Let It Be Me

Part 4

Mr. McGovern stood up and waved a hand over toward the seat in front of him.

"Callie, come in. Have a seat."

I couldn't move. My social worker, Lois, had turned towards me and was smiling up at me with her lips pressed together. Up until today she had barely shown her face to me. She was either too busy or she just didn't care about whether or not I was where I said I was. She had driven me to my aunt's house, spent a few minutes at the kitchen table going over paperwork, and then left and I hadn't seen her since. I held up the pink slip.

"I thought I was here for being late."

Mr. McGovern smiled but didn't answer. Instead he repeated his request for me to sit down. I hesitated and then took a seat.

"Callie" he started in. "There's no reason to be nervous. Ms. Langlois would just like to talk to you." I looked at her briefcase on the floor and started to chew my lower lip. "She's concerned about your well-being", he continued. "And, frankly, so am I."

"Why?" I muttered staring at the floor. Lois shifted in her seat so she was angled toward me.

"Callie, I stopped by your Aunt Clara's this morning." I let out the breath I'd been holding in.

"Shit."

"I was there to do a well check, just talk with your aunt for a moment and make sure..."

"I know what a well check is" I mumbled. Lois paused and then let out a sigh.

"Clara told me she hadn't seen you in a week. She said you left the night I dropped you off and you hadn't returned."

"I found somewhere else to stay" I said with a shrug. She leaned back in her chair.

"That's not how this works, Ms. Reese. Now, you've been in the system long enough to know what a well check is then I know you know very well what kinship foster care is all about." I glared at her.

"I don't need to be taken care of. I'm not a child."

"You're a minor."

"I'm going to school aren't I? I'm here, I'm on time, my homework is done, I'm clean, I've eaten today. What do you think I need my aunt for? To tuck me in at night?"

"Yes, that's exactly right" Lois said sitting up straight again. "To tuck you in at night so she knows that you're home, safe in bed, and not out walking the streets with young boys and coming home at dawn."

"That never happened", I lied. She sighed and started to play with the pen in her hand.

"We received a call at the department, Callie."

Great. I searched every face in my memory that I had seen that night or the next morning. Suddenly my heart froze.

"Danny."

"So do you want to tell me where you've been?"

"Look, Ms Langlois, that guy that called. That was my boyfriend, Danny. And he was just..." I had to catch my breath. My heart was beginning to pound. "He's just trying to get back at me. We had a fight about a week ago and he's still pissed at me....angry with me....That's all this is. He just figured out a better way to get back at me."

"Angry with you because you were being escorted home early in the morning by..." She paused to pull a binder out of her briefcase and bring it up to her nose. "A young man named Johnny Cade?"

"He wasn't escorting me. I walked home by myself. I didn't even know he had followed me until..." I pressed my lips together. Telling her any more would only make it worse.