Last visit to Sally's house

Sally and I kept in touch for the next while on and off. I told her that she should call me as soon as she had any updates. After some time though, I started noticing some weird signs. I asked her if I could come by the house because I had realized she hadn't signed my paper last time I was over. Billing time was approaching, and I had to send my paperwork into my agency in order to bill the state for services. I also wanted to get it over with as soon as possible because going into the house hurt me; it made me wonder where Ben was all over again.

Sally opened the door for me, and I couldn't fully read her expression. She didn't seem to be suffering from depression, but it was clear she was upset Ben was gone.

It was so strange to be in the house. It was completely quiet. Her older children were at school, Sophia was taking a nap, and the atmosphere felt so empty without Ben and Emily around. (I always wondered why Sophia was not enrolled at school. What five year old doesn't attend some sort of preschool or kindergarten??)

I sat down at the kitchen table with Sally. It was slightly awkward but I took out my papers and had her sign them right away. Then we began yet another conversation that left me dumbfounded. Sally claimed she still didn't know why Ben had been taken, and according to her, the lawyer was simply taking a long time to get back to her. I thought that was very interesting considering Ben had been gone for just shy of a month now.

"Jessica told me not to give up," she told me. "She said she had a scare too, with her son."

I stopped writing, and looked up at her. Now this was some interesting news!

"Jessica's son was taken by social services?" I asked.

"Oh yeah," she replied. "She fought for him back. They're horrible people, social services. One violent scare and they take drastic measures. I mean, come on. There are so many other people really being abused, they don't do anything to them."

My eyes bugged out of my sockets. Aha! We were finally getting somewhere.