A Lonesome Time

Lucy's Progress

   The following Monday afternoon, the Loud siblings (except for Lucy) have another sibling meeting. Unlike their last sibling meeting, which had a certain negative aura, this one had a much more positive and upbeat vibe to it. Today, they were discussing how much Lucy's demeanor has significantly improved.

"Lucy's definitely been doing a lot better," Lincoln reported, "She talks more, she smiles more, and I think I've heard her laughing quite a bit too. At school, she also socializes with Haiku and Silas."

"Mind if I jump in?" Lisa requests.

Both Lincoln and Lori give her the green light to say what she wanted to say. Lisa steps forward and pulls down a chart. There is a red line on the chart that is pointed downwards, and a green line on the chart that points upwards.

"What you see before you is a chart that shows Lucy's behavior from the time Rocky has left Royal Woods to now," Lisa explains. She uses a pointer to point to the chart.

"The red line shows her distant and asocial behavior from Sunday to Thursday of last week. Notice how before Rocky left, she was in a fairly normal state. But once he was no longer here, she has dropped significantly."

Lisa now points to the green line, "This green line shows her progress from last Thursday to now. After she has spent time with Clyde, her emotional state has gotten much better. Notice how it is now rising."

"I don't think I've ever seen her this alive since she and Rocky first got together," Lynn comments.

"Wait, I thought Lucy's always been alive?" Leni says.

"No Leni. When we say 'alive' we mean 'alive with energy'," Lincoln explains.

"I don't get it," Lori remarks, "What exactly is Clyde doing that's making Lucy not be so sorrowful?"

"That's what I've been wondering too," Lincoln says, "I've asked both Clyde and Lucy and they said that talking to each other is helping a lot. Because he really listens to her, it's making quite a difference."

"Huh. I never thought that talking and listening could matter so much to a person," Lori realizes.

Downstairs, the doorbell rang, "That's probably Clyde. I heard Lucy say that she invited him over today," Lincoln comments.

Meanwhile, Lucy was watching the end credits to Vampires of Melancholia when she heard the doorbell ring. Hoping that it's Clyde, Lucy gets up from the couch and answers the door. When she opens the door, it does turn out to be Clyde, who waves at her.

"Hi Lucy. What're we doing today?" Clyde wonders.

"Well..." Lucy was interrupted when her cell phone, that was on the coffee table, rang and vibrated.

She goes to answer her phone and it turns out to be Rocky, much to her delight.

"Rocky's calling," Lucy says happily with a smile on her face.

Clyde nods in understanding as he leans against the doorway of the dining room.

Lucy sits on the couch and answers her phone, "Hello Rocky," Lucy greets sweetly.

"Hi Lucy. I'm sorry I haven't called you all weekend," Rocky greets back.

"That's alright. I'm just glad to hear your voice again," Lucy sighs.

"Oh boy was my weekend busy," Rocky explains, "First of all, we had to clean out my grandma's house, which meant we had to put her clothes and dishes in boxes and move the furniture out on the curb."