Theodora feels old, but she still goes to visit her daughter and her granddaughter. Teddy died a few years ago, stupid Covid illness.
“Hello sweetheart” Theodora says to Kim, her daughter. She looks almost like her younger duplicate, which annoys Theodora. It was bad enough she had to see the woman she killed every day in the mirror, and it is killing her she also sees it every time she looks at her daughter.
“Hey mom, good to see you. You want to go out for tea?” Kim asks while taking her mother’s cloak.
Theodora sits down on the couch. “I just got here, I am getting old dear. Can we just stay here?” Kim rolls her eyes but also looks at her mother in concern “Sure but Aly will have some guests today, they are playing some kind of game called Dungeons and Dragons.”
Theodora smiles widely and chuckles. “You know your father and I used to play that, before we had you.” Kim chuckles before she replies. “Great, then maybe you can help her. She is nervous.” She nods and goes towards the dining table where Aly is setting up.
“Oh, hey grandma, how are you?” Aly smiles, the girl is pretty, more like her father. Auburn brown eyes and hair. “I am great, just getting old. How are you, dear?” “Nervous, there is this guy I like, Jed, and he wants to play this game that I’ve never heard of, and… and I really want him to like me.”
Theodora chuckles “Dear, it is okay, did I ever tell you how your grandpa and I met?” Aly shakes her head “Well we started playing Dungeons and Dragons, he was the best DM, and I just fell head over heels for him… And he liked me, because I was the only girl willing to play with him.”
Aly chuckles “Well that no longer is true, girls can be nerds too. What did you play?” Theodora smiles at her granddaughter, there is hope for her yet. “I played a druid called Theodora, I even had these special dice made, from cursed wood.”
“Cursed wood?” Aly asks, smiling. “Yes, back when women were prosecuted for witchcraft there was this one hanging tree. That tree got cut down, but from a piece of that wood, I had dice made.”
“That is fricking cool… do you still have them” Aly asks, and Theodora nods her head. “I do, next time you are at my place I will show them.” Theodora smiles and kisses her granddaughter’s forehead, before going back towards Kim.
She and her daughter drink tea, while in the other room she hears the familiar role-playing, as they did in her first weeks in her new body. Teddy never wanted to play again after Anita’s death, he always felt something was off. But now… there is hope, her soul is still attached to the dice, she can… Yes, that is a good plan.
“I really should get going sweetheart, you know the nurse comes at 6” Theodora says and gets up. She waves Aly goodbye and goes home.
In the evening, she lays in bed looking at the ceiling while the nurse, Lis, is next to her. They just finished having sex, and Lis is playing with Theodora’s hair “Penny for your thoughts?” she asks and Theodora smiles at her. “I just… there is hope for my future yet.”
Lis immediately sits up and looks at her. “They found a cure?” Theodora shakes her head sadly “No dear… it is just, seeing my granddaughter today did a lot of good.”
“Did you finally tell them?” Lis asks, but Theodora shakes her head again. “What is the point? They will find out when I am dead.”
Lis chuckles, gets up and starts putting on her clothes “Most elderly love to spend their last days with their loved ones, but you… you rather just die in the dark?” Theodora smiles and looks at her lover “I am spending my days with them. I just don’t want to bum them out. People hear cancer and immediately go into pity mode, I just want to enjoy them while I can.”
Stories of my brain 