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Black Ink [edit]

OverEasy · 2010-01-09T08:14:42Z

[Go to comment 10 for rewrite in first person] “How does the defendant plead?” the voice echoes in the room. The audience waits quietly for the answer, biting their lips as if this is their favorite TV program, and the good part is comin' up. “Guilty.” She ignores the protests of the man standing next to her, with his greased back hair and styled, pin-striped suit. “Your honor, I'd like a moment to speak to my client.” The greased man says. He's shaking, she can see, trembling beneath the gaze of his superior. She spares a glance for her own attire, a faded blue suit borrowed from her mother, too big around the waist of the skirt and too tight around her middle. The greased man pities her. “No,” she says, “no, I know what I am doing. I plead guilty.” She looks up, there are tears in her eyes, but her voice does not crack, and she does not shake. The audience is on their toes, licking their lips greedily, waiting for the climax of their favorite show. The woman stares down at her, her eyes bore into her, but she does not budge. With a quiet resignation, she accepts her crimes. “If I may speak, your honor?” she asks. The request is spoken timidly, as if she is sure the woman will tell her no. She will bare her sins before this audience, ashamed that they take such pleasure in her downfall. The woman nods. It's a curt, harsh sort of thing, she will not be gaining any sympathy, it seems. She steps out around the table, covered in papers full of the lies she was supposed to tell today. She glares at them for a moment, her decision cemented more firmly in her own mind. “I've made mistakes, your honor, I am not asking for your sympathy or pity or even your understanding, I am simply asking to be heard.” Now she is studied, the greased man is shaking his head, looking both alarmed and horrified, and the audience is drooling. The beast has learned a new trick! Watch! Watch as she stands on her hind legs. Watch her. Watch her! She pauses, gaining her strength and shifting from foot too foot. The tears still drip their way down her cheeks, meeting at her chip and falling lifelessly onto the front of her blouse. “The pills that were found in my purse were mine.” She is calm, the greased man shudders and slumps back into his seat. “And yes, I was aware that they were not vitamins.” She resists the urge to glare back at the sheets of paper on the desk, with their black ink, insisting that she tell lies. “They were mine, and I bought them, and I was intending to take them.” The audience is shaking now, the climax has excited them. The woman alone remains calm, staring intently at her face. “Why are you telling me this?” She pauses, her eyes scanning the audience, she sees him there, in the back. He is scared, shaking in his seat, his eyes puffy and his cheeks pink. “Because my daddy taught me not to tell lies.” She sees him, sitting with her captive audience, he alone wants this day to end well for her. The woman nods, this one longer, slower than the last. She is listening. “May I continue?” She is polite, the woman likes this about her. Another nod, and her sins continue, damning though they may be. “I don't remember the last time I was sober...” she pauses, for a moment lost, the tears fall freely once more. She manages to glance back again, his tears fall too... she wishes he wouldn't have to hear this. “I won't lie to you, ma'am, I won't say I didn't know what I was doing, and I won't tell you that I was pushed into this life. I went there on my own, and I got lost, and I've been waiting a long time for a sign that I could get out.” She tilts her head to the side, a curious expression crossing her face. She still does not know. She shakes her head, losing her glazed expression and regaining her calm. “I stand now in the mercy of your judgment. I have been lost a long time, through my own doing, through my own fault. I want to get back onto a path again. I don't want to be lost anymore.” The greased man is watching her, he is numb, now he too is watching his favorite program on TV. For the first moment, the audience is silent, all waiting for sweet judgment to be passed. The woman is studying her, and she can tell that she is repeating everything she has said in her mind. Finally, the woman smiles, it is warm, maternal, and it speaks of years of passing judgment. “Child, you are very lost. But I think I see a path before you.” She staggers for a moment, letting out a breath she had not known she held. The audience is outraged, if the woman would let them, they would slam their fists and bark in anger. The greased man is startled by this decision, he sits disgruntled in his seat, his pretty stack of papers with their black ink glaring back at him. “It will not be easy, this path I place you on. It will take hard work, and dedication. I expect to see this from you.” The woman says, she is still studying, her head tilted to the side and her eyes slightly squinted. “Thank you! Thank you, your honor! But... why have you done this?” She smiled, lost in thought for only a moment. “Because my daddy taught me to give second chances.”

OverEasy

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Thu Jan 14, 2010 4:53 am

OverEasy says... · Thu Jan 14, 2010 4:53 am

Joshuapaul,

Though I appreciate your opinion there is one thing you cannot say, and that is that this did not happen. Because, yes, yes it did. Infact that line that made you cringe was exactly what I said that got me off of the drug charge and put into court ordered rehab.

Feel free to criticise my work, but don't question the reality of it, as it did infact take place. Whether you believe that or not is at your discretion, I could really care less. I did feel the need to clarify though.

-- Tiffany

Life is for living.

Quote

By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.
— Genesis 3:19

Black Ink [edit]

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