“This can’t be right.”He looked at the name placard on the big desk and was dismayed to find that it said Nora.Nora wasn’t a man’s name, and he didn’t think that a woman would be able to hear his plea and give him what he wanted.And he wanted things to be the way they were about his job, too.There was no point in a woman—a woman could be for a woman, but a man had to be the judge for a man.That’s the only way things would work out for him.As soon as they were told to all rise, he got his first look at Nora, the judge.She was definitely a woman.He raised his hand when she was seated.She asked him what he wanted.“Is there a man who can do your job for you today?I mean, I’m betting you’re nice and all, but I have my notes all figured out for a man judge.Can’t you just trade with someone?I had it figured that you’d be a man and would be more sympathetic toward me.”
“What makes you think a man would be any more sympathetic than I would be?”He pointed out that she was a woman.“Women can be sympathetic towards men.Unless you’re going to be spouting off things that not even a male judge would get behind.You’re not going to be doing that in my courtroom today, are you?”
“I wanted a man because he might be all right with me having a mistress.And that won’t work because you’d think I was wrong about wanting that.”She told him she couldn’t care less what he had in the way of extramarital affairs so long as his wife knew about it too.“You see, that’s the problem.My wife left me when I got into trouble at school.In order for me to have a mistress, I have to have a wife.”
“Usually that’s the way it works out.”He told her how he wanted her to make his wife come back to him so that his plans would work out.“You want to have a mistress, then just find someone willing to do that for you.You can call her whatever you want.You don’t need a wife to have an affair.”
“I really want her to be my mistress.And that’s another thing.The woman that I have in mind doesn’t want anything to do with me.She’s actually marrying someone else so that she doesn’t have to be my mistress.Now, is that fair?”Nora, the judge told him, she would have to be willing to be his whatever.“I don’t think she’s going to be willing unless you make her.See, a man would understand that and make Elaine, the woman that I want to be my mistress, he would make her be my mistress and make my wife come back so that it works out for me.She’s the one who got me put in jail, too, my soon-to-be mistress, not my wife.I knocked her around a bit, but she did the same back to me.That’s not fair either that she got to stay in the hospital and I had to stay in jail.”
“That’s why you’re really here, isn’t it?You beat up an innocent woman in the parking lot of the school because she didn’t want to be your mistress, correct?”He said that he’d tried reasoning withher, but she wouldn’t have it.“Then I’m afraid that I can’t help you.I told you that in order for you to have a mistress, she had to be willing.It sounds to me like you’d be better off finding yourself someone else rather than this Elaine person.”
“But I want her.You see, you’re not helping me at all.A man would help me out in this.You can see her right over there.She’s the one who looks like she’d been beaten up.”Nora, the judge asked how Elaine was doing.When she said she’d been better, he rolled his eyes.What did her health have to do with anything that was going on in this courtroom?He raised his hand again to be heard.“Are you going to make her or be nice to her?I tried that, and she wouldn’t have it.In fact, while I was trying to get things set up for her to be my mistress, she went out to dinner with a man.I’m thinking that one right here by her.”
“I know who they are, Mr.Sheen.I married the two of them not an hour ago.They had all the right paperwork and witnesses to make it work for them.”He said she wasn’t being fair.“Fair or not, she’s not going to be your mistress when she’s just married Mr.Knox Erickson.At this point, the only thing she could be to you is an affair, but I doubt very much that’s going to happen either.They’re well and truly in love with each other, and that’s about it for you.”
“Things are not going the way that I want them to, and that’s not right.I had plans, you see, and she’s messing them up by being married.Can’t you void their marriage for me?A man would do it.I know that he would.”Nora, the judge told him, it was doubtful that anyone would void their marriage as they looked to be in love.“I don’t care who she’s in love with.I wanted her to be my mistress first, and he didn’t have any right to marry my girl.”
“Mr.Sheen.Why don’t we get down to why you’re really here?You beat Mrs.Erickson nearly to death that morning, then left her in the cold to die.You’ve already admitted that you did it because she wouldn’t be your mistress.Is that the way you settle things by bringing a ball bat to convince someone to do what you want?You’ve done this sort of thing before.”He said that was different; she’d been wanting time off.“And you couldn’t see it in your schedule to allow her to be off for her wedding?That’s not right either.”
“I forgot to find someone who would cover for her, and she got pissy with me.She’s a good teacher, and I didn’t want to have to work all that hard to get someone to come in and mess up her room and kids for her.If you think of it that way, I was doing her a favor by not allowing her the time off to get married so that things would be perfect the way that they were.She never did thank me for that either.”Nora, the judge asked him why he’d beaten either woman up when they worked for him.“That’s it right there.They worked for me, and I was their boss.They should have known better than to disobey me when I’d told them how things were going to go.No one has any respect for the working man anymore.You have to make Elaine mine so that I can have a mistress.”
“I think you just like the sound of that name you’ve come up with.”He said it was sexy sounding.“Sexy or not, it’s not going to happen.You’ve beaten a woman nearly to death twice for not getting your way, and I’m going to remand you over for trial for next year.About September should give you plenty enough time to see that your way isn’t always the right way.”
“Will you make my wife come back to me?That’s the least you can do since you took away my mistress from me.”Nora, the judge told him that she thought that his wife was better off without him around.“Well, that’s just not right.I need her around so that someone cleans my other house.I don’t know what she does all day while I’m working, but I know that I like having dinner on the table when I get home.”
