running through the house and barking. Rose laughed in a boisterous laugh, full of happiness.

***

      18:03.       After having a walk in the town with her dog, Rose went back home. From a far distance, still walking to her house, which was illuminated with the lights of the evening lamps, Rose felt a rush of nostalgia. She was walking home slowly, tasting this feeling which was coming to her.       This house was native to Rose. Much more native, close and valuable than her parents' for those 17 years...        This long day tired her. She was rushing through the town and almost didn't spend any time at home. Entering the living room, she sat down on the snow-white sofa in front of the TV.       “Ray, I'm so tired, you can't even imagine...” she complained to her dog.       Then, as if by magic, a big, two-meter screen of the TV turned on.       Did I sit down on the TV remote or what?       At this moment, the news switched on. But the news was... Strange. Instead of two old men from the ministry, there was a young woman who was about 20 years. She had long, white hair, wearing a blazer with a shiny pin «MM». It was strange, because the local ministry was called «The Ministry of north-eastern France».       Ever stranger, the girl wasn't talking about daily news, but about magic. Black magic.       “There is an incident that happened in London.” The girl spoke, there was fear in her voice. “The Magic Ministry was attacked by the dark magician. Their name is unknown, just as their further actions. We are awaiting for inspectors, but for now, let's listen to other news...” The TV turned off just as suddenly as it turned on, and Rose started mentally putting together the pieces of a simple "puzzle".       “So it is you, a new inspector?”       “Dark magician.”       “We are awaiting for inspectors.”       “The Magic Ministry.”       Rose even jumped off her sofa when a kind of logical answer came to her mind: M-a-g-i-c i-s r-e-a-l!       Right at this moment, an unknown number called on Rose's phone.       Who could it be?       In a slow gait, Rose approached a small table and accepted the call.       “Hello?” Rose asked with a confident voice, but her body was shaking violently.       “Hey, Rose!” at this moment, Rose breathed a sigh of relief, as if she was holding her breath whole this period of time. It was Ted. “Mary gave me your phone number. Have you seen the news already?”       “Hi. What news do you mean? Ours, from the Ministry of France, or... Magical?” actually, Rose was asking this question more of herself then Ted.       “Magical, of course!”       “What do you mean "of course"? Is there something I don't know?” Rose asked, frowning her thin eyebrows a little.       “Well... How shall I say?..”       “Wait, lemme think.” Rose made a thoughtful face playfully. “Hm... Most likely I'm a magician, came here, in this world from the fairy world, and now I live as if I'm a normal human.”       “Well, you're kinda right.”       “Pardon me?”       “Haven't you feel anything strange lately?”       Hm, feeling anything strange lately...       Several memories appeared in her head.       A pink-haired girl in the age of ten was playing in the backyards with some stick. Everything was fine, but at one point several colorful rays appeared from the stick. “It's not real, it's my imagination...” ten-year-old Rose thought, but now an adult Rose didn't think that.       The picture blurred away...       Another picture: Rose is fifteen. She is standing near her classmates, chatting about nonsense. But then Rose's hair started changing its color. Pastel pink now appeared as harsh purple, but then it brightened again, but became celestial blue.       This picture disappeared too. Rose suddenly realized that she didn't even blink for whole this time. She was just standing right there with a cell phone in her hand, and the voice was heard remotely from the phone's speaker.       “Rose? Are you OK?” Ted asked from the other end of the connection line.       She was a magician all her life and she didn't even notice it.       So, that's the truth. Her pink hair color is natural. Even though the Internet is the World Wide Web, there is no information about a natural pink hair color. And Rose never thought about that. But why did she never think about that?       “Ted, you should come to my place. And bring Mary with you. We need to talk... Oh, and get some cinnamon buns!”       From the phone, Rose heard a quiet “Fine”, after which the call ended.