"How are you doing?" Sandra asked. "Fine," he replied, then stopped when she waited instead of writing. "I'm managing," he amended. She asked what he had been managing, and he answered with the practical list: food, bills, school, his mother, and the times he stayed home because he was afraid she would not get out of bed.
"How long have you felt responsible for those things?" Sandra asked. Eli hesitated. "Since Dad left," he said. "I was nine." Sandra's expression did not dramatize the answer, but her pen moved across the page more slowly afterward.
She asked whether he felt safe with his mother. Eli said he did not fear her, that she had never threatened him, and that he believed she loved him. He also explained that sometimes feeling safe was not enough when the heat was off and the refrigerator was empty. Sandra nodded, accepting both truths without trying to force one to replace the other.
"And the motorcycle club?" she asked. Eli looked at her sharply, wondering whether this was the moment all his new friendships would be turned into a problem. She asked how they treated him, whether anyone had asked him to do anything dangerous, and whether he was allowed to say no. Eli told her about the meals, the supervised work, the rides to school, and the new coat.
"Do you feel safe there?" she asked. "Safer than I have anywhere for a long time," he answered. He expected her to dismiss the statement because of the patches and the motorcycles. Instead she asked which particular people made him feel safe and what they did when he was upset. That question was harder because it required names and actions, not the word safe by itself.
He told her that Boon stopped him working when he was too tired, Raina made sure he went to school, and Doyle had opened the gate when he was freezing. He also told her Raina had made decisions without consulting him and that he had been angry about it. Sandra wrote that down too. He had no idea whether honesty would help him, but he was tired of having to calculate which version of the truth adults wanted.
After the interviews, Sandra explained that she would submit an assessment to her supervisor. She could not promise he would remain in the house, nor could she decide on permanent custody during an initial visit. For the moment, Darla agreed to immediate support visits, a medical evaluation, and regular school attendance for Eli. Sandra also wanted contact information for the people helping them so she could verify the arrangements independently.
When Sandra left, Darla sat at the kitchen table and looked at the chair across from her as though the space had become unfamiliar. "I could hear her pen when you talked about the last four years," she said to Eli. He had no answer. Raina suggested they focus on the next appointment rather than guessing what the report would say.
Darla looked at her son. "I know what I've made you carry," she said. Her voice was flat, which somehow made the words more difficult to hear. "I didn't know how to change it, and after a while I stopped believing I could. That doesn't mean it was fair to leave you with it."