Rip the Sky by Mark Packard

Author:Mark Packard [Packard, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bluestreak Publishing
Published: 2023-08-20T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 22

Billy sat on his now favorite rock and tried his best to avert his gaze from Judge Madeline Johnston. She was seated stubbornly in the grass about ten yards away, her arms folded across her chest as she huffed and puffed in visible frustration.

Darkness descended, and Billy’s apprehension grew just as thick and shadowy. He was grateful that he was not alone, even if the only other person nearby was the mean troll who had sent him to prison. He looked over at the minuscule judge, who had not moved from her tantrum spot, as she moaned and trembled slightly in the grass. She was cruel, no doubt, but she was also small and frightened. Billy was surprised that he found himself pitying her. He picked up the cane and gavel the judge had thrown in anger and took them to her.

“Here, you might need these,” he said.

The judge did not respond, and Billy turned away in the face of rejection. But as he took his first step, all light in the interlude went out, and the stark blanket of total darkness and an accompanying freezing chill hit him like a right hook to the face. The temperature must have instantly plunged below freezing, and when Billy placed his trembling hand an inch from his eyes, he couldn’t even see his fingers.

“Mr. Worster, are you still there?” the judge asked, her voice reflecting a hint of fear, her teeth already audibly chattering.

“I’m standing right here,” Billy said. “I didn’t move ‘cause I was afraid I would step on you.”

“I will take my cane and gavel now.”

Billy handed them to her and started to shuffle his feet, searching and trying to feel the ground so he could walk away.

“Please stay,” she said.

Billy bent over, gently touched the grass with the back of his hand, and located her tiny body. He carefully sat down next to her.

For several moments they sat side by side in the darkness.

Finally, the judge spoke.

“Did you hear what those awful men said about me in that bar?” she asked, her voice a mixture of pain and repugnance.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“They called me a mean, old, nasty woman. They had no right.”

“I’m sorry, ma’am,” Billy mumbled.

Billy could hear the sound of the judge’s palms gripping a small wooden handle and the corresponding whoosh of air being disturbed by her gavel waving wildly in the darkness. He instinctively leaned away as far as he could, sensing that the gavel was circling dangerously around his head.

“Men are always judging women, always putting them down. I’ve put up with it my whole career. Did you know I graduated second in my class in law school, yet no law firm would hire me? ‘We don’t hire women,’ they said. ‘We’ll be happy to interview Matthew,’ they said.”

There was a long pause that made Billy feel uncomfortable.

“Matthew was my husband. I met him in law school. I married him, and we moved to his hometown of Abbeville. All the firms wanted to hire him, but no one wanted me because I was a woman.

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