My name is Dr. Caroline Collins, I’m a child psychologist, I have worked in this field since 2012 I like it because I feel like I give these children voices, they are able to talk to someone that isn’t their family or friends, and they don’t feel judged. My job can be hard sometimes though, a few months back I had a young boy come in and he had bruises all over him, he said it was from him falling, when CPS got involved… his father…checked out of living…he took the whole family with him. That one hit me hard, I still think of Elliot every day and wonder how I could have saved him if I would’ve got there earlier… The other workers I talk to about it said that’s normal. Guilt has a funny way of fucking you mentally.
I have been back to work though, and helping every other child that I can…
Then yesterday I got a new one, another young boy and I think he is deeply desturbed.
For the sake of this (and patient confidentiality) we are going to call him, Jack.
It all started when Jack was dropped off at my office this morning, well… night? it was almost 2am. He was covered in dirt and scrapes and looked horrible if im being honest. Clearly, he had been through a lot the night before. He was escorted in by two policemen, both having a complete look of horror on their faces.
We placed Jack in my playroom and I stepped outside to talk with the officers. I looked at the one officer’s badge, it said “Kelley.”
The other said, “Williams”
“this kids been through hell, Dr. Collins,” Officer Kelley said as he handed me his police report. “Multiple deaths and a house fire. His entire family is gone pretty much.” He continued as Williams strolled down the hallway to the vending machine where I had snacks for the kids.
“Dr. Collins…” Kelley began, I stopped him. “You can call me Caroline; we are going to be working together a lot so lets skip formalities.” He smiled. He looked good when he smiled, his dark eyes lit up and his dimples shown through his stubble.
“Okay, Caroline, this kid… watched his house burn to the ground and just set there. The fire department are looking into arson but i don’t believe that. The kid’s not talking though and the DA is gonna want someone to answer for what happened tonight. If you can get anything out of him, it would help the case a lot.”
Kelley and Williams left, Williams taking most of my damn M&Ms with him. Ugh.
I walked back to the playroom and saw Jack sitting at the little chair in the corner of the room. I grabbed a stack of paper, crayons markers amongst other things and went in the room.
Jack didn’t move. He didn’t even look at me. He just kept his eyes down to the floor. I sat down on the floor and slid a couple pieces of paper to Jack.
“do you like to draw?” I asked him, “ I like drawing, see”
I drew a poor attempt at a unicorn. It looked more like a flamboyant rhino. But it got a smile out of Jack.
He picked up a crayon and started drawing. I asked him to tell me about him and his family through his drawings…
Apparently, they had moved recently because his dad got a new job.
I’ll try to link the pictures if I can figure out how to do it.
I noticed in the picture he drew a shed… it was unsettling and sat at the back of the property.
Next Jack drew a family picture.
It had his mom [Rachel]
Dad [ Matt]
Brother [Dylan]
Sister [ Allison]
and Dog [Teddy]
but then he picked up a black crayon and started to scribble in the corner of the page, then he wrote something and slid the paper over to me…
I picked it up and on the bottom of the page was a black, thin, spiky manlike figure. It had scarlet red eyes and long thin fingers. Scribbled above the figure just like the names above the rest of the family it reads:
“The Wobbly Man”
A shiver ran down my spine and I looked back to Jack and he was staring at me. I just smiled and then excused myself, I walked to my mini fridge and pulled out a juice box and then walked to the vending machine, I got a bag of chips and some candy and then walked back into the room.
Jack was asleep. It was so late when Kelley dropped him off he was probably exhausted.
I’ll let him sleep for now and then we will continue when he wakes up. I’ll update you all when I can. That picture though… it unsettles me. And im not sure why.