Livid by Cai Emmons

Author:Cai Emmons
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781636280769
Publisher: Red Hen Press
Published: 2021-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

20

In court the next day things took forever to get underway, both attorneys conferring sotto voce with the judge, the judge frowning, tugging her chin, Jessie picking at a cuticle, forearms before her on the table, Eric’s mother leaning forward as if to sharpen her hearing. We jurors sat quietly in our assigned seats, knowing better than to interact.

In the jury room Drew had ignored me. Was he wishing he had not massaged my feet the night before? Did he remember doing it? Of course he remembered. It wasn’t possible I had imagined the whole thing, was it? For moments at a time I had no clear idea. Nor did I really know what a foot massage from him might mean in our current context. Once it had been a precursor to sex, but did it always mean that? Couldn’t a foot massage be a merely platonic gesture?

The judge’s gavel. “The court is in recess until Monday morning. 9:00 a.m.”

Really? It was only Wednesday morning, a little after 10:30 a.m. Why three days off? Did it have to do with the trial itself, or with the judge’s schedule, or with something altogether different? Back in the jury room we speculated.

“Judge is sick of us,” joked Walmart Kevin.

“Maybe someone is going on vacation?” Joanne suggested.

“In the middle of a trial?” Shanti said.

Beret Dev, the know-it-all, shook his head. “I doubt it. It probably has to do with a witness.”

Ray and Neal and Karen were already gathering their things.

“Who gives a shit? We’re free, right?” Walmart Kevin headed for the door.

Drew approached Lenore whose forearms jutted from her waist, all ten fingers fluttering, as if she was trying to shoo us out. “What’s going on? Why three days off?”

She shook her head, one hand taking flight above her head. She wasn’t going to tell us anything.

Ray raised an eyebrow in my direction, as if accountable to me. I nodded, surprised he’d singled me out. He returned my nod and took off. Corey followed, then Karen and Neal. The rest of us were still caught there, still stuck in the quicksand of the mysterious dismissal. We glanced around at each other as if it was a social occasion and we couldn’t leave without saying goodbye to the host. Anna and Shanti were standing close to Drew. Chrystal and I stood together, as did Sean and Dev, Joanne and Tom. In only a little over a week alliances had developed among us. We had almost galvanized as a group.

I was determined not to look at Drew, determined not to let whatever I did be governed by whatever he was going to do. If someone proposed a group lunch, I would not participate. I allowed myself to be sucked into the swarm of people heading to the door: Chrystal, Sean, Dev, and me, followed by Anna, Shanti, Joanne, Tom, and Drew. We crossed the lobby en masse and descended a staircase, then snaked down the lobby and descended another staircase, still cohering as if bound by a layer of fascia.

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