When the young man seemed to freeze up for a long moment Aiden wondered if he had inadvertently triggered some sort of mental block, some sort of protection the man had created for himself to avoid answering difficult questions. He was just about the rise from his chair and try something to pull him back into reality when Calvin seemed to surface again from whatever part of his mind he’d been occupied with at that moment. Good, Aiden hadn’t much fancied trying to get a response from him. He wasn’t really very knowledgeable in this area but all his ideas about what might happen centered on his fear of the unknown, the unknown quality in this equation being Calvin’s mental state. He knew some people could be quite violent when threatened.
Aiden tapped his pen against his notepad, not sure what had just happened or if it was important to his story but he made a quick note. “Tea would be very nice.” He said. Even if the man didn’t have mental blocks to protect him, he was obviously able to stall pretty well.
“I understand you were in and out of foster care and orphanages from a young age. That must have been very distressing, not having anyone to look out for you when you were institutionalized?” Parents might have kept him at home, administered the treatment themselves. It would be so easy for someone with no family to fall through the cracks, to end up taken advantage of.