Silver's Touchdown

4. Silver's POV

He was silver, yet he had been born with a plastic spoon, the irony. His name looked too rich coming from a poor scrawny kid.

He turned to look at his mother who was focused on the road and gripping the steering wheel. He prayed that she would be calm before they got home.

“ Take your eyes off me…”, his mother reprimanded, catching him staring at her.

Silver turned back to look at the looming structure that they were leaving behind, one thing was sure,  his father was in that building and he wished the man had sort him out or even spared him a glance.

By the time they got home, it was almost evening and his mother was becoming agitated. He knew when she was in one of her moods, so he stayed quiet and did nothing so as not to upset her. 

“ Clean up your room!” , she told him immediately they entered the house.

His room was already tidy, he wanted to tell her but thought it wise to shut up and do as she had asked. He was not a disorganized kid. at an early age, he knew how to take care of himself since his mother was mostly not at home during the day. 

He had learnt how to tidy up his room by putting things where they belonged and would sometimes clean her own room. He knew that she would be tired anytime she came in from work, so he made sure that the house was in order before she got back.

Silver threw a glance back at his mother as he climbed the stairs to his room. She was arranging the living room, or so she thought since she was only removing things that the social worker would frown upon.

He sighed as he entered his room, and sat down on his bed, the only thing left for him to do, was to wait for the lady to get here, and do her work fast, so that he could get a good night sleep.

His eyes were drawn to the poster at the back of his door and he smiled sadly. He had a poster of the greatest of all time, football player, Jacob shepherd. He felt proud calling the man his father, but it was so unfortunate that only him could hear himself utter those words.

He heard his mother’s heavy footsteps approaching his room, and he jumped up from the bed, rearranging his bedsheets. She would yell at him if she saw him doing nothing.

His door opened and he turned to face her, with the sheets in his hands, she looked around his room, nodding her head before looking at him.

“ make sure you change into something presentable before coming down. I ordered dinner”, she told him, turning to leave but stopped and turned back to him.

She sighed, walking into the room and holding his shoulders, “ you know I love you right?”, she said in a low voice.

Silver smiled, nodding his head. That was one thing that he had no doubt about. His mother’s love, she has been the only one taking care of him from birth, so of course she loves him. 

“ yes Mom, you’ve been there for me all these years.…I know, and I love you too…”, he replied.

She smiled, showing her teeth which he noticed was loosing it’s whitish color, maybe because she smiled a lot now.

“ you know I’ll do anything to protect you Silver. So please, behave well when the social worker gets here. You are a wise child, so you know that the lady doesn’t need to know every single thing that happens here…right?” she whispered to him.

Silver nodded his head, he knew what to say when the lady got here. Of course she would ask him some questions and he knew how to answer her truthfully.

His mother released a sigh and left the room, closing the door behind her. Silver released a sigh too and fell on the bed. His mother made him nervous sometimes, for a moment there, he thought that she was going to hit him or something.

He remained in his room, reading the book his teacher gifted him for being the best student in the class last term. He had discovered a hobby, reading, when he noticed that he could not stay at home throughout the day without doing anything.

He was at chapter three when he heard the knock on the door, “ she’s here…”, he muttered, climbing out of his bed and changing his clothes to a plain white shirt and blue jeans. 

“ Silver!, Ms. Anselm is here, come say hi!” , he heard his mother call from the stairs.

“ I’m coming!”, he shouted back, looking at himself one last time before leaving his room.

His mother and Ms. Anselm was already talking when he got to the living room.

“ Good evening ma’am…”, he greeted politely.

Ms. Anselm smiled at him, “ hello Silver, how are you doing?, You look good in that shirt…”, she commented.

He saw his mother smile, “ I’m doing great, thank you ma’am. And my mother got me this shirt…”, he told her, though it wasn’t necessary, but he wanted his mother to feel happy for buying him a new shirt.

“ that’s wonderful. I bet you’ve been a good boy…”, Ms. Anselm asked him.

“ yes ma’am, I’ve done everything you’ve asked me to do…”, he answered.

The lady nodded and faced his mother, “ do you mind if I take a look around the house, just for the work…”, she said.

His mother looked scared at first, but then she nodded her head and waved her hand. The social worker smiled in thanks and started checking the house. Silver stayed behind in the living room while his mother followed Ms. Anselm as she went round the house.

Silver was used to the protocols by now, he knew the drill, she would check his room and his mother’s room too, whatever she was looking for, she wouldn’t find it there, because his mother made sure to hide her stuff very well.

It wasn’t long after they had left that they both returned, Ms. Anselm jotting down something on her note pad, he guessed it was her report from her observation that she was writing down. He plastered a smile on his face when she looked at him.

“ Alright, I’m almost done here. Pardon me, I know you should be eating dinner now, but I need to talk to you Silver, alone..”, she said.

Hold on, dinner?, his mother prepared dinner?, he thought, looking over at the kitchen and now that he thought about it, he could perceive the smell of food coming from the kitchen. It was strange because his mother rarely cooked and she had told him earlier that she was going to order dinner, so when had she had the time to cook any food.

His mother looked at him, giving him that her all knowing look. He nodded his head.

“ Okay Ms. Anselm…”, he replied.

She smiled, leading him over to the couch. When they sat down, she looked over to his mother and gave her a tight lipped smile. His mother sighed, excusing herself.

“ How are you silver, for real, how are you?, I can’t do anything if you don’t tell me the truth..”, she asked him.

Silver frowned, what did she want him to say, that he was not okay or what… he was okay and he had told her just that earlier. If he told her otherwise, she would take him away from his mother to somewhere else and he does not want to go to somewhere he didn’t know.

“ I’m okay…”, he muttered.

She stared at him long before sighing, like she was tired of these fake visits. 

“ I’ve seen these scenes play out in single parent cases like this Silver. If you are not truthful, I can’t help you. You know what I see…?” she asked him.

Silver shook his head.

“ I see a cooked up lie…this..”, she said waving her hand around the house before she continued.

“ Is all a farce…I don’t believe that the house is this clean, that your mother isn’t using or doing something to compromise your well-being. I don’t. So I need you to tell me if there’s anything wrong” she told him.

Silver blinked, she knew all these were lies?, Yet she had not interfered once or written something bad about her visits. If she had, they would have taken him away from his mother by now.

He opened his mouth to ask her why she had not said anything about it but then he saw a shadow of his mother in the hallway and closed his mouth. He didn’t want her to get mad at him later on, so he shut up.

His mother loved him and that was all that mattered, nothing else, he mused. Smiling at the social worker, he said, “ there’s nothing going on here ma’am. I’m fine with my mother, really…”.

Ms. Anselm sighed, nodding her head, “ I understand Silver…well, I’m pleased to inform you that this will be the last visit from me… from henceforth, you don’t need me to come check up regularly, you’ll be fully under the guardianship of your mother. I hope you made the right choice”, she said.

His world was really crashing, He felt like crying.