Just a social visit

1251 words

‘Kelly.’ She looked up from her desk. ‘Could you come in for a minute?’ Her supervisor asked. Kelly stood up from her chair and walked over to Nick’s office. He sat behind a small desk that was overflowing with papers and had a computer in the middle. ‘Sit.’ He said to her. Kelly sat down in a plastic chair across from him. He sighted and leaned forward.

‘Kelly.’ He said seriously. ‘I have a job for you.’ Kelly smiled. She knew what he was going to say, she have had this conversation before. She was at the top of her agency and lately she only got the hard cases.

‘It is a hard one.’ Nick said. ‘That won’t be a problem.’ Kelly responded with a smile and she saw that Nick relaxed a little. He handed her a file, it was a thick one. Kelly took it from him and started flipping through. ‘It seems to be difficult to even get in contact with him. He closed himself off from everyone.’ Kelly looked at the picture on the first page of the file. It was a man in his late twenties, he had a symmetric face but it was mostly hidden behind long dark hair. “Bill Niclas Jones” was printed next to the picture. ‘Hello Bill.’ Kelly said in silence.

‘We are contacted because he is fired.’ Nick looked straight at her. ‘That is not to bad, is it?’ Kelly said. Looking at the enormous file on her lap she knew that was not all. ‘Being fired isn’t bad.’ Nick said. ‘But it is the fifth time this year.’ He paused. ‘And it is only September, there are just not a lot of jobs left near him.’ Kelly looked at the serious face of her supervisor. ‘So, you want me to be a job coach.’

‘Well.’ Nick said. ‘I am affright it won’t be that easy. He already wore out six of our colleagues in his district. They simply don’t know what to do with him.’ ‘So they contacted us.’ Kelly finished the sentence. ‘So they contacted us.’ Nick said. Kelly was the only one who could handle the lost cases. She was the most driven person working for the agency.

She had this drive to help people, it was nestled very deep into her soul. It probably had something to do with her youth, but she couldn’t find the time to look into it. In stead of working on herself she preferred working on the problems of others. That was way easier.

‘You think you can do it?’ Nick asked and it got Kelly out of her thoughts. ‘Of course I can.’ She responded and Nick smiled at her. ‘Take your time.’ He said. ‘You will get all the hours you need.’ He looked at her and signed with his head to the door. Kelly stood up and got back to her own desk.

The next two days she spend on reading his massive file and looking into all the jobs he had over the past year. She called and spoke with the former employers of Bill. All the people she called told her somewhat the same story. Bill didn’t work hard and saw his job as a necessity. He didn’t make any contact with his colleagues or his supervisors. When someone tried to correct him in work he didn’t do right, this happened a lot, he just sat there. He would occasionally say yes, but he didn’t listen to anything. He just closed himself off to everyone. Also, he never spoke about his personal life. This wasn’t a reason to fire him, but Kelly noticed that it came up in every conversation she had.

Every new thing she got to know about Bill sparked her interest more and more.

That Friday she decided to pay Bill a visit. She drove for 90 minutes to his trailer. It was easy to spot his. The paint of the trailer was peeling and the little garden in front was overgrown. Kelly walked up to the front door. She heard loud music coming through. The kind of music that she wouldn’t call music. Just noise and screaming. She knocked on the door as loud as she could to overcome the music. Nothing happened.

She stretched herself and tried to look through the window. It was a hard task with her 161 centimetres. She found the blinds closed. Kelly knocked on the door again, this time even louder. Still nothing happened. Kelly was determent to speak to Bill. She hadn’t drove this far to just stand here, knock and go back. She knocked again. A few seconds later she heard stumbling inside the trailer. She already put her most polite smile on her face. The small door swung open forcefully.

Kelly looked up to Bill. He was at least 30 centimetres taller than she was. His long black hair was hanging close to his face and covered most of it. She could see in his face that he wasn’t happy to have a visitor.

‘Bill?’ Kelly asked as polite and warm as she could. The man in front of her grunted and she took it as a yes.

‘My name is Kelly Overwater. I am with social services. Can I have a ch-‘ Bill had slammed the door in her face. She took that as a no. Kelly took a deep breath and knocked on the door again. The only thing that happened was the increase of the volume of the music. She wouldn’t get in today, that was certain. Kelly stood in front of the door for a couple of minutes, thinking about a way to get in contact. He was used to social workers and didn’t care to be helped. He didn’t need a caretaker. Maybe, Kelly thought. Maybe he needs a friend. Everyone needs friends.

She took her phone out of her jacket and recorded some of the “music” coming from the trailer. It was loud enough now for her phone to record a clear sound.

Back at the office she found out the sound was coming from a band that made death metal and called themselves Belphegor. After some searching she found out that they just released a new album. She spend the weekend listening to the album over and over again. At Sunday afternoon the music finally started to grow on her and she started to see the beauty of it.

Monday morning at 9, after their weekly meeting she got into her car and made the drive to the trailer. There was music playing again, it sounded a lot like the music she had listened to her entire weekend but it wasn’t the same band. To be sure she recorded a bit of the music before she knocked on the door.

The door opened a little and she saw the sleepy looking head of Bill. He had his hair in a bun and she saw for the first time that he was actually a very handsome man. His jawline was insanely sharp and his piercing blue eyes looked angerly at her as soon as he recognized her face. Kelly smiled. Bill sighed and started closing the door again.

‘Have you heard the new album?’ Kelly asked and the door stopped closing. ‘The Belphegor album’ Kelly added and the door opened again. He looked confused at her, but Kelly saw also a small sparkle in his eyes. She made the right move. She was in.