Chapter Six
It was almost as if I was having an outer body experience. This wasn’t my life anymore. I couldn’t believe what this nurse had just said to me. This just couldn’t be real.
“You called CPS?” I squinted and stretched my neck in her direction, as if that would make me hear a different response.
“Ma’am, this was just an accident,” Farrah spoke on my behalf as she walked closer to where we stood.
“Were you there? Did you see what happened?” the nurse questioned her.
Farrah’s shoulders slumped as she answered, “No … no I wasn’t there. But I was on the phone when it happened.”
“When what happened?” The nurse narrowed her eyes at Farrah, shifting them back and forth between the two of us.
“I did not hurt my son!” I shouted at her.
“Mommy!” Sean cried out from behind the curtain.
“Melinda please, just calm down.” Farrah widened her eyes at me and then gently shook her head. “I know that you didn’t hurt him and anybody will be able to see that.” She turned back to the nurse who had taken a step back. “I heard when Sean screamed out from the other room. He had slipped out of bed and gotten a hold of a household item that was set out for cleaning,” Farrah calmly explained. “He didn’t ingest it, and Melinda immediately ran to his aid.”
The nurse looked back to me, but before she could say anything the woman with the ID badge appeared from behind the curtain. She extended the badge in my direction and introduced herself as Sasha Turner. I gritted my teeth because everything that I’ve heard about social workers had not been good. They’re nosy, and they like to take people’s children away. It had happened to a relative in Georgia and by the looks of it, it was about to happen to me.
“Ms. Black, I’m going to need the name of a next of kin.” She stated in a tone that was serious and unwavering. She then explained that Sean was not going home with me until the county agency had an opportunity to investigate. There it was; Sean was going in the system.
“I could take him,” Farrah suggested. She looked to me for confirmation and I nodded.
“Yes, is it okay for him to go with her?”
“Are you a next of kin?” Sasha asked.
“Well, uh, no, but I’m like an aunt to him. He knows me very well,” Farrah tried to convince the woman who looked the part of a seasoned veteran.
Sasha squared her shoulders, formed a firm stare, and shook her head. There was no pulling the wool over her eyes.
“Well, I guess my mother can pick him up,” I said.
“After talking with your son, I’ve learned that he has a father.” She cleared her throat as she took a step closer to me, staring me dead in the eyes. “Is the child’s father in his life?”
I exhaled a deep sigh and glanced at Farrah. I knew that she wasn’t going to lie for me, and at this point I didn’t want her to. Although he was the last person that I wanted to know about this, I figured if I didn’t let Kevin know what was going on now, he’d be even more furious when he did find out.
“Yes …” I reluctantly answered. “He’s in his life. It’s my estranged husband.” I folded my arms and gave her a defensive stare.
“Oh.” Sasha’s eyes drifted away from mine down to the folder in her hands. “So, it’s Mrs. Black.” She scribbled something down on a piece of paper, and then looked back at me. “What is his name and phone number?”
All sorts of things ran through my mind when she asked me that question. Should I give her his old number that was no longer in service? Should I tell her that he was a no good liar and cheat? Would it fair well if she found out that he was also a thief? Would that keep her from placing Sean with him?
After my carousel of emotions came to a stop, I realized that in the end I would only be hurting my son because there was no guarantee that my mother would even take him after the way she went off on and ran out on me today. Right now, I needed things to look and feel as normal to Sean as possible and if that meant that he had to be with his father for a little while, the only constant male figure in his life, then so be it.
“His name is Kevin.” My eyes drifted to the floor before I looked at her again. “Kevin Black.”
“And his number?”
After a depressive sigh, I hesitantly gave her his cell phone number. His current number.
“Excuse me while I give him a call.” Sasha reached into her shoulder bag and pulled out a cell phone.
My heart pounded as she punched a few digits into her ancient looking phone. Farrah patted my back again as I swallowed the lump in my throat. As Sasha relayed to Kevin the details of why Sean was in the hospital, I could hear his voice blaring through the phone. Just the sound of his voice caused me to flinch.
There was no way that I could use what I had against him now. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that Kevin would somehow make his embezzlement my fault. Knowing him, he would implicate me by revealing that I knew about it, benefited from it, and never made a report. Sadly, he would have been right.
It was just so hard making ends meet after throwing that lavish wedding we couldn’t afford. The following months there were more bills pouring in than money. After I found out that I was pregnant with Sean, Kevin suggested that he could gradually siphon money from a lucrative government account since he worked in the admin department.
After Sasha ended the call, she explained that Kevin was on his way to the hospital and that Sean was going to be placed with him temporarily.
“I don’t understand why my son can’t stay with my friend. Sean lives with me full time.” I pointed at my chest. “Why can’t I make the decision where he gets to stay?”
“Ma’am,” Sasha began, now with an even sterner look on her face. “Your son has two parents and the father has a right to his child just as you do. Now, when or if you decide to get a divorce, custody will be decided by the family court judge. That is outside of my control.”
Blah, blah, blah … I didn’t want to hear any of what she was saying. It was all so stupid to me anyway. I couldn’t believe that I was being treated like a criminal when the whole thing was an accident.
