Carmen wakes up to the sound of buzzing. She looks at the clock and it reads 2:58am. She groans and starts gently shaking Shane. “Shane. Baby, you gotta get up, someone’s calling you.”

Shane groans and pulls a pillow over her head.

“Babe I’m serious. What if something is wrong?”

Right then the phone stops buzzing and lighting up, but then almost immediately starts again.

“Shane seriously! Come on just check and see who it is.”

Shane pulls the pillow off her head and rubs her eyes, “only if you promise to go to sleep,” she says.

She sits up and fumbles for her phone on the nightstand.

“Hello?”

“Are you Shane mccutchen?”

“What? Um yeah. Yeah im Shane.”

“This is Julie from the California Department of Child and Family Services. Are you related to a Shay McCutcheon?”

Shane’s heart stops. A million thoughts race through her head and none of them are good. She yanks the covers off of her and turns on the light by the bed.

“Babe? Is everything ok?” Carmen says, eyes squinting from the bright light.

Shane doesn’t hear her.

“What’s wrong? What happened? Is Shay ok? Can I talk to him?”

“Ms McCutcheon im going to have to ask you to calm down,” the women say, sensing the stress in Shane’s voice. “I need you to tell me your relation to Shay.”

“He’s my brother. I—I’m his sister. Is he ok? Will you just tell me what’s going on please?”

Carmen gets out of bed and pulls on a big white t-shirt. Then she stands next to Shane and tries to put a hand on her shoulder, but Shane shrugs it off. Carmen tries not to take it personally because she knows that’s just how Shane is but it’s hard because she just wants Shane to let her be there for her.

“Ma’am calm down. I have Shay in the custody of DCF right now. He is fine but I was searching for a next of kin. There seems to be no contact information for the boy’s mother and he kept insisting that I call you. I have to ask—would you be willing to meet me some time tomorrow and talk about this situation? We need to find a stable home for Shay and do what’s in his best interest. We prefer to place children with family members.”