Where is Ben?

Things continued to progress as we continued with our routine. Then, the unthinkable happened.

One ordinary day, when I arrived at Ben's house, I got out of my car, popped my trunk, took out my therapy bag, and skipped over to the door. (Yes, I did skip... generally I was excited for my sessions with Ben!)

But when I knocked on the door, there was no answer. I knocked twice more, anxious to get in, as I was freezing cold outside in the snow.

Still no answer.

Finally, the fourth time, Sophia opened the door, but just enough to let her little head through the crack. "Hi, Sophia..." I began, waiting for her to open the door enough to let me through.

When she didn't, I started getting anxious. I wasn't really in the mood for her games. "Sophia, it's cold. Where's Ben?" I asked.


She finally opened the door a drop more. "Ben's not here," she said, matter of factly.

"What? What do you mean, he's not here? Where is he?"

"Lady, I SAID, he's not here!"

Nope, not good enough, Sophia. I went from despising her games to praying this was one of them. But as I walked into the house, there was no sign of Ben. No giggle making its way over to me, no pitter patter of feet at the sound of my therapy bag shaking up and down. I walked into the living room and asked again, "where is Ben?"

Sophia rolled her eyes and shrugged her shoulders dramatically. As she walked away, she shouted, "I don't know!"

I didn't know either; I had absolutely no idea I was about to find out what I did.

I walked into the kitchen slowly, to find Sally sitting at the table. One of her hands held a cigarette; the other covered her eyes. She removed her hand and barely looked at me, but it was enough for me to see the tears.

"Sally! What happened? Where's Ben??"

She turned away from me. "They took him."

"Took him?! Who?! What are you talking about?!"

Before she had a chance to answer, my stomach fell to my knees. I felt sick. But one second later I felt even sicker.

"Social Services. They took him." Sally puffed smoke into the air, and then blew her nose.

I went numb.