A Second Chance

Chapter 5

It was Thursday afternoon when Jonah got the call from the child services worker. She wanted to meet with us, so we told her to come by. Her name was Kaci. She had talked to Missy earlier that day. Both she and Dennis had made bail the day after their arrest, but they were both facing serious charges. Kaci had also done a background check on Dennis, after being assigned the case. She explained that it was standard to run checks on anyone who may be around the kids, especially on a regular basis. Come to find out, Dennis had prior domestic charges, including charges of harm against minors. Apparently, he felt discipline for a 10 year old boy involved a broken arm. There were also other allegations and accusations of him hitting minors. Child services had him red-flagged as someone who is not allowed around minors as he is a danger to them.

When Kaci revealed all of this, Jonah nearly lost it. I sat next to him holding his hand, and I squeezed it tight when I saw how close he was to the edge. I didn’t want him to give this woman any reason to see him as a danger. I turned to Kaci and asked her “Did Missy know any of this?”

“Well, she initially tried to deny any knowledge of his charges. But in further questioning, she slipped up and admitted to knowing about them. She also admitted to knowing he wasn’t allowed around the children. Yet she chose to ignore those warnings. Now she’s in a bad place mentally and emotionally. But it sounds to me like she’s more concerned about Dennis than she is about her own children. She didn’t even ask about them until I brought them up,” Kaci finished.

“Wow,” I said. I was so shocked. Missy knew Dennis was a danger to her kids, yet she allowed him to be around them. What the f*ck was she thinking??

“Yea, wow is right,” Kaci said. “I have a meeting with her tomorrow because she said she had prior commitments she couldn’t break,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t know what could be more important than your kids.”

Finally, Jonah spoke. “When can my kids come home?”

“Well, that depends on how everything goes. The investigation is still ongoing. I’m still going through all the paperwork and gathering information. I see also that Jonah has a pending charge and to be honest, that doesn’t look good either,” she said to me, as if Jonah wasn’t in the room.

“What does that have to do with this situation?” he asked.

Again, she looked at me. “I’ve also found he was fired from a job for suspicious activity.”

Jonah got up and looked at Kaci. “Please stop talking to my fiancé like I’m not here. Those are MY kids you’re talking about.”

Kaci gave him an annoyed, impatient look. “It makes you look immoral, like you’re incapable of making good choices. Therefore it brings forth questions of whether you can make the right decisions for these kids. Not to mention, you could go to jail. Then what would happen to your children?”

He sat back down. “Taliah would remain a legal guardian to them. If you’re investigating, you should know I’ve signed papers, legal papers, which makes her a legal guardian with or without me around.”

“Well, now that we are involved, it wouldn’t be that easy. If you go to jail, or anything else happens to you while the children are in foster care, they would remain there. And then Taliah’s legal fight would take quite a while,” Kaci said, rather smugly in my opinion. I had a deep suspicion she didn’t like Jonah very much. Frankly, she was treating him like a criminal.

“Ok, fine. Then what do we need to do?” he asked reluctantly.

“Well, once the investigation is over and I have all the information I need, I will set up a service plan. That will include steps you both need to complete in order to have the children returned to your care. That’s also when we will set up your visitation schedule.”

“Wait a minute,” I said, “are you saying we can’t even see the kids until the plan is set up? Which could take who the hell knows how long?”

“I’m sorry. That’s the regulations,” Kaci answered my question.

“Can we at least talk to them?” I asked desperately.

“Again, we can’t allow that until the plan is in place,” she said. But she didn’t sound so sorry. She didn’t even look remorseful or regretful.

Jonah stood up and stormed out of the apartment. I knew it was so he didn’t say something he would regret. Kaci stared after the door in shock.

“You’ll have to forgive him,” I told her. “He hasn’t seen or talked to his kids in almost a week, and he is now being told it’s gonna be a while longer. He really misses those kids,” I explained to her.

She seemed to soften a little bit. “I’m a mom, and I don’t know how I would react if I were in his shoes. Still, he has some pretty serious charges that don’t look good for him. I’m meeting with the mother tomorrow. Then I can write up my report and create a service plan that I feel would be beneficial to everyone.”

“Ok, I guess. So we should just wait to hear from you?”

“Yes. I will give you a call to set up a meeting to go over and sign the service plan,” she said.

“Ok, then. I guess we wait for your call,” I said as I stood up, indicating she can leave. She took the hint and also stood up then proceeded to follow me to the door. “Here’s my card if you think of anything I should know or if you have any questions,” Kaci stated as she handed me her card.

“I don’t think we’ll need it. We’ll wait to hear from you.” With that, we said our good-byes and I closed the door. I went into the kitchen to grab a drink of water. Then I went into Illy’s room. It was as she left it. Book on the nightstand, waiting to be read, covers turned down on the bed, waiting to be slept in, slippers next to the bed, waiting to be worn. My eyes started to water. I then walked down to the boys’ room, which was also untouched. Tristan was so upset; he refused to sleep in there. He had been sleeping on the couch bed all week. After looking around a few minutes, I shut their door and walked down to our room. I checked my phone to see nothing from Jonah. I sent him a text begging him to be safe and not do anything stupid. Then I closed my eyes and drifted off.

