I wondered as I drove home. Could it be guilt? It would make sense. If she had been abusing them then she had reason to believe they would be better off without her. The edge to Tess’s voice when she’d asked her had suggested she thought so too. Yet Molly and Kit did miss their mother dreadfully, and she was clearly beside herself with grief at being parted from them. However, most parents are distraught if their children are taken into care whether they have been abusing them or not. In my experience, anger and grief are not indicators of the level of care children have been receiving at home. Aneta had been very upset but not angry. She appeared overprotective – not taking her children to pre-school for fear of accidents and germs. As for Filip, I wasn’t sure what to make of him. He looked shattered and overwhelmed, but seemed to have had little contact with his children because of the hours he worked. Did he know what had been going on at home?
It was 2.30 when I arrived home. As I let myself in I could hear Keelie’s highly excitable voice trilling from the living room. I think most of the street could hear her. ‘Beep. Beep. Beep. Brumm-brumm. Nnneeaoowww!’ she screeched. ‘Chuff-chuff, choo-choo!’ Then what sounded like her imitating the loud wail of a siren. Strewth! I thought. Whatever was she doing?
I went through to the living room. Maggie was sitting on the sofa, watching the children play. ‘Everything OK?’ I asked, my gaze sweeping the room, which was now covered with toys, games and puzzles.
‘Nnneeaoowww!’ Keelie cried again, bringing the toy aeroplane she was holding low over the scene below.
‘Keelie found some more toy boxes in the cupboard,’ Maggie said. ‘Hope that was all right. She’s been keeping Molly and Kit very well amused.’
‘Yes, of course, thank you,’ I said.
There wasn’t space to move for the toys covering the floor, and Molly and Kit, while not actually playing, were clearly mesmerized by Keelie. The playmat that showed a busy street scene was in the centre of the room and crammed full of toy vehicles, farmyard and zoo animals, play people and buildings constructed from Lego. It wasn’t so much a busy street scene as a giant metropolis, where police cars, fire engines, lorries, tankers, ambulances, boats and cars fought for space on the roads and pavements with dinosaurs, people and tower blocks. Every so often Kellie picked up a fighter jet, space rocket, flying saucer or pterodactyl and dropped miniature barrels of hay on those below. They landed with a loud ‘Bang!’ or ‘Whoosh!’ I thought how conservative and timid my play must have seemed to Molly and Kit compared with this.
‘Very imaginative,’ I said.
‘Bang! Boom! Gotcha!’ Keelie cried, as a brontosaurus landed on a boat on the duck pond. ‘I wanted to put water in it, but Maggie wouldn’t let me,’ Keelie lamented, pulling a face.
‘You can thank me later,’ Maggie said, and I smiled.
While Molly and Kit weren’t joining in, they were clearly enthralled and couldn’t take their eyes off Keelie. As Maggie had said, she had clearly kept them very well amused.
‘How did your meeting go?’ Maggie asked.
‘OK, thanks. We’ve got contact at four o’clock.’
‘We’ll be off then. Time to pack away,’ she told Keelie.
‘Oh, do I have to?’ Keelie bemoaned like a young child might.
‘Yes,’ Maggie said. ‘If you put away the toys nicely perhaps Cathy will invite you to another play date.’
Keelie stuck her tongue out good humouredly, and Maggie and I smiled.
‘Don’t worry, I’ll do it later,’ I said.
‘No, you won’t,’ Maggie replied. ‘We will all help.’
Maggie and I joined Keelie on the floor and began packing away as Molly and Kit continued to watch Keelie, probably having never seen a teenager playing so enthusiastically before.
‘I’ve got to start a food diary to try to identify if the children are allergic to anything,’ I told Maggie as we tidied away. ‘Have Molly and Kit had anything to eat and drink this afternoon? I’ll make a note.’
‘Just apple juice. They didn’t want a snack.’
‘OK, thanks.’
Before long most of the toys were in their boxes, although I left some out for Molly and Kit to play with while I saw Maggie and Keelie out. I gave Maggie a box of chocolates as a thank-you gift.
‘You shouldn’t have done that,’ she said.
‘Yes, she should,’ Keelie said, taking them from her. ‘If you don’t want them, I’ll have them – I did all the work.’
‘You can have a couple and we’ll save the rest for later,’ Maggie told her, and Keelie pulled a face. Opening the front door, she began down the path eating the chocolates as she went. Maggie turned to me thoughtfully. ‘Molly and Kit were fine, they didn’t cry, but there’s something about them, isn’t there?’
‘What do you mean?’ I asked.
‘I know they’ve just come into care so they’re bound to be quiet, but they wouldn’t talk, not even to Keelie, and there’s a haunted look in their eyes. I’m sure they’ve got secrets. Anyway, let me know if you need any help again.’
‘Yes, I will, thank you.’
I watched her go and then slowly closed the door. A haunted look … yes, that summed up Molly and Kit perfectly, I thought. Even when they weren’t upset there was something in their eyes, a burden they carried, which at their age they found impossible to understand or communicate. If they couldn’t verbalize their suffering, it might come out in play, but not yet. They were where I’d left them in the living room, sitting on the floor by the toy box, and Molly had her arm around Kit.
‘Did you have a nice time with Keelie?’ I asked.
Both children stared at me, and then Molly managed a small nod.
‘Good. You’re going to see your mummy and daddy soon, so let’s get you ready.’
‘Mummy?’ Molly asked.
‘Yes, we are going in my car so you can see Mummy and Daddy at what’s called a Family Centre.’
Holding a hand each, I took the children upstairs where I washed their hands and faces and then changed Kit’s top and nappy. Molly’s clothes were still clean. I always liked the children I cared for to look smart for contact, as it helped to reassure the parents and gave their meeting a sense of occasion, although of course Molly and Kit were too young to appreciate that.
‘Mummy?’ Molly asked again as we returned downstairs.
‘Yes, you’re going to see Mummy and Daddy very soon.’
‘At my home?’
‘No, love, at the Family Centre. It’s like a home, with toys, books, games and chairs to sit on. You will see them for an hour or so and then I’ll bring you back here.’ I wasn’t sure how long contact would be, as Tess hadn’t told me, but it’s usually an hour and a half, sometimes two.
Before
