Mad Woman✓

28. Willow

"I'm like the water when your ship rolled in that night"

   TAYLOR

Joe's doing so much better, even though his recovery has been slow. It has been over two months and he is still limping. But at least the bruises are all gone and his face isn't swollen anymore. He looks like him again. Only a little less balanced.

I'm sitting outside, in the garden of Mom's house in California.

The soft sound of the water in the fountain reminds me of high school summers when I sat in the yard for hours. Just enjoying the sun and a book while listening to music. When everything was normal.

Everything might seem normal again. I'm back living with my mother, I dance around the kitchen while baking and I have time to read my books and watch my favourite movies.

But something is still bugging me.. I have had this feeling of something not being the way it should be, the second we got home. And I don't know if it is because I am just not used to being able to do what I want without being scared or if something is actually wrong.

Mom and Joe keep telling me it's just because everything has changed in the past couple of weeks. I want to believe that they are right... But I just can't.

"Hey." I look up and watch Joe walking towards me, his head down.

"Hi", I smile back at him, following his movements, "You're walking better than yesterday." "I feel better than yesterday. Actually, I feel pretty darn good." He lifts his head slightly and smiles back at me.

He sits down beside me on the garden bench. I fold one leg under me and leave my other foot resting in the grass. "Good."

Joe clasps his hands together and looks at me, "Are you nervous about tonight?" "Yeah, very much", I say. Tonight, we have an interview with Kyle Douglas from the Douglas Show. He was one of the few interviewers that didn't contact me about Morris and everything. And I like him. So I contacted him. I asked if I could tell my story on his show and he said yes immediately.

After the interview, we are going straight back to New York. Joe's mom is still in the hospital there. We only left for the interview. We decided to stay here for five days, so we could have some time together without everyone fluttering around us all the time.

Joe's mom is not doing so well. When I met her the day after we came back home, she talked to me and was very happy to meet me.. Besides the fact that I practically kidnapped her son, she seemed to like me as much as I like her. But apparently, Jasna had talked to her before she came to Iceland to help Joe and me. So I had been forgiven.

But now, she can barely talk. When she does, the words are muddled and most of the time, what she says doesn't make much sense. She's just kind of brabbling.

The only thing she keeps saying is "home" and "London". Patrick and Joe are discussing moving her back there. They're just not so sure how to combine it with Patrick's school and Joe's life here because they are not sending her away on her own.

I'm afraid they will move to England with her. Which I would totally understand and support, but that would mean I'd have to move there too. Because I can't leave Joe. Not ever. Not even if he does come back home eventually... I am not ready to be.. alone again.

"You'll do fine", Joe says, putting his hand over mine in my lap, "I am right there, so when you don't know what to say, I'll answer the questions or make a funny comment or whatever, alright?"