A Quiet Street

[poliphilo]

A child stands in the middle of the road yowling.

We go out and talk to him gently. He says his mother has left him to go shopping.

He is wearing a school jumper and flimsy blue shorts. Ailz takes his hand. His hand is freezing.

We walk him to his door- a few houses down- where his slightly older brother comes out and talks to us.

(Why aren't either of them in school?)

His Brother takes him in and locks the door.

Peace again. This is a very quiet street. And the BIG question- did we do the right thing?

The mystery of other people's lives.

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I saw the woman on the street earlier. I don't think she lives here. She's a visitor perhaps.

There was no sign of the kids when she was taken off. I say "taken off" but she went of her own accord, without restraint.

But they sent two vans!

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Allow me to extrapolate:

- Two vans were sent so that, if necessary, the children could be taken to Child Protective Services

- The woman is a visitor at their home. She may be the mother's sister. She is very troubled, and is trouble.

- The friction she has caused brought about a blow-up today. The mother and sister got into it, the mother slammed out to "go shopping," the sister got drunk/stoned/abusive, or all of the above, and the smaller child ran to find his mother and the older child called the police.

- The mother is still "shopping" while all hell has broken loose at her house. The police would like very much to know where she is.

- She'll be sorry when she gets home.

- Or (better): the mother got home. The place was a wreck. The children were crying. The sister was drunk/stoned/abusive. The mother called the police. (In this scenario, I can't figure out the two vans.)

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Or:

- The two sisters got into an awful fight when the mother got home. They yelled, they slapped, they sent the children to their rooms. They began breaking up the furniture! And the older boy, crying, called the police.

That makes it work out--two vans, one for the adults, one for the children:

Kind policeman: Are you all right?

Boy: My mother is breaking things. My Aunt is drunk and is going to kill us all!

Kind policeman: Help is on the way.

Okay, that's the one that works. Now if you never find out another thing, at least I've got a sort of closure here.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It sounds very plausible.

I'm remembering that there was a police car parked just down from the house a couple of days ago. Whatever is going on has been going on for a while.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

The holiday season tends to escalate these things.

I've been thinking: would the police take small children away in a van? Surely they would simply put them into the back seat of a more friendly police car, and hopefully give them teddy bears.

Maybe there's a batch of drug dealers living there.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I don't think the children were taken, but of course I may have missed something.

I may have missed a whole lot. I only know about the police vans because my in-laws came to the door while they were there.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Oh, well.

You're not as good at lurking behind twitching lace curtains as I am...

I'll just have to make up a satisfactory ending to make everything come out all right for those little boys.

They move in with their REAL mother, who lives on a farm, and she gives them both ponies.

Everybody else goes off to jail, and good riddance.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Lovely.

And very improving.