“Well, aren’t you just the modern man?”David smiled at her.It was the first thing that she had said to him all morning that was nice.“You’ll spend your time awaiting trial in the local jail.Also, while we’re talking about the local jail, you’ll not have contact with either your wife or Mrs.Erickson while you’re awaiting trial.Do you understand me?”
“Then how am I supposed to convince her that I’m the man for her.Elaine is just playing hardball, and I don’t like it.You should tell her that she has to come and visit me daily so that I can let her see what she’s missing.”Nora, the judge said no.Just like that, just no, like that was final.“You have togive me something.I’m going to be locked in the local jail for nearly a year, and in all that time, I’m supposed to just wait?What am I supposed to do?Who do I get to talk to?The police aren’t very nice to me since they know I beat up Elaine.”
“They’re not your friends, and I applaud them for treating you like an inmate.You can talk to yourself for all I care, just leave the women alone.”Nora, the judge looked at him.“For that matter, you’re to leave anyone alone who tells you that they don’t want anything to do with you.Understand me?When they tell you ‘no’, then you’re to leave them alone too.Not having the police call them for you either.”
“Well, it’s going to be a boring year for me.Can I at least have me some pens and paper?I have to make notes on things I’m going to do when I get out of jail.”Nora said that he could have one sheet of paper at a time and one pencil.Nothing more.“Not even a magazine or two?How about me getting a television I can keep up with my shows on?This ain’t fair, you know.She beat me up too and gets to be out doing things like she wants to do.”
“She was defending herself against you.There is a difference.She wouldn’t have been beating on you at all had you left your ball bat at home and not touched the poor woman.Now, as for your other requests, I’m going to leave that up to the police captain.He’ll know what you need and what you don’t.”She banged the gavel on the desk and then pointed at him.“You’ll behave while in jail, or I’ll send you right to prison on the next trip, see that I don’t.”
He tried to get someone to answer him about his television while they were taking him back to his cell.David didn’t understand why it was such a big deal.He’d made promises that he’d not have it on all night.Unless there was something that he wanted to watch.And he said that he’d turn it down when there were others around, but if they went to sleep, then he’d turn it back up.They didn’t listen to him as usual, and he was getting kind of pissed about it.Someone had to want him to be happy when he wasn’t allowed to talk to anyone for a whole year.
By then, Elaine might even have a baby.That would just ruin everything.Her body would be all stretched out like she’d carried around fifty pounds of fat, then lost it.He knew what a body would look like after giving birth; his own wife had done it to herself when she’d gotten pregnant with their kids.And he wasn’t allowed to tell her not to get in the family way because he wasn’t allowed to talk to her.Things were being messed with that he didn’t care for.
When they were taking him back to his cell, he asked for his pencil and paper.They said they’d get it when they had time.Well, he wanted to start on his list now, not when they had time.He had several things already that he wanted to put on one sheet of paper that would about fill it up.David was going to have to write really small, so he’d have everything on his list that he had, so as not to forget them.His mind was too willy for him at the moment, and he couldn’t think straight.He was blaming that on Elaine right away.If she’d just done what he wanted, then things would have been better off for him.
Sitting on the edge of his cot, he put his head between his legs and sat there.It had worked when he’d been a boy to calm his mind down.It only happened when he was thinking too hard, and sometimes at work, he’d have to do this when the teachers were going on about something that they wanted.Usually wanting more things for their rooms, but he had to deal with it the only way he knew how.And that was to do what he was doing now.Shut the world out and calm his breathing down enough where he could count them.Sitting up, when someone said his name, they asked him if he was all right.
“I will be.Got me some breathing issues when I get excited.”The officer asked him what he had to be excited about.“My list.When I make one up, I get too excited and have to breathe this way to get my mind to relax.I’m all right now.Just have a bit of a headache.”
“You want to see the doctor?”He said that he would like something for his headache, but no, he didn’t want to see a doctor.“I can’t give you nothing without his approval.I’ll have to call the doc in to have him say it’s okay to give you something, even if it’s just an antacid.I’ll give her a call and see—”
“Is that all that works around here is women?Gees Louise.Would it be too much to ask if thechief of police is a man, then?Someone who would know what it’s like to be a man who isn’t allowed to talk to anyone?”David was told that the chief was a man and that the doc was also their corner.“Great.So long as she realizes that I’m a living man, not a dead one, I guess that will be all right.”
The doc was called, and he was allowed something for his head.But she was going to examine him first thing in the morning.David couldn’t win today, and he wasn’t happy that he wasn’t going to get a television to watch.The chief had said no, and that was final.Everything against him was final, and he didn’t much care for it either.
~*~
Elaine got her stitches out of her lips this morning, and she was feeling good about herself.Not only was she getting around better, but she could walk all the way to the mailbox and back without any trouble now.She was able to do things that she’d not been able to do in the six weeks since she’d been hurt, like washing all of her hair instead of just the ends because of the wounds.
“You look like you feel better, too.”She told Shipley that she did, and it felt wonderful to feel good.“I’m glad you do.I might have you sign on as my assistant in the office I now hold.What do you think about being a medical examiner’s assistant?”
“I could do that for you.It sounds like something that I did when I was out of the country.I only did it a couple of times, but it wasn’t that bad.”She said she’d been using Locke, but since he’s so busy with his patients at the hospital, it was getting harder for him to help her.“I think that would be just the job that I’ve been looking for.It’ll get me out of the house for sure.”
