Page 5 of Rat Park
He stumbled out of the bathroom, taking the stairs two at a time as he barrelled downstairs.
“What the—” One of the men in the living room startled as Dominic skidded to a stop.
“There’s a, there’s a—”
“Nickie!” Dominic’s mom frowned as she saw him, but he didn’t have time for this.
“There’s a woman upstairs in the bathroom. I think, I think she might be—” Dominic choked on the word.
“Shit,” the man said, shoving Dominic a little as he went up the stairs. Dominic’s mom followed, and Dominic trailed after them, even though he didn’t want to see the woman and her pale, slack face again.
“Fuck. Fuck, call an ambulance,” the man was saying as Dominic climbed the last step.
“Is she breathing?” Dominic’s mom asked.
“Yes, call an ambulance!”
The music was still on, but it sounded strange without the noise of talking and laughter as his mom started freaking out downstairs. Dominic pressed himself into one of the hallway corners right beside his bedroom door, watching the rectangle of light that spilt from the bathroom. He closed his eyes for a moment, but that only made it worse.
Dominic didn’t know how long it took the ambulance to get there, but everybody else had left by the time they did. The musicless silence was deafening.
“There, in there,” his mom said, pointing to the bathroom as two paramedics in fluorescent vests followed her up the stairs.
Dominic’s mom watched for a moment before she spotted Dominic. She came over to him, pulling him up into a tight hug. Dominic let her, not knowing what else to do.
Dominic had no idea what the paramedics did in there, but it was only a minute later that he heard the woman’s voice slur awake.
“Jesus, thank God,” Dominic heard his mom say. Dominic closed his eyes and tried to block the world out.
He’d almost managed to disappear by the time the paramedics were filing out to leave. Dominic’s mom had moved towards the bathroom to talk to them, and Dominic was pressed against his corner again when the woman in uniform approached him.
“Hey, kid. You live here?” she asked. Dominic stared at her, saying nothing. The moment stretched. “You’re not in trouble. I’m just trying to help your mom’s friend out. Is this the first time you’ve seen this happen?”
Dominic looked down, hunching his shoulders.
“Was there a bit of a party going on when this happened?”
“Hey. Why’re you talkin’ to him? He ain’t got nothing to do with this,” Dominic’s mom said. Dominic didn’t look up. He knew you either lied or stayed quiet when adults asked questions like that. It wasn’t good to snitch. Dominic had to protect his family, no matter how small it was. No matter if they didn’t protect him back.
“I was just trying to—”
“Well,don’t. Thanks for your help.”
Dominic saw the woman pause from the corner of his eye before moving away.
That was the end of that, he thought.
Only it wasn’t.
CHAPTER THREE
Dominic knew all about social services. They were the boogeymen that stole children away, packs of nosy bitches who made life hell. Dominic had seen it happen to other kids, but that was the first time they entered his life directly.
They called Mom first. He found out because she shouted about it afterwards, not at him but at the walls, as if they had betrayed her. A lady showed up the next day, smiling and filled with questions. This time, Dominic’s silence wasn’t a viable option. She kept asking and asking and asking, and if he didn’t give her an answer, she’d go to someone else. To school, to their neighbours, like she was setting up a ring of spies around him.
Five days before his thirteenth birthday, they took Dominic away. He didn’t know quite what was happening at first, but his mom had started shouting and crying as they walked him towards a car and he’d gotten scared. He’d tried to go back to her, but the boogeymen were stronger than both of them. He looked at his mom’s anguished face from inside the car as he tried desperately not to cry.
The car travelled by land, but they might as well have taken him to another world. The house he landed at was in the nice part of town, where the smart kids from school came from. There were green gardens everywhere, and he refused to get out of the car until it was late at night and he was starving and too tired to fight anymore.
