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The little boy threw himself on the ground and screamed so loud all the animals in the pens outside shuffled slightly. The adults gathered around the van and looked at each other. The driver, with the look of chagrin, watched as the social worker tried to coax the little boy to behave. All the while, Belle looked on patiently in hopes of a breakthrough.
“Mind if I give it a shot,” she said to the older lady that Jake hadn’t recognize yet.
“I’m Jake Williams,” he said to her, “why don’t we get the paperwork in order?”
“Kasey Meiners, I brought everything, but I must warn you this case just got dropped on me two days ago.”
It was obvious in Jake’s opinion that this was part of the problem. Kids in the system were bounced from care provider to another and thus did not trust any of them to stick around. A four-year-old with that much anger was obviously affected by significant trauma.
“Why don’t you get this filled out,” he handed her the clipboard. “Do the best you can and allow Belle and me a shot with Trevor.”
Jake was watching Belle, who was just sitting and gently talking to the little boy. He could see but not hear the interactions. Whatever she said was working, because the screaming had stopped, and now the little guy just sat stone-faced looking at her.
“Can you tell me a bit about his background?” He turned to Kasey.
“He was born into care and had a sibling that was with him in the last placement –” she said, reading the file. Jake tried to keep his temper in check as he understood she was doing her best using only the file as a reference to his experiences and character. She was only giving the facts of the case and not tuned in with Trevor’s specific needs.
“The brother was with him,” she stopped as he saw her shoulders stoop backwards. “He died. There has been an ongoing investigation, but currently, we are not certain of the specifics from what this says here. I remember this case now in a staffing before it got transferred to me. Sorry, I didn’t put two and two together when I picked him up today. The foster parents have claimed he lashed out, and they tried to restrain him,” she let the sentence hang.
Jake watched her face and saw the moment the disinterest turned to something else. “I hate this job sometimes,” Kasey said, with a sigh looking out the glass doors to where Trevor now stood by Belle’s side.
“My worst cases come out to you all here,” she said without meeting his eyes, “I can’t tell how many kids you all have helped. I don’t know what we would do without places like this for our most traumatized kids.”
He stopped when he saw Matthew walk outside. He was holding Babe the sheep and bent down to show Trevor. The little boy did not change his facial expression, as Matthew could be seen chatting away at him. Trevor reached out to Babe and ran a tentative hand down her back. Jake turned to Kasey, who just sat transfixed. “We will make it better,” he promised.
She simply nodded.
Two hours later, he and Belle were finishing case notes at the desk in her office.
“It is not going to help if they can’t find a foster family to keep him,” Belle said, as she continued to make notes.
“Agreed, but Kasey said they had a couple of long-term families she would personally call who have taken tough cases before at her request. I can’t imagine it will be easy without his brother,” Jake finished.
“Definitely not.”
“Does Matthew always interact with the kids?” He asked curiously as he had not seen it before.
She looked up at him. “Not always, but we do allow it when he feels the need. I do not know how to explain it, but he just knows which kids will respond to Babe. She is Matthew’s security blanket, and I think because of how innocent he is as an adult, it just helps some of the kids.”
“Never with adults has he done that?”
She shook her head.
“Interesting. He does not seem intrusive, and then just wandered away when Trevor settled. It is so natural; I didn’t know if you had provided him training or something?”
“Nope, it just appears to be part of the gift that is Matthew,” Belle responded.
“Anything else you need me to follow up on with this one?”
“No, if you can be sure and get with Kasey before the next visit and ensure we are kept abreast of any change in living situation and the like,” Belle responded, rolling her shoulders.
“Will do. You have more clients?”
“Yep, a Vet I have been working with for PTSD. I would love your take on his file, see if you have any ideas as I do not see the improvement I had hoped. I don’t always understand the VA process.”
“If you get me his file, I can do a services review and see where I might make recommendations.”
Thanks, she said, smiling at him.
The stupid flip flop in his heart region was an affliction he was fast becoming used to in her presence, but still not sure how he was supposed to treat that ailment. Some human conditions just needed time to see how they worked themselves out, he determined.
