couldn’t ask Andy to do anything that even remotely smacked of danger, plus I had to be careful of the “dual relationships” clause of my social work Code of Ethics.
For once, I thought about my words before speaking. “You can help me in one way. This may not sound important to you, Andy, but it really is. I want you to listen to what people are saying about the dog poisonings. There’s not much being said about the dogs, and of course we’re concentrating on the people. But I’m really worried about the dogs.”
His mouth drew down into a frown, and he said, “That’s all? I worked my butt off all week and this is my reward? That’s nuts.”
“I’m sorry, Andy. I don’t think you know the importance of this. You might be the one who gets the clue that solves the case.”
He brightened at that.
I continued, “Please don’t do anything rash. All I’m asking you to do is keep your ears open. Don’t do anything out of the ordinary. Understand?”
Andy nodded, but that wasn’t enough for me.
“Say it.”
“Okay, I won’t do anything out of the ordinary. I’ll just listen.”
“And, just maybe, your listening will make you the hero of a real life adventure.”
As much as he loved video games, I knew this would hook him for sure. My hope was that “just listening” would be enough motivation to get him to continue doing what he was supposed to do at school and home.
I added, “And remember you have to keep doing your homework and other responsibilities or the deal is off. This is your reward for good behavior.”
Andy gleamed. It amazed me that he didn’t realize he could “just listen” without having good behavior, but apparently he agreed that it was a reward. For a kid who has everything, meaningful rewards are hard to come by.
And then he said, “I do know something though.” His brown eyes widened in anticipation of being able to tell me something. I nodded. He continued, “All the dogs were in one section of town.”
“Where is that?”
“I dunno. I just heard some grownups talking about it.”
Drat. Why hadn’t I thought of that? I might have to tell Andy that it was enough information. That would surely disappoint him. Maybe I could come up with something else. And why didn’t George tell me that information?
“Andy, instead of just listening, I have a better idea. Why don’t you do some internet searches? A lot of investigation happens that way.”
Computers were his life. “That would be cool. What do you want me to look for?”
I thought I better warn him. “Don’t look up information on arsenic, because that looks suspicious if anyone would check for some reason. Okay?”
He nodded.
“However, you can look up anything and everything about the dog poisonings. Check local papers, national papers, CNN, anything. And you can let me know next session. Remember that this is a reward for good behavior, so that behavior has to continue.”
He nodded again. Back to his old trick of not talking.
“Use your words, Andy.”
“Yes, I understand. I won’t look up arsenic, but I’ll check about the dog poisonings. Can I still listen?”
I nodded.
He said, “Use your words,” with a big smile on his face.
I smiled too. “Yes, you can still listen, but don’t go out of your way to do so. Nothing that looks suspicious. Nothing dangerous. Understand?”
He nodded. Then, at my look he said, “I understand.”
We still had some time left so we talked about his behaviors and his feelings. With many teenagers and even young adults depression is manifested as anger. Andy was one of those teenagers. And since he was only thirteen, I was committed to helping him so he didn’t live a life of sadness. At least we had a good relationship, and that was a start.
As soon as he left I called Gus and had to go through Georgianne to get to him. She waxed eloquently about my dear little “poochy-woochy.”
“Gus please, Georgianne. I’m in a hurry.”
I heard her
Abbi Glines
Violet Vaughn
Mindy Starns Clark
Julie E. Czerneda
Alastair Reynolds
Hannah Ford
Kenneth Robeson
Kim Baldwin, Xenia Alexiou
Josie Brown
Celeste Walker