"It was a beautiful service, Francesca" said Julia, trying to find the right thing to say to her best friend.
"Hmm? Oh yes. Everything's been....well....as good as it could have been. Thank you for staying after the wake and helping Stefanie and me home."
"It's no trouble at all...I'm here to help in whatever way I can. Did your parents catch their flight home OK?"
Francesca sighed. "Yes...got them to the airport in good time. It was good of them to fly out here; Mom's health is really declining. I told them not to make the trip if it would put her back in hospital but...well...you know how parents are."
"I certainly do" said Julia with a wry smile. If Central Casting had to choose people to play an archetypal, middle aged Jewish couple who doted on their daughter they could do no better than to hire Julia's parents.
Francesca was trying her best not to burst into tears but Rodney's death now left a bigger gap in her life than she had expected. They'd been high school sweethearts, married at 20 and she had never looked at another man in a desirous manner ever since. She also recoiled in horror at the image of him being caught in the fire in the kitchen...
The investigators said it was an electrical fault in the stove that caused it. Due to the cramped design of the kitchen the fire had quickly spread and soon Rod's escape route was blocked.
Francesca whisked Stefanie out of the house and then ran back inside to phone the fire department, hoping they would arrive in time to save Rod but they got held up and arrived too late. He had passed out from smoke inhalation before the flames engulfed him.
"Oh what? No, no thank you...I'm taking up way too much of your time, Julia. If you need to go..."
"You're not. I'm here to help you and Stefanie...and, well, the dog as well..." she said, noticing that little Boris the bulldog was sitting right next to her and watching her intensely.
"I really appreciate it but you don't have to..."
"Your parents live far away and your mother's health isn't great and you don't have any other family in Sim City: But I like to think I'm a close friend..."
"You're more than that, Julia. Your my best friend...after...Rod...." and at that moment the tears began to stream again. Francesca got up to her feet and went to Julia for a hug. Even though Julia was awkward with physical shows of affection she overcame her resistance this time. Francesca cried and smiled at the same time.
"I miss him so much already!" she gasped.
"I know..." said Julia, in consolation. Once they had stopped hugging they went to sit down on the couch and continued their discussion.
"How's Stefanie doing?" asked Julia.
Francesca drew a deep breath "She's struggling...understandably...but there's a lot of anger there, Jules. Every so often she just blows her top"
"Does she know who's she's angry at?" asked Julia.
Francesca shook her head. "The Fire Department...God...me...she's not like that all the time but every so often she just flares up."
Julia thought hard about this; she had come to think of the little girl almost as a relative and was very fond of her. "Do you think it might help if I spent some time with her? Just talking, helping her process her grief?" she said.
"I'm sometimes at my wits end so, yes, please do...she likes you very much and I'm sure she'll listen to what you have to say"
"I'M SICK OF PEOPLE TELLING ME TO CALM DOWN!" Screamed the little girl at Julia.
"Well...it might help if you did..."
"HOW? HOW IS IT GOING TO HELP? DAD'S DEAD! The stupid Fire Department killed him!"
"That's not true, Stefanie. They tried..."
"NO THEY DID NOT! They didn't come! Not until...." and she clenched her fists tightly until they turned white.
Julia knew Stefanie didn't need to complete that sentence. By the time the firemen had arrived Rod was already dead. Julia processed what she was seeing and hearing from Stefanie and had a thought: There's no point right now in trying to get her to calm down and act the part of the sweet, dutiful little girl when there was real anger there. Although Julia had only done one small course in child psychology she had always had a knack for understanding children that went beyond her training.
"Do you know something, Stefanie? You're right. They didn't do their job properly that day and it cost you and your mother dearly. You shouldn't just 'calm down'; you should let it out." Julia said.
"Really?"
"Yes. Tell me what you're really thinking right now..."
Stefanie paused before she suddenly started stamping her feet and shouting again "That's it's NOT FAIR! Why MY daddy?"
"Of course it's not fair. I'll tell you a true story...last week we had a little girl, similar age to you, in the hospital and she was really sad and angry as well. Her dad was a pilot and he was killed on a mission in Vietnam so she's really frightened, angry and missing him so much as well. You're not alone, even if you sometimes think you are."
Stefanie looked up at Julia and said "How is she now, this little girl?"
"Well, she's joined a group of families who have lost a mother or father recently and who need support. Now this girl realised that there's one other person who is grieving and very sad and who needs her help as much as she does."
"Who is that?"
