Stuck In The Storm The funeral was over and Joella didn’t know if she felt any better for it at all. She was relieved to be surrounded by family and friends during this sad time but it was also hard to see them just as torn apart as she was. Rolene was a mess - she’d managed to compose herself enough to attend the funeral but apart from that she hadn’t been out of her parents’ California home.
There had been a formal ceremony with many sobbing darkly dressed people and then another ceremony the next day that was organised at the beach by Will’s surfing friends. Joella had made the decision to join them, needing a lighter way to say goodbye (as hard as it was) and had paddled out from the beach on a surfboard with the large group. A vast crowd of people had shown up, not everyone who had been at the funeral was there but also people who hadn’t attended the funeral came, and they all sent flowers out into the ocean and Luke’s dad Johnny said some words. It was meant to be a merrier celebration of Will’s life, a release from the expected sombre tones of the funeral, but Joella didn’t think she was quite ready for it. She was glad that she’d gone and been a part of the unofficial ceremony but had cried pretty much the whole way home.
By the time she had returned to LA, she had a painful headache and felt absolutely drained. Emmy-Lou had gone back to Santa Monica with her mother and would probably be returning to school soon. Although she’d always felt like family to the Curtises, in more recent years Emmy and Joella had grown apart only to now be reunited by their shared loss.
Joella’s mother had sent her to bed with some ailments to soothe her headache and she had slept far better than she had in a long time. When she finally awoke, rather puffy eyed, the day had drawn in and she crept quietly through the house in case anyone else had decided to take a nap. She passed Rolene’s bedroom (her sister had her own house now but there were so many bedrooms that she still had hers at home too), the door of which was ajar and Joella could see her sister and mother cuddled up on the bed and talking in low whispers. The fifteen year old looked away sharply and continued walking, wanting a break from it all, making her way downstairs. Apparently her sister’s first reaction had been to shut everyone out, besides Johnny who had been with her at the incident, but fortunately she had relented since and allowed her parents in to comfort her in this difficult time.
Joella’s other sister Franki was sitting up at the kitchen table, pouring over a Quidditch magazine with a steaming mug in one hand. She looked as drained as Joella felt and as she approached the older girl opened out her arm to give her a hug.
“Dad’s outside with the dogs,” Franki told her, perhaps a suggestion that Joella should find a distraction like she seemed to be finding in her magazine.
Joella nodded but didn’t say anything and made her way to the door, shoving on a pair of sheepskin boots at the door and grabbing a coat to protect her against the cold winter evening. She found her father sitting out on the patio. The family’s two crups, Rags and Nipper, were tearing around the lawn. They rushed up when they saw her and she managed to crack a strained smile at their eagerness, tails wagging and paws trying to climb up her legs.
“You alright, kid?” Ivan asked, pulling her onto his lap and wrapping her up in his arms. Being the youngest in the family by a good nine years meant Joella had grown up being babied by everyone but she was fifteen now even so and it was a long time since Ivan had done something like this. But it was comforting and when something this awful happened in one’s life, the most important thing was that family members were there for each other. Joella had always been close with her family, both immediate and extended, so she didn’t doubt their support for one another would fail anyone now.
“Rolene’s going to be okay, isn’t she?” Joella didn’t answer her father’s question, simply because she didn’t want to think about it, but her sister’s wellbeing was definitely weighing on her mind.
“She’s strong,” Ivan reassured her. “It’ll be tough but she’ll come through this.”
“She seems so…” Joella paused, not sure how to describe what she saw when she looked at Rolene these days, “so empty… and dark.”
Ivan stroked her hair gently. “I know,” he murmured.
Joella thought it must be hard for her parents, seeing Rolene this way and not knowing what they could do to help.
“Remember, time’s a good healer,” Ivan told her.
“Has she lost her faith?” Joella asked suddenly.
Ivan didn’t say anything for a moment. “Her faith is shaken, for sure,” he admitted honestly, “but she’ll find her way again, don’t you worry, kid.”
Joella nodded and rested her head on her father’s shoulder, staring up at the starry night. “How long can I stay?”
“As long as you need,” was her father’s response. “But you mustn’t put off going back too long. You’ve still got your CATS at the end of this year so you can’t afford to miss too much.”
Joella shivered, not sure if it was the mention of CATS or just the chilliness of the air or a combination of the two. She dreaded going back to school, not only because she wanted to be with her family but also because she didn’t know how people would act around her. Many of them had probably read about Will’s accident or heard about it some way or another but even if there weren’t people asking where she’d been, they’d probably treat her differently. Joella didn’t want to return to Sonora too early, unconfident about her currently very sensitive state of mind and hoped that everyone would act like normal when she did go back. Sympathy could be the worst thing sometimes.