“You must be Tamar, ” the woman said, her smile so huge and fake Tamar wanted to scrape it off her face

"Tamar?”

​She looked up at the sound of her name. Oh, she’d known they had arrived when the motor had stopped purring. Throughout the ride she had heard every squeak of the brake, felt the car speed up and slow down. But she hadn’t looked. She couldn’t. So she just kept zipping and unzipping the zipper on her wallet for the entire half-hour drive.

“What are you expecting?” Yael Baum had asked from the seat next to her. “Do you want to hear a bit about them?”

Tamar didn’t. She didn’t want to hear about these people or about anything else for that matter. She wanted to open the door in the middle of the highway and run and run and run until she was back in her mother’s embrace. She wanted her friends. Her house. The ability to choose what would happen to her, for goodness’ sake. Anything but to be in this car. So they sat in silence. Until the engine stopped. And with it, so did her heart.

​“Are you ready?”

​Would she ever be? But she knew Yael for all of two hours, ten minutes, and fifteen seconds, and she was not about to spill her heart out to a stranger. So Tamar followed.

​They crossed the street and walked to a house that looked much like all the others on the block. Tamar sized it up. Three floors. Maybe a finished basement. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Through the fog in her brain Tamar watched Yael ring the doorbell. Please let no one answer. But the door was already opening.

​“You must be Tamar, ” the woman said, her smile so huge and fake Tamar wanted to scrape it off her face. “And you are…?”

​“Yael Baum.” The social worker nodded curtly, sticking her hand out and giving the other woman’s a firm shake. “You are Mrs. Weiss, I presume.”

​“That’s me,” Mrs. Weiss answered, with a real smile this time. “Why don’t you come in?” She stepped away from the door to admit them.

​Yael walked forward. Grabbing the handle of her duffle bag, Tamar followed. “Alright. I’ll leave you to it,” Yael said as soon as Tamar was inside. “Tamar, I’ll see you Wednesday.” And with that, she turned back to her car, leaving Tamar behind.

Not much of a social worker, Tamar thought, if she can just leave like that.