out of the blue i received the call. they wanted me to work a few casual shifts at a youth refuge in chatzwood. i cut my hair, shaved, found some old presentable clothes, straightened myself up, it was time to run with the rats again. it had been a long time since i had done anything responsible, getting back to work felt strange and disorientating but i needed to pay rent and i had exhausted the charity of emma who had quite literally kept me. besides a man can only bear a certain amount of leisure time.
i felt different, more at ease with myself, certain of who i was and comfortable with that knowledge, i liked myself, this new captain mission. 
i drove in those days and 40 minutes later i was outside a large federation house with an overgrown garden.
the clients where typical adolescents who end up in these type of services, pretty nice, well meaning sorts who had had a rough time with family or a situation that resulted in them recognising home was not safe for them. this usually involved step fathers. none of the children i worked with in this place had a committed offences, they had no police or juvenile justice history, these were regular kids who just needed a roof while they studied and completed school. it turned out to be quite an easy role, mostly just chatting with them about responsibility ironically.
my peers in the house, the other staff were stressed out, there seemed to be some sort of issue that they were having difficulty with and the phone kept ringing and people spent long periods behind closed doors worrying about something and it was a few days later i found out why this was.
the four other staff walked out from the office, they had been in discussion for about two hours and they invited me to join them.
'we would like you to represent us at a very important meeting.'
'sure.' i replied, what else was i going to say?
they briefed me.
the meeting would be attended by all the youth and community services in the northern district and it was being hosted by father martin o hare and his service BOTS boys off the streets.
apparently he was consulting with the local stake holders in what kind of service he could offer the community, which all seemed reasonable but the crunch came when they said, most of the local services had heard rumours that he would be opening a sex offender treatment centre in elma house. the board members of the estate would be in attendance and my colleagues wanted me to ask the priest directly if he planned opening up a sex offender program in that specific building because two doors down was a refuge for young girls who where survivors of sexual abuse. they wanted me to speak on their behalf. what the hell, i thought, sounded straight forwards enough.