Helen had more positive news. Apparently Justin’s behaviour in class had improved slightly, as had the level of his academic accomplishments. As a result they’d decided to reset his school targets in order to make him push himself even harder, the key to an improving profile being very much grounded in the child constantly striving to do better. They believed this particularly applied to Justin, as they felt that, academically, he had much more to offer than anyone had originally thought, which was pleasing.
It was then my turn and I spent some time describing in detail the distressing disclosures, the discovery of self-harming and the blow-up following Justin finding out I’d passed it all on. I felt strongly, and said so, that though we’d come through it and were okay now, that he was still quite distressed at having to deal with the feelings that confronting these suppressed memories had evoked.
Gloria nodded her agreement. ‘I think you’re absolutely right, Casey,’ she said. ‘This is a pattern we see regularly with abused and damaged children. It all comes out and, well … then, sadly, we see what we’ve seen.’ She consulted her notes. ‘Anyone got anything else to add here? I see that you’ve something, John, yes? Some information from one of the younger siblings’ social worker?’
I felt my stomach shift. So here was that ‘something else’ I’d been expecting.
John cleared his throat. ‘Yes, and I only got the phone call confirming all the details this morning, so what I’ve discovered will be news to all of you, I think. But, yes, a colleague rang me to inform me that Mikey – he’s the older of Justin’s two younger brothers – has given a teacher at his primary school cause to believe that he’s been subjected to sexual abuse.’ He paused to let all of us take this news in. The implications, if so, were very serious – particularly, I realised, with an already sinking heart, for poor Justin himself.
John continued. ‘He apparently told his teacher that his mum’s “friend” had been “pulling on his winkie” and that he “didn’t like it”. And of course, since this fits in with what Justin’s told Casey about similar occurrences involving drug dealers in the past, we’ve alerted the child-protection team. They’re obviously investigating it as a matter of urgency because if she still has relationships with any of these characters, then the two boys are obviously at risk.’
‘So contact for Justin needs to be suspended, then,’ Gloria said.
John nodded. ‘Yes, of course. Certainly while all this is going on.’
‘Which is going to be tough on him,’ I said.
‘I appreciate that,’ Gloria answered, smiling at me sympathetically.
‘And what about the other boys?’ I asked. ‘Will they be taken into care too?’
‘Too early to say,’ she said. ‘Depends what the child-protection team discover. All I can tell you for sure at the moment is that Mikey, Alfie and Janice are all very much under the microscope.’
‘But whatever happens, it’s going to impact badly on Justin. Seeing his little brothers is such an incredibly big thing for him. If he’s denied that …’
‘Well, we’ll just have to keep everything crossed that doesn’t have to happen,’ soothed Gloria. ‘But don’t worry in any case – whatever happens with the siblings in relation to their mother, we’ll make sure they can remain in contact with Justin. We’d obviously make that a priority.’ She glanced at her notes and shook her head slightly. ‘And from what I’ve read, the relationship with his mum is pretty fractured in any case.’
Not half as fractured, I thought privately, than it would surely become if Janice found out that Justin had disclosed details of the abuse he had suffered and the part it was about to play in the current investigation. If the intervention by social services meant she lost her younger sons, she’d blame him. Of that I was sure. However peripherally his own past was a factor compared to the disclosures made by Mikey. However morally wrong and muddle-headed that position might be.
I thought sadly of the contact they had at the moment, which amounted to one phone call to Janice every week. He barely spoke to his little brothers – there’d be the odd time they’d come to the phone, but it wasn’t often – and the calls (still, despite everything, a highlight of Justin’s week) were absolutely heartbreaking to listen to. The halting conversations, the banality of the subject matter, the lack of anything approaching meaningful, much less loving, communication … if you didn’t know, you could easily be forgiven for thinking that he was trying to make conversation with a stranger on a bus.
It seemed so screamingly clear to me that Justin’s most deep-rooted problem – in the here and now of his current life – was not just the trauma of what had gone before, painful though that all was, but the soul-sapping reality of continued rejection by the person who was supposed to love him unconditionally for all time. His mother. His mother, who did not love him at all, it seemed to me. Who had decided at age five that he was some sort of monster. And God only knew what would happen if she lost her other boys. It was too terrible a prospect to even contemplate.
‘No, the main thing now,’ Gloria said, ‘in light of the new information is for us to pull together and support Justin the best way we can. Simon?’ She turned to the fostering programme supervisor, who’d up to now said very little. ‘You’re going to run through this for us, aren’t you?’
‘Absolutely,’ he said, moving his coffee cup to one side and opening a file he’d brought with him. I liked Simon, as did Mike. He’d been one of our assessors during our foster training. He was a no-nonsense Liverpudlian with a real warmth about him, and what seemed a really genuine desire to help the kids. He was also one of those rarities within the system who would cut corners if he had to, bypass the red tape, even at the risk of landing himself in deep water.
‘My feeling,’ he said now, ‘is that Justin could really benefit from some extra, one-on-one contact from one of our support workers, Sandie, the idea being that they can begin meeting once a week, and hopefully build a relationship, gradually, that will take him through into his next mainstream foster placement –’ he glanced at me here – ‘which is obviously still the ongoing plan. The hope is that she’ll become someone he trusts and can talk openly to, of course.’
I took all this on board, and John and I exchanged glances. The idea was that, as foster carers, we became very close to the situation and, in being so, our job was to act as parents, not counsellors. We’d been told that as such we should play ‘mum and dad’ and leave the professional therapy to the professionals. I absolutely understood the thinking, but, as Simon knew, because we’d discussed it during training, I didn’t necessarily agree with it. As parents, we all take on many roles with our own children, and I felt – as did Mike – that the same logic applied; there was no reason why foster care couldn’t be simply an extension of this.
But whatever the arguments about the boundaries between parent and counsellor, this was extra support and friendship for Justin, and that could never be a bad thing. I nodded and gave Simon a quick smile.
He smiled back. ‘We’re also going to allocate a skills worker to him. Someone who can take him out and about into the wider community, and hopefully engage his interest in some new hobbies and team activities, as a means of helping him form proper friendships.’
I really did like the idea of this because, right away, I could see how much Justin would get from this extra, focussed-on-fun-instead-of-talking kind of attention. He’d be excited, I knew, and I’d enjoy telling him about it.
‘So there you have it,’ Simon finished. ‘Let’s hope it reaps some benefits. At the very least, if we can continue to make progress with his schoolwork, and all things social, he’s definitely moving in the right direction.’
Twenty