Teaser

We fade in on a girl of about 16 walking down the street of a suburb, pushing a shopping cart down the street at midday. A cop drives by and stops, gets out of the car, questioning her about why she’s not in school. The local school district has mandatory school attendance rules for all children below 18. The cop asks the girl for ID, and she can’t produce it. The cops then say they’ll take her to school. We see her face in the car window driving away as we smash cut to

CREDITS

Act 1

A stark police holding cell. The girl is sitting there with Amanda talking. The girl introduces herself as Lucy, and explains that she has her GED and that’s why she’s not in school anymore. Lucy says that if Amanda wants, her GED diploma is at home. Amanda nods, and a cop comes in to sign Lucy out of custody: Cut to:

Amanda and Lucy arriving at the home. Lucy lets Amanda in to the house, and things seem just slightly off. Amanda notices that there’s nothing but sugared cold cereal on top of the refrigerator. Lucy offers Amanda a drink. Amanda shakes her head. Lucy then steps away saying she has to run upstairs to grab her diploma. Amanda quickly looks around the kitchen and notices that it’s almost too clean—as if it’s never used. Lucy comes down the stairs, diploma in hand and shows it to Amanda. Amanda takes a quick note of the name and data and says goodbye to Lucy.

Act 2

Amanda drops by Terrence’s office and asks him to run a background check on Lucy Morton. He punches a few terms into his computer, and it comes up clean. Lucy is telling the truth—she does have her GED. Amanda looks puzzled and asks Terrence to do a broader search on Lucy’s name. He again quickly punches in a few terms into the computer and something comes up. It’s an obituary. Terrence prints out a copy for Amanda.

Cut to: Alice’s office as Amanda is knocking on the door. Amanda drops the obituary on the desk. She’s figured out what’s wrong—Lucy’s parents died and she dropped out of high school to run the household. Somehow, she has managed to fool the school authorities into believing that there are still parents around. Alice agrees to drop by the home unannounced at one point in the future to check on Lucy and make a preliminary determination.

Cut to: Alice dropping by Lucy’s house unannounced in the early evening. She rings the doorbell and is greeted by an 8 year-old boy. Alice asks if the boy’s parents are home and he shakes his head. Alice then asks to talk with Lucy. The boy invites Alice in and shouts for Lucy. Lucy comes down the stairs and greets Alice. Alice asks if they can talk in private for a few minutes. They sit down in the kitchen and close the doors. Alice convinces Lucy to admit that her parents are actually dead and that she’s been running the household. Lucy breaks down in tears as Alice embraces her and we fade to credits.

Act 3

Case conference between Amanda, Alice, and Terrence in a DCFS conference. Terrence explains that this is an elective situation under the law. While the law does have a preference that children be left in the care of an adult guardian, there’s no requirement that they do so. Lucy’s parents died without leaving a will, and there’s therefore no guideline to custody. There are apparently no living relatives to take custody, and the children are the sole beneficiaries of the estate. Alice explains that Lucy has already learned how to sign her mother’s name and has been forging checks from her parents’ account for the past couple of years

The three case workers argue. Amanda takes the position that the family should be left alone. They seem to have managed well enough and there’s no imminent threat to the children’s safety if they’re left in their sister’s care. Alice agrees with Amanda, but says that there should be some sort of continuing monitoring by the case team because of the usual nature of the case. Terrence dissents, saying that he believes that it should be left to the court because of the unusual circumstances involved in the case. The team agrees to take the matter to Jack for his consideration.

Act 4

The team fathers with Jack in his office. They briefly lay out the case for Jack and their points of view. Jack asks Terrence what he believes the odds of succeeding on a court proceeding would be. Terrence admits it would be a discretionary matter for the court to consider. Jack shrugs his shoulders and says that unless it’s a clear call, he doesn’t want to try to make the motion. Terrence protests and says that the law should be applied equally to all—if we try and terminate custody in one elective case, why aren’t we trying to terminate it in every case. Jack shouts back that it’s not the DCFS’s job to parent children—just to make sure children are not being endangered.

TERRENCE

But there are rules. The rules apply to everyone. Equally. And isn’t making sure that they are applied equally part of our job?

JACK

Enough! You should know better than anyone that we’ve lost a few too many times for my taste. Let’s wait and see how things go. If there’s stronger evidence of danger in this family, we’ll make the motion.

Terrence nods as the meeting breaks up and we dissolve to later that day. Amanda drops by Terrence’s office.

AMANDA

Seemed like something was wrong earlier today. You OK?

TERRENCE

I came here to enforce the law. It just seems wrong when we break up a family with two parents, but refuse to even move to deal with a family where there are no parents.

AMANDA

A wise man once told me that “the law is the law, and we have to follow it, even when we disagree with it.”

TERRENCE

Who was that again?

AMANDA

I think it was you.

We fade to credits.