His mother loved him and that was all that mattered, nothing else, he mused. Smiling at the social worker, he said, “ there’s nothing going on here ma’am. I’m fine with my mother, really…”.

Ms. Anselm sighed, nodding her head, “ I understand Silver…well, I’m pleased to inform you that this will be the last visit from me… from henceforth, you don’t need me to come check up regularly, you’ll be fully under the guardianship of your mother. I hope you made the right choice”, she said.

He felt like crying.

Even as Silver laid on the bed, forcing himself to go to sleep, he could only think about how he had let himself suffer by concealing the truth from the social worker. His mother loved him, she had told him earlier.

She loved him and love covered a multitude of sins right?, his teacher had said so. But why did it feel like he had just let go of the lifeline he was holding on to.

A single tear fell from his eye and he wiped it off from his face. He had chosen love and that was okay, because that was all that mattered.

He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. It was very easy. He had dreamt of a good life and was enjoying his dream when a loud bang woke him up.

Silver opened his eyes immediately, looking around in shock. What was that sound for, he thought, frowning. He stood up from his bed to check as he left his room, he wasn’t shocked at what he saw.

His mother was staggering into the living room. She must have broken something downstairs that caused the loud bang earlier. She was always like this whenever the social worker visited. Well, she didn’t need to bother anymore, because this was the last visit.

Somehow, he felt very sad that Ms. Anselm will not be visiting anymore. He had gotten used to her visits that it had become a part of living for him. At least he had someone else other than his mother coming to see him. He would miss her visits for sure, he thought.

He counted the seconds and exactly at the right time, he heard his name.

 “ Silver!”, she shouted.

He sighed, climbing down the stairs to attend to his mother. He was approaching her when he was hit by an incoming missile, he had been so lost in his thoughts that he had failed to dodge the purse that she had thrown his way.

She started laughing, “ oh Jacob!, Is that you!”, she said, thinking he was Jacob, his father. She was hallucinating.

She does this every time she was drunk or high on drugs. She would call him Jacob, like she was no longer seeing him but his father. He took it all, in good faith.

“ yes Mom…”, he responded, walking over to her.

“ oh my baby… it’s you… I’m so sorry…I love you, I’m sorry…”, she stuttered, holding on to his arm.

Silver smiled, her grip was strong and was sure going to hurt the next day but he held on nodding his head. That was all he needed to know, that she loved him. All doubts and uncertainty washed away with those words.

She let him go and collapsed on the couch seconds later. He sighed, moving over to her and removing her shoes and her wig. She always wore a black wig whenever she left for work. She had told him that her boss didn’t like her silver color hair, so he understood, even though the wig made her look strange.

He took them up to her room and brought out a blanket, taking it back downstairs to the living room where his mother was still sprawled on the coach. He covered her with the blanket, though it was hard at first since he had small hands and was covering an adult, but he did the best he could.

When he turned to leave, satisfied with his work, his mother held his hand, stopping him.

“ Silver…”, she muttered.

Silver blinked, “ yes Mom…”, he answered.

She stared long at him, “ I’m sorry…I should be taking care of you, but it’s the other way around…I’m sorry…”, she told him.

He understood. He wanted to tell her that he knew that she was taking care of him and she didn’t need to bother. What he was doing was just a fragment of what she had done for him. But instead of saying all these, he simply nodded, saying that he understood.

“ I’m sorry you have to be apart from your father. I’m only protecting you my love, you are all I have in this world and I can’t live if anything happens to you… I love you Silver…”, she whispered, dropping her hand.

Yeah, she had fallen asleep. He sighed, putting her hand inside the blanket and leaving the living room.

Silver’s hand hurt when he woke up the next morning, he grudgingly dragged himself over to the bathroom, to take a leak. His stomach grumbled, he was seriously hungry. He had not eaten last night after the social worker left as he had retired immediately to his room. 

He went downstairs to the kitchen and opened the fridge, dragging the stool over to the fridge and climbing it to get to the top layer. He pulled out the food there and closed the fridge.

Silver took a bite, grumbling immediately. The food was too cold and he couldn’t warm it up because his mother was still at home, though she was up in her room since he didn’t see her on the couch when he came down. 

Deciding to let the food defrost, he went back to his room and started to prepare for school. When he was ready, he took his bag and left the room. The food was still cold when he checked it and so he decided to take cereals for breakfast, that was better than not having anything at all, so he made a bowl of cereal and took it to eat in the living room.

Silver turned on the television and it was as if the universe was taunting him, Jacob’s face was plastered on the screen. They were talking about the game the Vikings won last night. He focused his eyes on the television and continued to watch the news about his father while he ate.

He smiled when he saw the man celebrating one of the touchdowns last night but the television went off before he could see what happened next. He frowned, turning to check who had turned it off.

“ I think it’s time for you to go to school.” His mother said standing there. 

Silver pouted, taking in her appearance, she looked tattered, especially with her hair sticking out in different directions.

“ okay Mom…”, he said standing up and  carrying his bag. He walked the long way to the bus station where his school bus would pick him up. He didn’t need to wait that long Because the bus came minutes later.

“ hey silver hair!”, someone shouted from the back, causing him to roll his eyes.

Jimmy, popularly called Big Jim was one of his many tormentors at school. The boy was on the football team and always picked on him because of his hair.

Silver sighed, sitting at a seat in front of the bus. He ignored big Jim throughout the ride, even when the boy threw jabs at him. That was all he could do, he couldn’t lay a hand on him, that is if he wanted to still remain on the team.

The bell rang after he stepped into the school and he rushed to his first class, tripping on his feet and smacking his face on the cold floor.

“ Ouch!” , he yelled out in pain, touching his nose. He probably broke his nose, he winced at the pain. He heard them laughing before he saw big Jim and his gang of misfits. He knew that they probably had planned and caused him to trip.

“ I expect you boys to be in your class now Jimmy…”, his homeroom teacher muttered from behind him.

He sighed, rising to his feet.

“ You need to go check that out Silver. Go to the nurse’s office and have her look at your nose”, the man instructed.

Silver nodded and went straight to the nurse’s office.

“ it sure is broken…”, the nurse told him, fixing it and putting a plaster on his nose. His mother wouldn’t like him coming home with an injury, he sighed. 

The school nurse asked him to rest up and only let him go during lunch and after school, giving him some pain killer pills for his nose.

Instead of going home, Silver took the familiar path down the hall that led to the football field. He had taken this path for years, so he wasn’t shocked when he opened the wide doors that opened to the football field.

The team was already practicing, so he went over to the coach.

“ you’re late Silver!”, the coach told him.

He smirked,  shaking the paper he was holding in front of the man. It was a permission letter from the nurse to be exempted from playing at practice that day.

Coach sighed, “ take a sit and watch. I want you telling me the faults you see on the field!”, he told Silver running off as he blew the whistle.

Silver smiled, yes, this was home for him, the field, football.