Wednesday's Child by Shane Dunphy Read Free Book Online

with suspicion and some interest. I wasn’t sure quite what to make of her inspection. It seemed almost an invasion.
     
    ‘They’ve sent you? That’s a new approach, I’ll give you that. She’ll not want to work with you, Mister. You might as well just fuck off back where you came from.’
     
    ‘I’d like the chance to try. I talked to her at her school today. She … talked back. It was a start.’
     
    ‘She’s a little flirt. She’s like her mother.’
     
    This was followed by a rolling of the eyes and alicking of lips in a mock of sexuality that was just a little disturbing, as I could see Gillian very clearly in her.
     
    ‘Mrs O’Gorman —’
     
    ‘Call me Libby.’
     
    ‘Thank you. Libby, Gillian is dangerously underweight. I don’t know if you’re aware, but she doesn’t look like she’s eaten in several weeks. Has she been eating meals at home?’
     
    ‘Dunno. She sits down with me.’
     
    ‘Is she vomiting it back up?’ Andi piped up from beside me. ‘Libby, we’ve talked to you about Gillian’s anorexia before. She needs to be watched.’
     
    ‘Ah, she’s a wilful creature. I can’t watch her all the time. She eats and then she pukes. She’s been at that since she was a young one. I can’t follow her into the toilet! What do you want me to do?’
     
    ‘Follow her into the toilet,’ I said quietly. ‘When she’s like this, you do what you have to, Libby.’
     
    ‘Easy to see you’re not a parent of a teenager, Mister. You try following a fifteen-year-old into the bathroom.’
     
    ‘I have done so in the past.’
     
    ‘You’re full of shit, Mister.’
     
    I let that one slide. There was nowhere to go with it that was productive.
     
    ‘Libby, I want you to make an appointment to take Gillian to your GP. I need to have her looked over. When the weight of a person drops to the level she’sat it has fairly severe knock-on effects on the organs. She’s putting herself at risk now, and she needs to be seen by a medic as soon as possible. I know you have a medical card – it’ll cost you nothing. If transport is a problem, I can organise that also. But Libby, I will be checking to make sure she goes. I want you to go with her tomorrow.’
     
    I knew that I had crossed a line with her. Her eyes narrowed and she stepped back from the window. Just like her daughter, she had shut down.
     
    ‘Right,’ she said, moving back towards the house, her eyes still fixed on me as she slowly paced backwards.
     
    The dogs seemed to sense a change in mood, and the growling resumed as the beasts rose, their hackles up as if by some unspoken command. Then she was at the door of the house and was gone, and the air about us exploded into noise and ferocity again.
     
    Andi turned the key in the ignition and we reversed back up the dirt path for half a mile until we could turn. We said nothing.
     
    When we reached the main road she looked over at me, sunk in my seat and deep in thought.
     
    ‘So what did you make of that, Mister?’
     
    I smiled and looked over at her, mental and emotional exhaustion settling over me like a shroud. I couldn’t remember the last time I had felt this way. It was like every drop of emotional resistance had been wrung from me. My brain felt like cotton wool.
     
    ‘I don’t know what to think.’
     
    ‘Well you must have some comment. How do you think you’re going to get on with them?’
     
    ‘I think,’ I said, struggling for anything useful to say, ‘that I am in way over my head.’
     
    Andi laughed aloud and patted me on the knee.
     
    ‘Once you know that, Shane, you’ll do fine.’
     
    We drove through the beautiful midlands countryside as the sun dipped over the hills, and my first day of casework came to an end. As we headed back towards the office, I reflected on the fact that I had not achieved one single thing that day, other than probably alienating two sets of clients and the Principal of a local school. I reckoned that I