On the morning of September 22, Monika woke up early. Not even the boys were awake yet, which of course meant Kate and Rob weren't awake yet. After a bowl of cereal, she slipped on a pair of sandals and went out into the backyard.

Summer was over but in the absence of any truly cold weather, the garden was lingering for a while. There were a few flowers that actually thrived in the early autumn, including the purple "obedient" plants that had only bloomed within the last two weeks or so. Monika crouched and saw at least a dozen bumblebees buzzing around them.

When the bees had first started to show up in the spring, Monika had been a little frightened of them. She didn't have any experience with small insects and wasn't sure how cautious she should be. It became clear soon enough that they didn't have much interest in her and would only sting if she really provoked them. Plus, she had been reading about how the survival of bees was essential to the survival of life on Earth. They may have been struggling in other places, but over in this tiny corner of the world, they seemed happy. Kate told her that purple was one of their favorite colors, which Monika thought was kind of cute. She hoped that they wouldn't try to pollinate Yuri's head whenever she arrived.

From inside the house she heard the telltale thumping that meant the twins were up and running around. She went back inside to find Kate working on their breakfast.

She turned to her sons. "Boys, guess whose birthday it is?"

They stopped running and were quiet for a moment. They knew it wasn't their own birthday and they had a vague idea that their momma's birthday was later in the year. So by process of elimination they figured it out.

"Monika birthday?" Lucas asked.

"Yes!" Kate answered. "Can you guess how old she is?"

"A hundred!" Andrew confidently shouted.

"I'm going to try not to take that personally," Monika said. "I'm 19."

Satisfied, they ran off. Kate turned to Monika. "Let me know what you want for dinner tonight, okay? Oh, and could you go see if Rob is awake yet?"

"Sure." Monika walked down the hallway to the master bedroom and, to her surprise, saw that Rob was indeed awake. He was sitting up in bed looking troubled.

"Hi," Rob said once he noticed her. "Sorry…I had a bad dream."

Monika sat on the bed next to him. "The accident again?"

"No, it wasn't that. I…I don't really want to tell you. It's too awful."

"What, did I die or something?"

"No," Rob answered. "Nothing like that. It took place a few years from now and…well, never mind. I really don't want to upset you on your birthday."

Monika was puzzled. How bad could it have been? And just what was it about? It could have been New York, since the anniversary of that tragedy had passed not long ago. But she already knew that story, why would he avoid bringing it up now?

"Once I'm ready for the day and the boys are at school, I'm taking you to a coffee place," he said. "You can get whatever obscenely expensive drink you want."

"You've got a date, mister!" With that, she went downstairs and read some articles on her phone while Rob was getting ready. It was a long process; he just seemed incapable of moving quickly in the morning regardless of the amount of effort he put into it.

He was eventually ready and as they walked out to the car, Monika examined the nearby trees. There were patches of orange and yellow but it would clearly be a while before the autumn colors were in full swing. Rob's brother Alex and his girlfriend were set to arrive in early October, which she heard was shortly before the "peak" of the season. An article she had read the previous day said that states in New England made millions of dollars each year as a result of tourists coming just to look at the leaves. Connecticut seemed so nondescript in a lot of ways but this was clearly its time to shine.

They were on their way to her favorite coffee place in the next town over, the one with prices that had led Rob to speculate that the coffee must have contained "the fuckin' blood of Jesus" to be so expensive. She hoped he wouldn't be so dramatic on her birthday.

"There's something I wanted to ask you," Rob said out of the blue.

"What's that?"

"In the entire time you've been here, have you gotten sick?"

"Have I gotten sick?"

"Yeah," he said. "I was thinking about it. You fell right onto your face in the snow on your first day here and you didn't have any winter clothes. But you never got a cold. I haven't heard you so much as cough in nine months."

She didn't quite know what to say. Why was this on his mind?

"Have you read War of the Worlds?"

"Yeah," Monika said. "Or at least I once had memories of reading it."

"At the end, the aliens die from being exposed to Earth's diseases. In a way, you're like an alien, except it seems to be the opposite situation."

"I'm an alien?" Monika asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You're from a world that was modeled on this one. But disease wasn't part of the story. You couldn't be sick and miss the Literature Club meetings, so I think that translates to some sort of immunity. Mental illness was obviously a different situation."

"I don't know," Monika said. "That seems like a bit of a stretch."

"Just a theory," Rob said. "We might not ever know for sure, but it does make me worry a little less about you and the other girls."

