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He blinked furiously to keep his tears from spilling out.<br />
“No.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> wooden chair creaked as she sat back against it and<br />
glanced at me. I knew what she was thinking: would he have<br />
answered differently if mother wasn’t in the room? <strong>The</strong>re were also<br />
questions that we needed to ask Mother Dearest that weren’t<br />
appropriate in front of her child.<br />
Time to split them up.<br />
“Timmy, does this activity happen in any rooms besides<br />
yours?” I asked.<br />
He nodded. “Yeah. I can be anywhere. He lives in the closet<br />
but he’ll follow me upstairs sometimes. He gets bored down there.”<br />
“But it’s mostly in your room?”<br />
Another nod.<br />
“Do you think you could show me your room?” Susannah<br />
posed the question that one hundred percent of the straight male<br />
population wanted to hear from her.<br />
Without a word, he pushed back his chair and started over to<br />
the stairs. Susannah followed after and touched my shoulder on her<br />
way past me. Good luck.<br />
“Mrs. Johansson, could you give me the tour of the rest of<br />
the house?” I asked as their footsteps thudded lightly against the<br />
carpeted stairs. “And do you mind if I take pictures?” I reached into<br />
my back pocket and pulled out the little digital camera that was<br />
resting there.<br />
“Oh, sure.” She rose and gestured around us. “Obviously,<br />
this is the kitchen and dining area. To our left is the living room.”<br />
As I tailed her down the hallway, I clutched my open folder<br />
and tried hard to emphasize the fact that I was just reading the<br />
questions off of a sheet. <strong>The</strong>se were the ones that made people puff<br />
up and hiss at us. “I have to ask you again if you or your husband<br />
are heavy drinkers or do any kind of illegal drugs. I promise you that<br />
your answers are absolutely confidential.”<br />
She frowned over her shoulder as she paused in a doorway.<br />
“No, I can assure you that our answers on the sheet were accurate.<br />
We barely even keep alcohol in the house, and nobody is on drugs.”<br />
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