25 Years by Lucas X. Black

Author:Lucas X. Black [Black, Lucas X.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-03-25T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

“All rise,” a tall man in a tan uniform said in a deep voice. “The honorable Anita Randolph presiding.”

A woman, tall and severe-looking, entered, sat, and struck her gavel. “Be seated, please,” she said. “Bailiff? The docket?”

“First case up is CALLS versus Jennie Michaels, charged with malingering and dereliction of duty.”

“Bring her in here.”

A slave, blonde and probably forty years old, was led into the courtroom, hands cuffed behind her back. “Miss Michaels, have you been notified of the charges and specifications against you?” the judge asked.

“Yes, Ma’am,” Jennie Michaels replied.

“Enter your plea.”

“Jesus … I’m … I’m guilty, Ma’am.”

“Guilty plea is entered. Miss Michaels, you just came off a punitive assignment two months ago, one I assessed to you … yes, according to the records, ten months ago, an eight-month sentence. Apparently, you’re a slow learner. You have two years, actually twenty-six months, remaining on your contract. You are sentenced to one hundred fifty lashes to your back in public. You are also sentenced to thirty lashes monthly in public for the duration of your penal service, which is a sentence of three years, should you recontract at the end of this sentence, or for the balance of your contracted service.”

“Oh, God … please, no! No!” Jennie begged, falling to her knees and sobbing.

“Take her away,” Judge Randolph announced. “Bailiff, next case.”

“Carmen Juarez is charged by her master, Ruben Castillo, with insubordination,” the bailiff announced.

“Miss Juarez, do you understand the charges against you?” Randolph asked a naked Carmen a moment later.

“I do,” she said. “And I’m innocent. I was just joking!”

“Mr. Castillo, your testimony?” An older man spoke for several minutes, making it plain that he didn’t think Carmen was joking or respectful, and Carmen tried to shout him down with protestations of her innocence.

“This is what I’m talking about, Judge,” Castillo said. “She’s on thin ice and I’m trying to save her from me just releasing her and washing my hands of her.”

“I see,” Randolph said as Carmen glared daggers at her master. “Miss Juarez, you are found guilty as charged, and guilty of perjury in denying those charges. I sentence you to one hundred lashes and to twenty days of punitive training.” She struck her gavel as a screaming and bellicose Carmen was dragged from the courtroom.

Three other CALLS-owned slaves were brought in, two pleading guilty and sentenced to lashes and penal service. The third, a woman named Rachel Miles, fought the charge, presenting a case of a supervisor who set her up to fail, with testimony from three others verifying her assertions. Her supervisor, a slave of about fifty named Alma Watts, admitted she was pushing Rachel’s buttons to put her in her place.

“There she is, all tall and beautiful, and thinks her shit doesn’t stink, Your Honor,” Watts testified. “She needs to be put in her place.”

“No, she doesn’t, but you do,” Randolph countered. “Miss Miles is found not guilty and is free to go. Miss Watts, you are to be demoted. You are to

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