She didn't have anything more to say, finding this whole conversation very strange. His mind went in weird directions sometimes.

They arrived at the coffee place, which wasn't especially crowded after the morning rush of people on their way to work. She got her favorite coffee while Rob opted for a chai tea, which seemed to be the only thing on the menu he was willing to drink. He behaved himself when the cashier told him what everything cost, but Monika knew him so well by now that it was obvious several zingers were being considered but going unsaid.

They found a table by the window and sat down. After enjoying their drinks for a few minutes, Monika looked over at the counter where they had ordered.

"I was thinking it might be nice to work here," she said. "I could help you guys pay for having all four of us in the house."

"That's sweet of you," Rob replied. "Hopefully we'll have that paperwork before too long."

"We must be pretty close, right?"

"I've found out a lot of interesting stuff about Social Security recently," he began. "It turns out that it's a voluntary thing, which I didn't remember from when the boys were born. But then again, I was getting barely any sleep around that time so I probably didn't read the form very closely. Almost everyone gets it, but someone who is a United States citizen and didn't get it can apply later in life. We'll have to give them some story about how your mother was a crackpot and thought the government would hunt you down or something."

Monika chuckled and shook her head. "What a lovely backstory you're creating for me."

"Before we get to that, we'll need Sayori to finish your birth certificate." Rob continued, taking out a small notebook and pen from his pocket and setting it on the table. "I don't think we can do it here and make it look official, but I gave her a picture of Andrew's that she can use as a template and it should look identical. The only thing to take care of is personal information. So if you're 19 today, then you were born on September 22, 1999. I think that makes you Generation Z, so enjoy all the bullshit articles about how you can't function without social media or whatever."

"Aren't you a Millennial?" Monika asked. "What are you, 1983?"

"Supposedly. I've never been totally sure of my generational label. If I am, I'm definitely on the older end. I get the bullshit articles about how I'm killing the diamond industry or spending all my money on avocado toast…which I've never had in my life, by the way. Sometimes I see something that calls me a Xennial, which sounds more like an alien race."

"That explains a lot," Monika teased. "Maybe you're the alien, not me!"

"The next major thing we need for you is a last name," Rob said. He had ignored her little joke, which seemed like a good Dad skill to have.

"What I would really like is your last name," she said with a flirtatious smile. "But I know that would just lead to a lot of awkward questions. I was thinking about this the other day and I suppose the closest thing I have to a father is Dan Salvato, who created the game. Do you think that will cause any problems for him?"

"You're a legal adult, so he probably won't hear anything about it one way or the other. But if I do happen to get an angry call from him one day, I'm putting you on the phone."

"Now for my mother..." she said before taking a moment to think. "I thought maybe the main artist for the game, Satchely. But...I don't know her real name."

"Yeah, I don't think we can get away with using an alias like that," Rob replied. "Maybe we could come up with something similar...sounds kinda like Sasha?"

Monika nodded. "Sure, go with that."

"How about the time of birth?" Rob asked. "Do you happen to know what time the game came out?"

She laughed. "I have no idea! What time is it now?" She looked at her phone. "9:40 am. Just write that."

"Good enough for me," he said while jotting it down. "Let's see...place of birth. We'll have to say that you were born at home so we don't put some random hospital on the spot. We still need an address. Maybe we can throw a dart at a map of the United States later and figure it out."

"I think I once told someone I was from Idaho."

Rob picked up his phone and opened the maps application. Sometimes she would see him doing this sort of thing at home. He had quite an interest in geography and travel and was able to find Idaho in seconds.

"Okay…how about 1300 Maple Street in Twin Falls, Idaho?"

"Uh…sure?" Monika asked. "What's it like there?"

"I can get you a satellite view," Rob said. "When we get back home, I can do street view and then you'll get to look at the exact house. I don't think I can do that on my phone."

She looked at the satellite image on his phone and saw a nice enough looking suburb. A perfectly suitable place for her unstable paranoid mother Sasha Salvato to have given birth.

"This is really going to happen," she said quietly. "I'm going to live here forever. With you, just like I wanted."

"I think it will work out," he replied. "If someone really wants to look into your past for some reason, they will almost certainly figure out that this wasn't a totally legitimate process. But that would probably only happen if you were a huge celebrity or if you ran for office."

"So I can't be president," Monika said. "Got it."

"What's also nice is that this will help guide the girls to make their own before they come out," Rob said.

"Wouldn't they need Japanese birth certificates?" Monika asked.