“Mrs. Black, do you understand?”
I glared at her. “Understand that you want to take my child away from me? No, I don’t understand that.”
Sasha released a quiet breath. It was obvious that she was not trying to go there with me tonight. I’m sure that she didn’t want to be here at the hospital on a Friday night no more than I did.
Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, Sasha stated, “You’ll have supervised visits until the investigation is complete.”
“Investigation? Why? He’s fine. It was just an accident!” I yelled at her.
“It’s going to be okay,” Farrah said, trying to calm me by the pats of her hand on my back. “She’s just doing her job. You know that you’re a great mother.”
I glared at her. “If I’m so great, then why is she taking my son away?”
“Mrs. Black, please calm down. I’m just following the judge’s orders. Understand that we have to treat every case seriously. No one is accusing you of abuse. The agency just has to ensure that there isn’t any abuse going on in the home. The more you cooperate with us, the sooner you may be able to get your son back in the home. In the meantime, I have to place him with his father.” She paused, and then said, “It’s either with him or in the system.”
“She’s not taking your son away,” Farrah explained. “Sean is just going home with his father.”
And his mistress, I thought.
I looked between the two of them and threw my hands up in the air. “Whatever! Just do whatever!” I stormed a few steps away from them, but then stopped and turned around. I looked at Sasha and in a much calmer voice asked, “Can I at least say goodnight to my son?”
Sasha glanced back at the nurse who was still stationed just outside of the curtain where Sean was and then back to me. “I’l
l give you a few minutes. Don’t be long.”
I pinned my mouth into an angry ball and rolled my eyes at her. I walked past her to where my son was kept. When I looked at his bare chest laced with a clear greasy looking substance, my eyes watered.
“Mommy!” he shrieked. Sean bounced up and down in place with his arms extended towards me. “Can we go home now?” He grabbed the shirt next to him, the one that must’ve been given to him by the hospital staff, and hopped off the table.
“You can’t go yet, little man.” The doctor who held a clipboard in his hands said. “I still have to put these bandages on you. Remember?”
“Oh yeah,” Sean complied. “So the sticky stuff won’t get all over my clothes.”
“That’s right. So the sticky stuff won’t get all over your new shirt.” The doctor with hints of gray in his hair spoke gently to my son. In some strange way, he offered a bit of comfort in this otherwise chaotic situation. He looked at me and expressed a bit of compassion by the smile he extended. It was a welcomed change from the look I had just gotten from the social worker.
“Mrs. Black is it?”
“Yes,” I answered him as I hoisted Sean back onto the examination table.
“I’m Dr. Caldwell. Your son wasn’t bruised badly, just some skin irritation. But even so his injuries had to be reported.”
“Doctor, I promise you, it was an accident,” I pleaded my case to him.
He stared at me and then picked up the bandage that rested beside Sean on the bed. “I believe you. By observing your son and the way he cried for you, I can tell that your case is different from some of the many others that I’ve seen.”
“So, can this whole thing just be cleared up? Can you tell that social worker out there so that I can take my baby home?” I desperately asked.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Black, but it doesn’t work that way.” He carefully placed the large bandage on Sean’s chest that made his abrasions seem like he was covering a gaping wound. “I have my job to do and the child protective agency has theirs. Just follow their protocol and you’ll have your son back in no time.”
“But you don’t know my—”
“Sean! Where’s Sean?” I heard Kevin hollering in the hallway.
The doctor’s eyes met mine and immediately I could tell that he knew what I was about to tell him. It didn’t take Kevin long to get here so that means he must’ve been wining and dining that Lisa woman downtown just like the time I caught him sneaking around with her.
“Sean!” Kevin screamed after he yanked the curtain back and saw the large bandage covering the majority of our son’s chest. He quickly looked to me and questioned in a demoralizing tone, “What did you do to him?”
“Daddy,” Sean said, pulling Kevin’s attention back to him. “I thought the bleach was water.”
Kevin squinted at me with malicious intent. I could feel his eyes burning me even as I looked away.
“Mr. Black,” Dr. Caldwell spoke up. “It looks worse than it actually is.” He explained to Kevin what had happened to Sean, but Dr. Caldwell’s explanation seemed to go in one ear and out the other. Kevin hurriedly slipped the shirt that was on the bed over Sean’s head and carefully scooped him up into his arms. “You’ll be hearing from my attorney,” he said to me.
My lips parted, but I couldn’t even respond to his threat. I watched in horror as he spoke with Sasha in the hallway. I could see my life falling apart more and more by the moment. After what seemed like an eternity, Kevin stared at me and gave me the ugliest glare I had ever seen in my life. If looks could kill, I would have been dead right then and there on the same bed my son had been treated in only moments before.
“And don’t even think about calling him,” he ordered me. “If it’s the last thing I do, you’ll be sorry you ever hurt him.” He turned his back on me and stormed in the other direction toward the sliding double doors parallel to the main corridor.
“I didn’t hurt him!” I shouted back at him.
Kevin knew this. He knows that I would never do anything to intentionally hurt my child … the only child that I would ever have.