Rachel was sitting in her kitchen, with her hands wrapped around her hot mug of coffee, staring out of her window at a mother bird leaving her baby birds in the nest to find food. She was thinking about some of the things Mollie had said to her at the hospital, and how alone she must be feeling. A knocking at the door pulled Rachel from her thoughts as she stood to answer.
Rachel opened the door to be greeted by Poppy's social worker.
"Poppy! Your social worker is here! Can you come down please?" Rachel called up the stairs as she guided the social worker into the kitchen. Rachel made two cups of tea before wondering where on earth Poppy had got to. "She'll be down in a minute," Rachel reassured. Poppy made her way sulkily down the stairs to be met by Rachel. "You took your time! Your social worker has travelled very far to see you today, and for God's sake, put a smile on that face!" Poppy gave Rachel a sarcastic smile before heading to the kitchen. Rachel wondered what was making Poppy so sulky, since she'd been so happy beforehand.
"Hi Poppy, how have you been?" asked the social worker.
"Fine, thanks," replied Poppy abruptly.
"Good. I know things haven't been easy for you recently – I've been reading through your daily notes – but, you're happy here?"
"Yeah. Fine." Poppy folded her arms and slumped in her chair.
"Okay then. I've got a project for you to do today." Poppy looked up, intrigued by what she'd just heard. The social worker continued as she passed a book to Poppy, "It's a life book. You can write whatever you want in there, and it's all about you." Poppy gave a weak smile as she flicked through the pages, scanning each and every one of them. "Do you want me to help you start it now?"
Poppy sat with her social worker filling out basic pages. Her name, her birthday, her friends and her favourite things. They came to a page that she didn't want to fill out. It was about her family.
"I don't want to do this page," Poppy stated quietly.
"Can you at least try?"
"NO! I don't want to!" Poppy snapped as she ran out of the room and up the stairs. Rachel heard the noise and decided to investigate.
"What happened?" she asked when she met a distraught social worker in her kitchen.
"We were fine, until we got to a page on family and she just… she just flipped!"
"Oh, right. I've not seen her do that before"
"Does she talk about her family at all?"
"Come to think of it, no, she doesn't. She's even stopped talking about Chris, Jessica and little Sophie."
"It seems that family may be a subject too difficult for her to handle. Look, I've got to go now, but if Poppy or you ever want to chat, here's my number. Call anytime, day or night," the social worker told Rachel as she handed her a card with the number.
"Thanks," replied Rachel as she saw the social worker out.
Rachel gave Poppy a few minutes to calm down before going to check if she was okay. She tapped lightly on Poppy's bedroom door before opening it. "Poppy? Oh poppy," she said as she peered through the open door to see the girl curled up on her bed, knees up to her chest. Tears were streaming down her face as she turned to Rachel and whispered "I'm sorry, Rachel. I'm so, so sorry."