"Her own mom and I think your mom needs a lot of help as well. I can give a little but you can give a lot. You must help each other...."
Stefanie went quiet and gave Julia a questioning look.
"Think about your mom for a moment...right now she has to organise everything, look after you and your dog and on top of that she's going to have to go back to work soon. She would really welcome your help...that doesn't mean you can't be sad or angry and it might mean your mom will get really sad and angry some days but you have each other; you need to give each other support."
The little girl was moved by Julia's compassion and understanding. There was a boy whose dad was in Vietnam and he worried about whether he was going to make it home so Julia's words struck a chord.
Stefanie went back to the lounge and saw her mother standing there, ostensibly filling Boris' food bowl up but she could see sadness on her face. "Hi, Mom...you OK?" she said.
Francesca turned to look at her daughter and said "I heard you shouting, earlier. Are you being nice to Julia?"
"A little?"
"OK, maybe more than just a little..."
Francesca's scowl turned to a smile as she beheld the sweet honesty of her daughter. "Come here, poppet" she said as she crouched down to give the little girl a hug. "We'll get through this together...the two of us"
Boris let out a little yelp.
"The three of us, Mom?" said Stefanie.
Julia watched mother and daughter hugging one another and said, softly. "I'll leave you two to it. If you need to call me, just do so anytime."
"Thanks, Julia" said Francesca with a kindly wink.
Julia grabbed her shoulder bag and left the house to make her way back to Willow Creek. There was some hope there; on the day of Rod's death she seriously worried about Francesca's state of mind, as if she was capable of self-harm, but now the grieving process had begun she knew that Fran would focus her attention on helping Stefanie. However, Julia felt completely drained and needed some company.
She headed down to the Blue Velvet. She wasn't expected to perform today but she just wanted to go there and see if there were any of her friends present.
Down over at the bar was one of them: Jeremy. She walked over to him and saw he was struggling to place a drinks order as it was getting very crowded there. He noticed her approaching and waved.
"Hi Julia...it's really crowded in here tonight. Say, you look all smart..."
"I've just come from a funeral" she replied, sombrely.
"Oh...I'm sorry, I forgot that was today. How did it go?"
Julia breathed in before answering. "Well, better than I expected. Francesca's bearing up although there were times when I could detect she was on the edge of breaking down but she's tough: We've seen death before at work..."
"I tell you what...I'm buying this round so let me include you. What are you having?"
"A large glass of red wine, please."
"OK..." he said and, again, he waved his $10 bill towards the barman to attract their attention. In the meantime Suzy had spotted Julia and came over to where she and Jeremy were standing.
Suzy didn't say much, she leant in and gave Julia a hug and whispered "How's your friend?"
"It's so difficult for her and her daughter but I think she'll come through" replied Julia.
Suzy nodded and said "good, good...well, why don't you hang out with us and unwind for a bit?"
Julia gladly agreed to stay on and switch off from the tragedy for just a brief moment, even playing a song on the piano not for her own personal gain but to celebrate Rod's life. The patrons even dug deep into their pockets to donate to his widow and child.
She was just about to kick off her shoes, take off her dress and hang it up to take to the dry cleaners when there was a knock at the door.
"Who's this at this hour?" she sighed to herself, before going to the door. To her surprise it was Francesca, who had changed out of her mourning dress and into something more casual.
"Fran...what's the matter? Are you OK? Is Stefanie alright?"
"Yes, she's fine...we're all doing OK given the circumstances. Some neighbours who have a child the same age are looking after her. I really wanted to swing by and say thank you for all your support."
"You didn't have to come all the way down here to tell me that."
"I know, I know...but some things are best said face to face....I hope I'm not keeping you awake; it's been a long day for all of us."
"I was going to go to get changed and soak in the bath before bedtime but I don't mind you visiting at all. Anytime, Francesca, I mean that."
"Thanks, Jules. Sometimes it just hits me...Rod isn't here anymore! I'm 28 years old, years ahead of me, Stef's got at least another 10 years of education to get through and I'm going to have to look after her...and me...and keep my mid-level paying job, and fulfil the role of two parents and...and...the thing is, Jules, Rod and me were intertwined: We'd known each other since we were teenagers. We could finish each other's sentences, I've never loved another man in my life and that love has gone! It's like a part of me has gone!"
Julia didn't respond immediately and she didn't know where to begin...certainly not with a facile piece of encouragement. "Come inside, talk to me about it some more..." she said, gently touching Francesca on the arm and guiding her inside.
