‘What?’

‘Doctor Jacob, please!’ she pleaded. ‘Let me see my son before I go to jail.’

‘You’re not going to jail, Priscilla.’

She frowned hard at him in confusion. ‘Then why am I here?’

‘Let’s…’ he shuffled the small stack of papers in front of him, ‘…let’s call it an intervention…’

‘No, let’s call it a waste of time. You want to find out if I’m fit to take care of my son. I’ve been taking care of him for six years!’

‘And it’s possible that during those six years he may have gone through similar forms of maltreatment as the ones you displayed this morning towards him.’

‘I have never harmed my son..! Before,’ she aggressively objected leaning even closer than before.

‘You have quite a volatile temper, Mrs. Murphy, that part is clear. Your temper would not have been a problem but the fact that that temper manifested into violence towards your one and only child; a six year old…’

She began to weep, her face now turned hopelessly to the floor. ‘I just want to see my son…my son…’

Doctor Jacob sighed and began arranging his papers. He shook his head whilst facing the two-way mirror. He stood up and headed for the door, leaving her weeping, her pitch growing higher and higher at each step he took.

‘What’s going to happen to her?’ Sineas asked his aunt as they watched her sobbing through the glass. He sounded greatly distraught.

‘It’s okay, Sin my boy,’ his aunt said. ‘Your mama will be fine. She’ll be fine, she’s very strong.’

A tear rolled down his cheek. ‘And…what about papa?’

She looked down at him and tilted his face towards her using her fingers. ‘Remember what happened to grandpapa and grandmamma two years ago?’ she smiled at him.

‘Accident?’

She nodded, then wiped the tear from his eye.

*

The environment looked familiar to Sineas when he stepped out of the taxicab. His aunt, Janice, stepped out from the front passenger seat. Before his eyes was the largest building he had ever seen. It looked similar to the American White House he had seen on TV. The building had countless windows and massive pillars at its sides. It was surrounded by a tall fence secured with thick barbed wire. Just in front of the building was a lawn witch stretched up to the main gate. A black pickup truck parked by the main gate of the building a few seconds later. His aunt placed her hand on his shoulder. She was wearing a blue tracksuit, one of her many running outfits and on her feet were white sneakers. She turned her face downwards. ‘Baby, be strong, okay?’

His attention was still on the truck as two male nurses stepped out of it, one from the driver’s seat and the other from the front passenger seat.

‘Be strong, okay?’ she said again.

He nodded slowly but he clearly did not know why. Finally, the two nurses retrieved his mother from the back seat. Both of them held her tightly by the arms, one on the left and the other on the right. She was in her straitjacket. Her hair, just as it was yesterday, was wildly unkempt. The nurses began to walk her towards the main gate of the giant building. 

She turned around and saw him. ‘Sin! Sineas! Sineas!’ She tried to fight off her captors.

‘It’s okay,’ said Janice when she saw a sorrowful look develop on Sineas’ face. She nodded at him once. 

He responded likewise but his expression looked forced. Anxious.

She clasped his hand tightly in hers and began their walk towards the main gate.

Priscilla fell to her knees. Since she was tightly secured in her straitjacket, the most intimate response to her son’s hug was to place her chin on his shoulder. ‘Oh, baby, baby, baby! I’m so sorry.’

‘Mama, where are you going?’

Her tears flowed freely down her cheeks. ‘Mama needs to take a vacation, my boy.’

‘Let me come with you. I’ll be good this time, I promise.’

She managed a brief laugh. ‘You’ve always been good to me, my boy.’ She cast a lightning glance at her sister who was standing protectively beside Sineas. She finally drew her face from his shoulder and looked deeply into his eyes. ‘Listen, Sin. Now, you go with Aunt Janice okay?’

‘But I want to go with you, mama!’ he said beginning to weep.

‘I wish that were possible too, my boy, but right now you have to go with Aunt Janice, okay? Aunty will take care of you.’

He hugged her once more before her captors picked her up from the pavement and began walking her through the gate. 

She turned around after every ten steps to smile at him. As soon as they walked her through the doors of the building, he buried his face into his aunt’s stomach and began crying even louder.

‘Its okay, my boy, its okay. Mama will be okay,’ said Janice whilst gently stroking his back.

Janice’s house looked quite humble. There was nothing of possible breath-taking value Sineas could note. When he walked through the door he noticed the living room which was straight ahead. There was one couch big enough for three placed just before a small television set. Just behind the couch about ten paces ahead were the stairs. To the left of the house’s entrance was the kitchen. There was not much to note here either. One table, a sink and some cupboards just above the sink. The last cupboard had a missing door which made Sineas think the house was probably older than time itself. These were the only rooms he could see downstairs.

Janice gave him a pat on the back. ‘Go take a shower and get ready for dinner, okay, my boy?’

He nodded twice, forcing a smile. He picked up his bag; a small, green suitcase. They had taken a short detour to get his clothes from his house. His house was a three-minute drive from Aunt Janice’s. This was his new house now.

She smiled and left for the kitchen, leaving him to make his way up the stairs. He returned his smile and looked up the staircase. He had only been in Aunt Janice’s house two years ago when he was only four, but only a few things looked familiar to him. 

There were only three rooms he could see along the passage upstairs. The bathroom, first door on the left and after it was the room in which he had slept in when he last visited her. To the right was the room in which she slept in. the walls were heavily laden with cracks and they were slowly losing their white colour to a creamy one.  He dropped his bags by the door of the room he had slept in before, assuming this was where he was to sleep.

The interior of the bathroom was pathetic. It seemed Janice was having quite a difficult time maintaining the house. There was a shower to the far right corner of the room. The chequered tiles of the floor had also developed deep crevices. The window was wide open and it was draped with brown cobwebs. Just beside the shower was the towel rack. When he pulled open the half-torn shower curtains he noted more cobwebs etched in one of the corners of the wall. He turned the valve. At least the water was warm. He undressed and stepped in. The water felt so refreshing as it splashed onto his body and made its way down to the floor. He just ignored the disturbing sight of the cobwebs and cracks in the wall and thoroughly scrubbed his body. It was as though the disgusting sight was encouraging him to scrub even harder. 

He had not yet cleaned half his body when he heard something hit the floor from behind the shower curtain. It sounded like a bottle of lotion. ‘Hello? Aunt Janice, is that you?’