I got an urgent call from Stephen's school. The nurse and a teacher insisted I needed to get there immediately. And they'd called the police.
When I pulled up to the school, there were two police cars and an ambulance. My heart started racing. What had happened to Stephen?
I parked behind the police cars and ran into the school and into the office.
"Arlene, hi," the principal, Katherine Jones met me in the vestibule.
"Katherine. What happened? Is Stephen okay?"
"I think you'd better see for yourself. He's in the nurse's office. I'll take you."
"I know where it is," I said.
"I know. But I need to be there. This needs to be documented on our end, too."
I did not like the sound of that.
The nurse's office was a busy place this morning. There were two officers inside, Stephen's teacher, Kevin Graham, two paramedics with their equipment and the nurse. And of course, Stephen who, at this point, had tears running down his face. And he wasn't wearing his shirt.
"What happened? Why isn't he wearing a shirt?" I asked.
"Go see for yourself. I hope you brought a camera," Katherine said. I did. I always do.
I nodded at the officers who were trying to stand out of the way in the small room, and walked over to Stephen. I couldn't hide my shock when I saw his tiny body sitting in the chair. He'd been crying. He still was, I think.
But his shoulder. His torso. He was a patchwork of scars, cuts, bruises and what looked like cigarette burns.
But his shoulder stood out to me. It was an angry purple.
"Stephen," I breathed out. "What happened?"
"I fell," he sobbed. "Please don't tell my mommy."
I hated that I'd been right. I had known something was off.
"Stephen," I said, gently. "Tell me the truth. You didn't fall, did you? What really happened? If you tell me, I can protect you. But if you don't tell me, I can't. And I don't want to see you get hurt anymore."
He looked at me with his big brown eyes, filled with tears.
"Mommy says I can't tell anyone. If I do, I'll get in trouble. And she'll get in trouble and you'll send me somewhere where they won't treat me nice. And I'll have to live with rats and mice and a hundred other children and they won't feed me or let me play or go outside ever."
I looked at this pale, scrawny child who looked like he didn't get to go outside much outside of school anyway.
"Stephen, I can promise you that will not happen. We want to protect you. We want you to be safe. This is not safe."
"But, Mommy will be mad. And she'll punish me if I tell."
I hated how much abused children protected their abusers. Especially when they were the child's own parents. They are so desperate for love, they'll excuse anything just for the hope that one day they'll feel loved.
Cassidy had never really seemed like the lovey dovey, milk and cookies as an after school snack type of mom, but I'd never have guessed she was this type of 'parent'.
"Stephen, did your mommy give you those bruises?" I asked, softly. I wanted Stephen to trust me. I wanted him to know I was on his side. I wanted him to know he wasn't in trouble.
His eyes looked away from mine.
"It's okay, Stephen. Do you see those two police officers?" I asked. He nodded. "They are here to protect you. You aren't in any trouble and they are here to make sure you stay safe."
He looked at the officers. One of them winked at him and he smiled shyly.
"Now," I said, sitting in a chair right beside him. "Stephen. Can you tell me what happened to your shoulder, and how you got those bruises?"
He took a shuddering breath.
"You're not going to tell Mommy I told?"
I hate lying to children, but technically, it wouldn't be me going to his mother's house to question her and Alex.
"I promise. I won't say anything to your mommy," I said. "Pinkie swear,"
I put up my pinkie. He smiled and wrapped his tiny pinky around mine.
"Mommy pushed me because I didn't clean right when you came over. And I fell on the coffee table with my shoulder," he whispered. One of the officers had moved closer to take notes. And I knew Katherine was taking notes.
"I see. Did your mommy take you to see a doctor to see if it is broken?"
"No. Mommy made me stay in my room."
"Well, that's not so bad. You have a nice room," I said, thinking about the spacious room, painted blue with stars and moons and planets.
"That's not my room," Stephen said. "That's my pretend room."
"Your pretend room? What does that mean? Which room is yours?"
"My pretend room is the room Mommy said only you could see when you visit."
"So where do you actually sleep? Where's your real room?"
The house wasn't that large. Three bedrooms, one bath and an ensuite in the master bedroom.
"In the basement," Stephen whispered.
"Your room is in the basement?" I asked.
"My room is the basement," Stephen said. I nodded.
"Okay. Stephen, can you tell me where you got the bruises from?"
"Alex and Mommy were mad after you left," was all he said.
"Did they hit you?" I asked.
Stephen nodded. I sighed. How long had this been happening? Had I been blind? Or were the Freuds really good at hiding?
"Okay. Now, Stephen, I see you have some funny looking scars. All little circles. What can you tell me about those?" I already knew what they were. I wanted to have Stephen say it out loud for the police and Katherine. It would help his case.
"Mommy, Alex and their friends play a game. They put their cigarettes on me to see how many they can touch me with before I cry. I can make it to fifteen," he said, proudly. I heard someone gasp behind me.
"Wow. Fifteen. That's very brave. Stephen, I'm going to have the paramedics here take a look at your shoulder, okay? And then, we're going to take you to the hospital and get you all fixed up."
Stephen started to panic.
"But Mommy will know. And Alex. And then I'll be in real bad trouble."
My heart broke.
"Stephen, you won't be in trouble. We will make sure your mommy doesn't know you went to the hospital, okay?"
"And then I can go home?" He asked.
I didn't answer. I pretended I didn't hear him while I moved away for the paramedics to check his shoulder.
They tried to reset his shoulder but said it had been broken longer than a day. The pain must have been excruciating because first Stephen screamed, and then he passed out.