Johanna's Story, 6 mos after the hurricane

[dreamwriteremmy]

It’s been six months since the hurricane and I want my mom back. Mom’s taking it harder since we lost a couple neighbors she was close with and we couldn’t salvage all her things in the wreckage. Our house wasn’t as badly hit as some of our neighbors, but the damage was enough to warrant moving and repairs.

I might be older now, but this kind of feels like when Mom and Dad got divorced. Like everything’s falling apart around me and nothing quite feels solid enough. Layton’s doing his best to take care of me, just like he did back then, but I need my mom, not just my big brother.

It makes me feel scattered, and I’m not used to writing about it, but I’m trying to get as much out of my head as I can. Because it’s not easy for me to talk about what happened and I feel like there’s layers of scattered thoughts that I can’t figure out why or where they’re coming from. It’s hard to figure out what I’m trying to say.

Maybe it’s harder this time too because I don’t have as much opportunity to distract myself -- the dance studio’s closed for repairs and I can’t always get rides to the classes my instructor’s holding at the school on the opposite side of town, especially not when Layton’s supervising repairs at the recreation center. It’s too far out of the way.

I do what I can to practice at home when I have the energy to do it, but it’s hard to work up extra energy when I have to pick up what my mother neglects to do around the house after school and my homework.