She didn’t have a chance, and it was that simple. He was sure of this before he entered the courthouse. Its not like she had any proof; it was all circumstantial. The past few weeks had been nothing but a joke and he thought he might actually be enjoying all the attention this case had caused. He was positive that he would walk out of this mess a free man.
“Don’t look so smug Joey. It’s not over yet,” his approaching attorney said. She passed as they stood in the door, refusing to even look at him. Joey smirked.
“Let’s get it over with then.”
They entered the courtroom and sat at their designated table. Joey glanced across the room at her. As soon as her eyes made contact his, he flashed her a smile. Her face twisted in anguish and anger and she turned to rest her face in her husband’s chest.
The jury entered the room and found their respective places, all seeming to take care to avoid his face. One approached the judge and handed him a slip of folded paper and stood of to the side. The judge fixed his eyes on Joey.
“Would you like to say anything?”
He composed his most sincere face. “Only that I did not kill that girl, your honor.”
“I see. In that case,” he said, trailing off. The whole room was dead silent as he opened the paper and read it to himself. A soft smile formed on his face. He handed the paper back to the jury member.
“The verdict is…”
My hardest decision was whether or not to tell you the verdict in the end or to just let you decide. Also, I was not sure if I should give more description or if the vagueness made the story more interesting. So I decided to let you imagine who the victim is and what happened to her and such.
ReplyDeleteThere's a compelling tension here, of course, and it's made even more interesting when we find that the victim is not "she" but a girl, perhaps the daughter of "she" or some other relative or friend. It does make one wonder why Joey should be the only one to have a name here. Seems like "she" could or should have one as well to put them on some kind of common footing. And I think it only enriches the tension if we know what kind of relationship she has with Joey. Some hint of this, perhaps through some detail associated with the husband, won't spoil the surprise of learning that she's not the victim. But then, we're set up for Joey's fall right from the beginning because of his overconfidence. So, in that sense, no we don't need the verdict because our expectations are that he will likely be convicted. What could make the moment even more complex, however, would for the emphasis to shift away from the objective procedures of the court to a more subjective view from Joey's point of view as he begins to wonder if maybe, yes, things might not go his way. What little gesture or moment could trigger this? Or a sound or smell? Some inner shift?
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