FLASHBACK

I’m on my way to Jonah’s house to hang out for a little while. My dad let me borrow his car for the day, as long as I don’t stay out too late. I haven’t seen Jonah in almost a year, since he came to my house. Neither of us has our own vehicles, plus both of us work. We don’t exactly live too close to each other either, so it’s hard for us to hang out. But we still talk every day. I have to say, he is the only male best friend I’ve ever had.

I turn onto his road and slow down a bit, as his house should be coming up on the right soon. I drive a few more minutes, and sure enough, I see his house up ahead. I use my directional to turn into his driveway. As I’m parking, I see Jonah come out his front door. Wow! I think to myself. He’s changed quite a bit. Gone are all the orange pigtails all over his head and face. His hair is cut very short; his face is clean shaven with just a goatee and a small beard. He’s lost quite a bit of weight, but he’s still got the stocky build. He’s wearing black jeans and a sports team jacket. Mmm, s*xy! Oh geez! I need to get a hold of myself.

I put the car in park, turn it off and get out. Then I walk quickly to the porch.

“Get over here!” Jonah says with his arms wide open. I comply and walk into his arms and hug him tightly. All of a sudden, I feel this rush go through my whole body, leaving tingles all over. Whoa, I think to myself, WHAT was THAT? I had no clue what it was, but I couldn’t say it wasn’t a pleasant feeling, because it most certainly was.

Jonah pulls back and holds me slightly away from him. “You look good,” he says.

“Thanks,” I reply, “you don’t look so bad yourself.”

He laughs. “Let’s go inside. I’ll give you the grand tour.” I laugh at his goofiness and follow him into the house. “This is the living room; in here is the kitchen and the dining room. The bathroom is over there. Down the hall is my parents’ and sisters’ rooms.” He points to each room as he leads me through the house. After pointing out the hall, I ask to use the bathroom. When I’m done, he brings me upstairs to his room. It’s quite spacious. Bigger than my room even. In front of us, his bed is in a corner against the wall with a window on the side. In front of the bed is a dresser with a TV, radio, game system and a few other random items. To our left was a taller dresser, covered in odds and ends. Then there was an empty corner.

“Your room is bigger than mine. I think I’m jealous,” I say, teasing him. He laughs and shakes his head. “What can I say,” he says, “my parents love me.”

I roll my eyes and laugh. “Anyways. So what do you wanna do today?” I ask him.

“I was thinking we could go get a pizza or something,” he said.

“That sounds good,” I reply.

Jonah directs me to one of his favorite pizza places. He orders a large pizza with bacon, pepperoni and black olives. I blanch. He looks at me and says “What?”

“Black olives do NOT go on pizza!”

“Well neither do pineapples, but people still do it.”

“It’s still gross either way,” I say. So he orders me a small pizza with bacon, onions and green peppers.

After we get our pizzas, we find a booth to sit in. We eat our pizza, taking our time, while we talk about any and everything. He tells me more about his family, which he doesn’t talk about often. He has two sisters, one a few years older, the other 10 years younger. He’s close to his older sister, but not so much with the younger one, which is understandable. I talk about my family, telling him more about my little brother, who is only a couple of years younger than me. He asks about my mom. It’s just a very nice and relaxing day. We stay at the pizza place for a few hours. When I finally realize the time, I almost convulse. “My dad is going to kill me!”

“Relax,” he says, “it’s still light out.” Then he smiles at me. Oh Lord, I can just die now. Jonah gets up to get some boxes to take the rest of our pizza home. We head back to his house, where I decide to use the bathroom again. I’m really not ready to leave him. I don’t know what these feelings are that are swarming through me, but I do know it’s from him and that I like it.

I use the bathroom and wash my hands. When I come back out, I ask if we can take a picture together. I had a disposable camera with me and I had already taken a few pictures of him. He grabbed the camera and turned it around, then pulled me in close and snapped a couple of pictures. “There. Now you can never forget me,” Jonah says, laughing.

“As if I could,” I respond. I bite my bottom lip realizing I said that out loud. He gives me back my camera and walks me to the door. “Thank you for coming over. We really need to do this more often,” he says to me, with some kind of look in his eye.

“Yes, we do and we have to do it soon,” I say. He pulls me in again for a tight hug. I put my arms around his neck and breathe in his scent. Holy sh*t, that’s intoxicating, I think to myself. We stand there hugging for what seemed like eternity and yet didn’t feel long enough before we break apart. “Drive safely and call me when you get home,” he says, his eyes boring into mine. All I can do is nod in reply. He lets me go and watches me as I get into the car. As I drive away, I look into my rearview and I can see him still watching me. I smile to myself, then honk and drive away.