Rip - Becoming Whole

Regina

"Rip, I have got a phone call this morning, from your social worker. She is coming out tomorrow afternoon. She wants to meet us. She'll be here when you get home from school," Mr Dutton told him over dinner in an as casual manner as he could manage. He watched the boy carefully and was surprised that Rip did not even lift his head, continuing to eat his dinner and hiding his face behind the curtain of his long curly hair. He had prepared himself for having to reassure the boy.

Rip felt his uncle stare at him and eventually lifted his head to meet the man's eyes but couldn't hold the gaze for long. Bowing his head again, he was trying to hide his bad conscience. "What did you do?" his uncle asked quietly, getting him to look up with his signature move.

"Nothing," Rip snapped, forcefully pulling away from his uncle's hand that held his chin up, "God, why do you always have to think I've done something wrong?"

The old man pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes. "Because, in the two years that you are here, we never had as much as a phone call from them and you look as guilty as hell," Mr Dutton said with gritted teeth, wagging his pointed finger at him.

Rip first picked up Robert's and Jamie's than his uncle's empty plate and stacked them loudly on top of his own, walking off with a huff towards the kitchen. He didn't just look guilty, he also felt it but told himself he had no reason to. He wasn't exactly telling the truth, but neither was he lying. Technically, he hadn't done anything wrong.

Regina arrived as arranged Thursday afternoon, an hour before Rip came home from school. Because it was her first visit with them, and they lived so remote, she had designated a lot more time than usual for a home visit.

During their phone call the previous day, she had apologised to Mr Dutton for not having been in touch before now. She explained that she had only taken over Rip's case last month and wasn't sure why her predecessor never made contact with him before now. It was unusual in a case such as theirs. She gave him the number of her supervisor in case he wanted to address the issue but hoped he wouldn't. It was not as if it would change anything but would put a strain on her relationship with the family before she had even started.

As always, she reassured him that it was a matter of protocol to check on families and told him not to worry, which she decided had been unnecessary as the man sounded more than confident, a tad too confident even. She didn't mention Rip's phone call. She would have liked to, but Rip finished the phone call so abruptly that she never got a chance to tell him that. But she was not obliged to anyway, and her experience told her that sometimes it was better to hold back. She was doing this job long enough to have realised that the boy did not want her to talk to his parent about it and he had a right to confidentiality even from his foster father, within reason of course.

He invited her into his study, and they sat in the armchairs across from each other around the coffee table. Mr Dutton was nervous but made sure it did not show. Despite her reassurances the previous day, he couldn't get rid of the feeling that someone had reported him or one of his sons for some assumed wrongdoing. Last night at dinner, he even thought it might have been the boy. He had rung first Jamie and then Samuel who both reassured him that he had done nothing that warranted him to be worried about anything. At least not recently.

"Would you like a cup of coffee", he started their meeting off.

"I'd love one. Thank you, Mr Dutton," she gratefully accepted. It had been a rather long drive, and she got lost twice, she told him with a smile. He got back up out of his seat to go to the kitchen.

"I am afraid while I am here, I also have to check on your facilities," she told him, "where the boy sleeps, the kitchen, the bathroom, that sort of thing," she added when she saw his puzzled facial expression. "I hate asking this. I hope you don't mind. It's protocol, since it is my first home visit with you," she explained.