Small Town Love

Chapter 2

Grief is the last act of love we have to give to those who loved. Where there is deep grief, there was great love.

Anonymous

She felt like she was in a glass box.

People were talking and nothing seemed to reach her.

Daphne just felt... empty. She wondered if that was normal. She had no idea.

Was it normal that it felt like she had no emotions anymore? Her body seemed to be a separate entity from her mind. Her body went through the days, doing whatever she was told to do and her mind just shut off.

Feeling were nonexistent.

She just wasn't feeling anything.

Either bad or good.

It took them three days. Three days spent in two different foster families, until they got hold of her aunt. Daphne didn't know what made it take that long nor did she care to find out.

She existed in her vacuum.

They had sent her to a therapist once. That Therapist told her for two hours that every human reacted differently to grief and that there was no right or wrong way to feel.

Was it right to feel nothing though? Nothing at all?

When they finally found her aunt, Daphne got to talk to her for around 5 minutes.

"Daphne." Her aunt's voice was soft, tinny on the phone and a lot of other things. Daphne could hear the grief, could hear the pain and the sadness and she needed to close her eyes for a second, a stabbing pain in her chest suddenly.

"Aunt Caroline," she finally brought out, brokenly. That was a good description of how she felt.

Broken.

Shattered in a thousand different pieces, not even really human anymore. She didn't feel like a whole person.

"Oh honey, I am so, so sorry," her aunt apologised softly. "I am coming to get you on Monday. I would be there earlier but the flights were all booked up, I am sorry."

It felt like a punch to her stomach and at the same time, it felt like a huge boulder was lifted from her shoulders. She had somewhere to go.

"You are staying with Matthew, Ollie and me. We figure this out, honey, I promise you that," her aunt promised her, and now she couldn't help the tears from running over her cheeks.

She was getting to stay with her aunt and uncle. She had somewhere to go. She didn't need to stay here.

"Thank you," Daphne brought out, the words lacking for the amount of gratitude she felt.

"I see you on Monday, okay?" Her aunt told her softly and she nodded before she remembered that her aunt wouldn't be able to see her.

"Thank you," Daphne whispered again.

"Of course, Daphne. We love you. Take Care," Her aunt told her softly and then the phone call ended.

*****

The days until Monday seemed to melt together. They seemed to stretch on endless but also felt like just a blink of time had passed since her mother's death.

Most of the days, she laid on that bunk bed in the room that she shared with two other girls, not moving. She was left in peace most of the times, the sound of New York city filtering through the window.