One day, after a putting out a fire, Joel fell ill. Not an illness of the body, but of the spirit. A couple perished in the event. A couple that, like him and Kathy, had to handle things in a rocky way. The man comforted his destroyed wife, telling her that they could always try again. For some reason, that struck Joel hard. He saw trying again as a luxury... A luxury that his job couldn't afford. Why did he choose firefighting? He never knew... He used to say that he job picks you, not the other way around.
After that particular fire, Joel started having soul pains. He would wake up in the middle of the night, complaining of pressure in his chest. Sometimes he would, out of the blue, scream and attack people. And there are times where his pain was so intense, that he locked his door and started screaming and crying. He locked his door, out of fear of harming Kathy and Tim. These symptoms would go for a painfully long time...
Kathy was scared... Kathy was sad... Kathy was angry. Her husband was on the verge of going savage, he could attack her; he could attack Tim... Hell, he could attack anyone. She felt impotent, his husband would keep everything to himself, he would avoid her... He wouldn't let her in. And all that impotence turned into frustration. But she never got to extremes... She silently endured everything; she gave her support whenever he was down... But above all... She still loved her son. She never abandoned him, even if he didn't have her blood.
Every day, after a night full of screams and pleas... Joel would go to work. All Kathy could do was pray... Pray that he doesn't go mad while on duty. She didn't have the strength to tell him that he had a problem... Out of fear of causing pain for Tim. Although he was sociable, he would retreat to his inner peace when he arrived from school. Perhaps he noticed and he was hiding... Perhaps...
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