"They could do it that way if they want to," Rob answered. "But I'm not sure we want to bring immigration into this. It's probably easier to just say they're American citizens with Japanese ancestry."

Monika was curious what sort of details the other girls would invent for themselves, but it might still be a while before she saw the results. Once they were done, they drove back to the house and watched a movie called The Matrix, which Monika found extremely interesting given her own situation. She had gotten used to having Rob home with her on most days, but that would change whenever he got a job. Given the inherent difficulty of that process and Rob's own deep discomfort with it, this probably wouldn't be for a while, but she still would miss him.

After the movie, he briefly checked his laptop and then she heard the wireless printer in the other room. A moment later, he sat next to her on the couch and handed her a card. "Yuri sent this over."

It wasn't a card so much as a note, but it was still a nice surprise.

Happy birthday, Monika. May the future bring you happiness and renewal. I hope to see you soon.

Love,
Yuri

She had signed her name and, surprisingly, had gotten Sayori to do so as well. Natsuki's signature, however, was nowhere to be found. Technically, the day of the game's release would have been all of their birthdays, but in this case the three of them were probably holding on to whatever fake memories they had. At some point, Monika had also believed her birthday to be a different day but she had long forgotten when it was. She would have to thank Yuri later. Without the other girls around, the only other person outside of the family she knew well enough to invite to her birthday dinner was Nicole.

A few hours later, everyone was home from work or school. Nicole had assured Monika that her father was out of town that evening and wouldn't come looking for her, if he was even brave enough to try that after Rob had threatened his life rather vividly. Once Nicole arrived, it was clear she still had very conflicted feelings about that incident. Rob had been trying to protect her and yet she was very wary of him. She wouldn't make eye contact and noticeably kept her distance. Monika thought this was a bit over the top - he wasn't some knife-wielding maniac who would snap at any time - but didn't say anything.

After everyone enjoyed their salad (her choice for birthday dinner), Kate brought in a handful of wrapped presents to the dining table. There was one in particular that she was handling with a lot of care, but the first one was small and marked "From Andrew and Lucas." It was of course unlikely that they choose this present themselves, but the haphazard wrapping suggested they might have been involved in that part of the process. There was a card attached that was just the words "Happy Birthday!" and their names inside an asymmetrical heart. They wrote in such big letters that they wouldn't have been able to fit much more, but that was all you really needed.

The present was a coffee mug emblazoned with "#1 Aunt."

"Thank you, boys!" she smiled. Andrew and Lucas ran off, their obligations fulfilled.

Nicole's present was next. Inside the wrapped shoebox was some odd looking footwear. They almost looked like slippers, except that they were coated in plastic decorated in floral patterns.

"They're gardening shoes," Nicole said. "I know you do a lot of gardening here and they also protect your feet from hungry chickens."

They both laughed at the memory. "Thanks, Nicole."

The last three presents were all from Rob and Kate. She opened the smallest one first, a new protective case for her phone that featured a collage of pictures taken of her and the family since her arrival. Monika had heard of websites that would create these things if you paid a fee and provided the digital photos.

The second gift was a beautiful edition of the book Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, by the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami. She remembered loving this book but also couldn't remember what it was about.

The last gift was the one Kate had been handling so gently. It was a brand new laptop computer. Monika couldn't believe her eyes.

"You've been a trooper to put up with that old one I gave you," Rob said. "This one will feel like a whole different world."

Monika looked at them. "But this must have been so expensive. I can't-"

"Shh," Kate said. "No need to worry about that."

Monika threw her arms around Kate's neck. "Thank you."

"You're very welcome."

Nicole noticed Monika was holding back tears and put one arm around her. "It's like she's never gotten a birthday present before," she teased. Rob and Kate just exchanged a strange look.

The final order of business was the cake. Breaking with tradition for this sort of event, Monika had asked for a coffee cake. She had heard of them but had never had one. Surprisingly, Rob was very excited for his slice.

"Wait, so you'll eat this?"

"Of course," he said. "It tastes nothing like coffee."

Monika took a bite and realized he was right. "How weird."

Nicole laughed. "I think they call it that because it's meant to be eaten with coffee."

"I suppose that means I'm having it for breakfast too," Monika said with a smile.

She spent the rest of that evening setting up her new computer and was looking forward to figuring out what she could do with it. While laying in bed, she realized there was something bittersweet about the whole day. It had made her so happy, but she also felt like she didn't deserve it. Not after what she had done to get here. As she drifted off, Monika promised herself that she would make something like this happen for the other girls when they arrived. Even if they hated her, she knew she had to do it.