Hearing Aston use his pet name for her father made the burden she usually felt toward Aston vanish. All that was left was the torment of losing something she loved so much. She started crying. “I love you, buddy,” she said. “You be good, OK? Mommy’s gonna come get you as soon as I can, OK?”

Aston sat up to look at her. He put his fingers into the wet of the tears on her cheek. “Mommy, why are you crying?” he asked, confused at why such good news had made her act so sad.

“Mommy is just gonna miss you, that’s all,” she said.

“It’s OK, Mommy,” Aston reassured her naively. “You don’t have to miss me, you can see me every day.” His blatant innocence about what was going on made her cry even harder. He walked toward the man he had been playing with and let the man lead him out of the lot.

Everyone stood there watching him walk away willingly until the sight of the car door closing behind him restored Ciarra to her original state of uproar. The woman social worker handed her a piece of paper that she didn’t bother to look at. “I’m gonna fuckin’ sue you for this. This is a violation of my rights. I am a good mother! Fuck you. Seriously, fuck you.”

The woman and the cops stayed completely calm in response to her outburst. When they were certain they had said everything they legally had to say and had given her all the information they legally had to give her, they left.

Mike stood motionless as Ciarra paced. “Who the fuck do they think they are … Fucking pigs. I’m gonna fucking sue them, I swear to God!” she yelled, talking as much to the universe as she was to her father.

“We can get us a house and then we can get ’im back,” Mike told her, as unable to moderate her distress as he was his own.

Ciarra sank to the floor, kneeling with her legs splayed. She cried against the complete powerlessness that she felt until she couldn’t take it anymore. She ran to the purple van to get her coat and then took off on foot. Mike didn’t know where she was going, but he guessed, especially after what the CPS workers had said, that she was going to find a dealer.

The entire thing had been like a concussion grenade going off in their little camp. Mike explained what had happened to Robert, who had been minding his own business in his little tent since finding out that the police were only there to find Ciarra. Though buoyed by Robert’s encouragement, Mike felt like it was entirely his fault. He re-evaluated the kind of father he had been or not been. He wanted to have faith in Ciarra, but he couldn’t. He made himself a cup of coffee as a comfort.