Child Services (25/73)

Lee was a tall boy with long beautiful black hair. I thought he was very cute but I was shy. I would get nervous and trip over my words whenever he was close by. I had a lot to hide. It was hard for me to get close to other people in the class. I was scared that if they looked to close they would see I was hiding a terrible secrete. To make matters worse, I was getting called to the principal’s office quite often for the first month that I was back at school. Of course the whole class noticed whenever I did.

Two social workers; one male and the other female, from Child Services would visit me regularly. Every time they would bring me into one of the front office and ask me how things were at home. During our first meeting I was relieved that someone could finally see that something was wrong. Even though I knew I could not say a word. Just knowing that someone else in the world was concerned made me feel better. Their concern validated that I was not crazy and all of this was really happening. The questions I was asked were mainly about physical abuse. Mostly about my mother being physically assault by Jack and whether I had witnessed such incidents lately at home.

Both of the workers consistently reassured me that I could tell them anything. It did not matter. I was to scared to say anything. Once again!  I hated that I was not strong enough to say something. I secretly hoped that they would figure it all out. Just like on TV!I would never,  say anything after school those days and my mother never mentioned anything. I began to realize that she didn’t know that they were talking to me. That offered me a little comfort. I knew that if Jack knew he would be constantly asking me about the sessions. I could not take any more of that after the hospital ordeal. He had just recently finally stopped asking me.

My Mother and Jack would pick me up from school some days if they were in the area around the time school was getting out. I hated being picked up from school. I enjoyed being on the bus with the other kids. Plus, it gave me more time away from home and what waited there for me. On the last day that Child Services came to see me, Jack unexpectedly came to pick me up from school. I had been pulled out of class close to the end of the day to come down to the office. After speaking with the workers, I frantically ran to my class to gather my bag and head outside. Class had already been out for about five minutes.

As I left school every day I would rush to get out the door as soon as the bell rang just in case I was being picked up that day. Jack didn’t like to wait if he was there. Of course that day He was there waiting. As I came out the door and saw him parked off to the side without my mother, I instantly got scared and my heart started to race. I thought ‘what if he knows that they were here talking to me?’ I rushed over to the truck and jumped in as I tried to act as normal as possible.