Chapter 10:

His brother had promised to be at home, when he would be back from school today. He had promised to clean up the mess they had left in the past two weeks and get some lunch – some proper lunch – for them tonight. They would be visited by someone from social care tonight and by the outer appearance of their living space, they would decide if Rafael was allowed to still stay in custody of his younger brother. It was an important day and Danny had been nervous about it since weeks. And he was afraid, although he never would tell his brother, but he was afraid they would decide he had to leave, wouldn't be allowed to stay here and would be send to some foster family.

Sometimes it was hard living under one roof with Rafael, but most of the time – it was fun and it was a very relaxed life, with no speeches and no responsibility. Rafael didn't care if he went to school, he didn't care when he got home, when he went to bed or who he was meeting when or where. He had all the freedom he wanted and he didn't want his carefree life to change, didn't want these liberties to be limited.

But when he arrived at their dwelling that afternoon, nobody opened the door to his ringing. An uneasy feeling grew in him when he fetched his keys and entered the house and it increased even more when he got up the stairs to the dwelling and stood in front of the closed door. He couldn't hear anything. Normally his brother would be playing music loudly or the TV would be blaring.

After finally opening the door he was on the edge of rather crying or screaming, both would have helped him a lot right now. His brother wasn't at home and the rooms still were the same mess they had been this morning. Clothing, games, cd's, videos, old magazines, pizza card boards and other stuff was lying all over the place covering a big part of the floor. The windows were dirty, the dishes weren't cleaned, the beds weren't made, his brother hadn't ironed the few clothes that had been washed by a graceful neighbour some days ago, the fridge was empty and he hadn't cleaned up the carpets and cupboards. Danny didn't even dare to have a look at the bathroom.

His brother had forgotten the date they had today, he had forgotten about his tasks, had forgotten about his promise – had forgotten about him and now he was left standing here all alone in the middle of this mess with not even half an hour left to make this dirty hole a living space again, before the lady from social work arrived, would start to scream hysterically, fall to the ground unconscious and would take him with her.

He threw his school stuff into a corner of his private room and started to collect the dirty clothes and put them into his brother's empty bedroom cupboard so they were out of sight in first place. Afterwards he searched for their private stuff – games, videos and things like that and put down the two piles into a corner of each of their rooms. He had just managed to get the garbage collected and put into a garbage back and had hot water streaming into the sink so he would at last get the dishes cleaned up, although they would still be forming an abstract work of art in the kitchen, when the doorbell rang. The lady from social work had arrived and his brother still wasn't at home. He needed a damn good and believable explanation for his brother missing this date. He had a last skeptic look at the dwelling, sighed and cursed silently – it looked slightly better but it was still a mess and if she would just have a slightly closer look this would end up in a catastrophy. Maybe he could just act like there was no one at home and she would leave...

But that would leave a bad first impression, even worse than being home and having tried to clean up the place, and she definitely would come back. He had no other chance but to open up on her. He just knew one thing for sure – he wouldn't leave this place – never in the world and whatever she would do, but she wouldn't force him to leave this life he was currently living. It was too precious to him as that he could actually lose it.

The woman rang the bell a second time, more forcefully and impatient now and Danny hurried to open the door. He had almost winced and slammed the door in panic when the woman finally stood in front of him, for she wasn't alone. There was a police-officer with her.

He didn't get what this was all about. Had he done something wrong? Was there anything he hadn't been allowed to do of which he didn't know? Did they already know he was alone and would take him with them? He tried to stay calm and focus on the task lying in front of him. He needed to show these people that his brother was capable of taking custody of him, that he took care of an orderly daily routine and that he wasn't lacking of anything. He gave the woman a nervous fake smile.

"Hi."

"You're Daniel?"

"Yeah, that's me..."

The cop stepped beside the woman and gave him a serious look.

"You have to join us, boy."

Mildly panicking now, Danny took a step backwards, away from the two adults.

"Why?"

"Daniel, I'm Julie Neveal from social care and I fear you have to join me. I'm gonna take you to youth felware office."

"No. There is no problem, Mam. Everything's okay, I'm fine here. I know the place is a little messed up, but I'm really fine – there's nothing to complain about. You came here to decide that I could stay. I know my brother is late, but he'll be here in a moment. He probably had to stay at work some time longer, but he will be here in a few moments and you can talk to him, he can tell you I'm fine!"

He was nervous and so afraid, he was talking extremly fast and he could hear his spanish accent getting more audible with every word. He just needed to convince her she couldn't send him away, by all means necessary.

The cop answered instead of the woman.

"Your brother won't come back home, boy."

A sudden feeling of complete panic, helplessness and fear rushed over him. What did he mean? Why wouldn't Rafael come back? What had happened to him? Where was he? Was he in any trouble? Did he have an accident?

"Of course he does. Why shouldn't he?"

"Your brother was arrested, kid. For possession of drugs..."