She blinked rapidly, turned to face me. The girl was breathing fast. I could see the fabric of her T-shirt move in time with her heartbeat, like her heart was pounding so hard it wanted to jump outside her chest.
“Miss Nova, talk to me. Are you feeling faint?”
She clenched her jaw, didn’t speak. But she shook her head.
I said, “You sure? I can recess. We can start over again when you feel up to it.”
The look of despair she gave me spoke more eloquently than words. She would never feel up to it.
So we needed to proceed, then. I spoke briskly, like it was an ordinary case. “Administer the oath to the witness, please. She’s demonstrated that she understands what it means.”
Luna stepped up to her. “Raise your right hand, please,” she said. “Do you swear or affirm that you will tell the truth?”
“I do,” Nova said. She dropped her hand into her lap.
Eleanor Lindquist picked up a legal pad from the counsel table and positioned herself directly in front of Nova, so the jury could see them both. “Nova, please state your age.”
“Thirteen.”
“And where do you live?”
“Magnolia Apartments. 416 South Street, Union Springs, Alabama.”
“Nova, did you learn that you were pregnant in the past year?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
A direct jump to the heart of the issue. I was surprised that she dispensed with the buildup.
“How’d you find out?”
I could see Nova swallow before she answered. Wished I had a bottle of water from my chambers; her mouth was probably dry.
“The nurse at school. Miss Cocheta. I kept on having to go to her office, because I didn’t feel good. Sometimes I was sick to my stomach. She thought it was a bug at first, a stomach thing. Then she figured it out.”
“What did she do?”
“She gave me a test, the kind you take into the bathroom.”
Nova glanced up at me. I suspected she wasn’t comfortable explaining that she had to pee on the test stick. I gave her a nod, to encourage her to continue.
Lindquist said, “What happened with the test?”
“There were two lines. Two lines meant you were pregnant.”
“Did you know you were pregnant? Before you took the test?”
Nova shook her head. She was quiet for so long I thought I’d have to tell her to speak up. Finally, she said, “I didn’t want to think about it.”
“But you knew there was a chance, right? Because you’d been to a party a few months prior. Where the partying got out of control. Right?”
She didn’t answer.
Lindquist waited. Walked closer to the stand. “Didn’t you go to a party and have too much to drink? And end up in a car with an older boy?”
“Objection! Leading,” Benjamin Meyers said.
I paused for a beat. But he was right, the objection was valid. “Sustained.”
