At The Spead Of Emotion

Job And His Friends

It was morning. Nova was eating breakfast with her mom. As they were chatting, Nova mentioned to her her mom about how Ruth seems unwell. Her mother kept recommending her to simply ask Ruth about it and to try to help her. But, Nova kept insisting that she should give her time.
"Why don't you just ask her?" Her mom said.
"Mom, I cannot just ask her 'hey Ruth, why do you look depressed?' that's simply not how it works" Nova replied.
"I'm not telling you to just ask her like that, I am just saying that you can easily ask more subtly. For example, you can say 'Ruth is everything alright? You look kinda upset these days' or 'you can talk to me if you'd like'. Show some interest in her mental health." Her mom explained.
"What do you mean? I should give her time as well though, right?" Nova asked confused.
"I mean that, in the Bible, when Job was grieving his children, his friends did not say a word to him for 7 days and 7 nights, in order to give him time. But their silence was not eternal as they tried to give him advice, after the 7 days and nights." Her mom explained again. Nova looked even more confused now
"All I'm saying is that both giving somebody time and giving them the chance to open up a bit are correct, just don't mistake the first one with general lack of interest." Her mom said, as she saw the confusion in her dark brown eyes.
"Lack of interest?" Nova asked concerned.
"And try to give good advice, since they did not manage to speak truthfully either when they told him that it had happened because of something he did, which was false as it did not have to do with Job's actions, but it was a wash for God to test his faith, as we saw in the book of Job" Her mom continued, trying to give her even more ways to understand Ruth's mental health.
This got Nova into thinking. When they went to school, Nova asked Ruth, who looked under the weather again: "Hey, is everything fine? You look kinda upset these days"
"Oh I'm fine, I'm just feeling a little unwelcomed here, you know?" Ruth said without making eye contact.
"What do you mean?" Nova asked.
"I mean, people at the street look at me weirdly, people here call me... let's just say some weird titles. And I genuinely feel so lost in this place." Ruth said.
"I understand what you mean, I know it can be very hard to do so, but please just try to ignore those people. After all, every second, we're closer to the end of this whole 'moving to UK' situation. But, it's all going to be fine, trust me!" Nova said trying her best to cheer up Ruth.
"Right, it's all going to be fine!" Ruth said. It was unsure if she said it sarcastically or if she genuinely ment it.
At that very moment, her mind was flooded with thoughts:
"What did that mean?" "What if she did not say the correct words?" "What if she should have given her more time?" "What if she should had done that earlier?" "Probably, right?"
"Maybe she asked too fast?" "Actually, she looked fine at first. When she tried to comfort her, it seemed to go downhill."