We picked him up from the local detention center.  The officers warned him that he needed to take the opportunity to start over again and stay out of trouble.

Thing were quiet for awhile. Never lasts for very long.  It started with small things. Instead of taking the trash to the dumpster, he threw it out the back door. Instead of scraping his plate before putting it in the sink. It would go into the sink with food left on it.

Terry had a cup warmer sitting on the table beside his chair in the living room.  He had it for quite some time now. Because we lived in a trailer he was extremely careful to make sure that it was turned off and unplugged when he was done with it. One night laying in bed we both smelled something burning. We flew out of the bed in search of what was burning. We found his cup warmer laying upside down on the carpet, and it was on high.  We were smelling the carpet melting. We knew this was no accident. or that the cats had knocked it off the table.

Because of the cats was the reason we unplugged it from the wall. Something we never forgot to do. But now suddenly it is plugged in and on high. No accident here.  This was done on purpose. We sat up for two hours making sure that the spot on the carpet was not reheating after we poured water on it.  Terry decided that the cup warmer was too much of a hazard to have in the house with Bobby. And I decided to take it to work and dispose of it. Last thing we needed was to lose everything we had in a fire.

Bobby had to go to weekly meetings with his case worker.  Which Pat would talk with me first and then Bobby.  She listened to the things I had to say and then would chew on Bobby.  She also informed us that in two weeks he would be getting a new case worker. She had been given a promotion and would not be handling his type of case.  She introduced us to the new case worker.  And we would be meeting with her from there on out.

I could tell from the moment we met that she wasn't' going to come here. She was the type that gave any government worker a bad name. She lacked any concern for anything that anyone told her. She was more interested in the office gossip then she was with trying to keep this child under control.

About a week later we had the police show up at the house.  They had Bobby and another boy in the car.  They had been caught breaking in to the concession stand at the ball park down the road. Since Bobby was already on probation we were told to take it up with the case worker. So on the next appointment, I explained what the officer said. And she proceeded to ask if they had arrested him. I said no, that since he was on probation to bring it to her. She point blank told me there was nothing that she could do. And dismissed  us. I thought now what good is she going to be is she don't do anything.