POD 30:2 -Ortega

Philosophy of the Dark

Chapter 30:2

-Ortega

They walked into the court room side by side. Eyes followed them,

wondering what had changed. What would change.

Jamie caught Ortega eyeing Tammy, like he knew he was going to lose.

The thought made Jamie smile. There was still a half an hour until the day

would begin, and already Jamie felt as if she hadn’t slept in weeks. She sat

with Tammy at their table, emotionally and physically drained, and she

knew it would be a long day.

The half-hour passed surprisingly quickly as the room filled with reporters

and spectators alike. Soon the room stood as the judge arrived.

Judge Vogel took her seat at the podium and nodded once to Tammy and

Jamie. She hit her gavel to the table once.

“The court is now in session.”

A few minor technicallities were taken care of, namely, Tammy. It wasn’t

long before Ortega was called up to make his case. He spoke for an hour,

an entire hour of babbling on and on about what a great person Richard

was, and how there was no plausible reason for his being in a hospital.

Bull shit.

Jamie cast a glance to Tammy. She was staring straight ahead at Ortega,

impailing him with her glare.

“And now, if it is alright, I would like to bring my first witness to the stand,”

Ortega said.

“Keeping in mind, Mr. Ortega, that this is not your court room it would do

you well to go by my words.” Vogel said, “that being said, call up your first

witness.”

“My first witness with be Mrs. Mary Dumont.”

Jamie’s mom stood up from her place at the other table and went to the

front of the room. She pledged, and was then seated in a small wooden

booth to be questioned.

“Mrs. Dumont, you are currently married to Richard Dumont, am I correct?”

Ortega asked.

“Yes,” Mary said solemnly.

“And you were there the night of the incident, right?”

Once again she answered, “yes.”

“Please tell the court exactly what happened that night.”

“Well, Jamie and Richard had been fighting, I knew that much. They were

always fighting. When I got home, I was alone. There was a note on the

table from Richard, saying that he was going out and would be back later-”

“And do you have this note with you today?” Ortega cut in.

“Yes,” Mary answered. A man walked up with a plastic bag containting a

piece of scrap paper and handed it to the judge. From there it was passed

on to the jury.

“Please continue Mrs. Dumont.”

“After about an hour I heard Jamie’s car pull up. It was late. She came into

the house, and I went to her room so we could talk. It was then that she

told me what she was planning to do. She wanted revenge because she felt

Richard was being to fatherly, would be the word.

Then Richard got home, and he was drunk. He came into Jamie’s room

because he heard us talking, when she saw him, Jamie went ballistic. And

it went on from there.

He tried to hold her down, because she was trying to hit him, and then she

pushed him over the…” Mary erupted into tears. The court waited for her to

recover.

“Over the banister,” she said with tears in her voice. “and…and I called the

police…”

“Okay, thank you Mary,” Ortega said, cutting her off.

He stepped away from the stand and took a seat.

“Mrs. Ellis, would you like to cross examine the witness?”

Tammy stood up and made sure she looked presentable-not in that order-

“Yes, thank you your honor.”

“Mrs. Dumont,” she said in a loud, courtroom-approved voice, “You said

that when Jamie got home, you were in her room, right?”

“Yes,” Mary said.

“What were you doing in there?”

“Waiting for Jamie, so I could talk to her.”

“And when you did talk to her, what did she tell you?”

Mary stuttered for a second, her eyelashes were having a seizure, batting

just a little too much.

“She told me what she was going to do.”

“And what,” Tammy asked, stepping closer to Mary and looking deep into

her eyes, “was that?”

“She…w-wanted to hurt…Richard.” Mary said, not sobbing this time, but

stuttering.”

Jamie felt a fury rise in her. Her mother was lying. Jamie recalled the

conversation quite well.

“It's all my fault,” Jamie said, shaking her head. “He wouldn't be out if it

weren't for me.”

“I can take the punishment,” her mom said. Jamie's head jerked up,

catching her mothers defeated gaze.

“No,” she said firmly, “Never again, I won't let you be responsible for my

actions.”

“It's not your fault honey.”

“It is though, what have you ever done to deserve half of what you've

gotten. Mom, you deserve way better than this,” Jamie took her mothers

hand in hers, not escaping her gaze, “you deserve more than me.”

“Jamie-” her mom began, tightening her grip.

“You can't argue that, everything is my fault, you've never done anything

but protect me, yet I still can't do anything right.”

“You're perfect Jamie, it's Richards fault that he can't see that.”

“No. I've finally realized, and it took me seventeen years. I'm so obsessed

with trying to do everything right, being perfect and everything that he

wants me to be, that I've only ever succeeded in doing wrong. By you, by

him, and especially by myself. I'm not leaving until I fix things, one way or

another we'll both be free, and that will be the rightest thing I could ever

do.”

“Jamie,” her mother said, “I am free. This is all I ever wanted, a life with

Richard and my daughter. It was what I dreamed of on my wedding day,

and I have it.”

“It's not what you want though!” Jamie exclaimed in a hushed voice, “It's

that he's made you believe every lie he's ever told you, believe that every

hit was valid, and that every screwup was ten times worse than it was. I

know you Mom, you're way better than this, don't let him run your life with

fake promises and lies.”

“What if I don't know how?” her mom asked, leaning forward as if she were

a teenager again, waiting for the secrets to come spilling out to shine light

on her.

“Then we'll learn, together.” Jamie answered.

And then they heard the unmistakable slamming of a car door.

“Quick,” Jamie said, tugging her keys out of her pocket, “get in the closet.”

“What, no!” Her mother said, eyes open wide.

“Please, mom, just listen to me!” Jamie said, taking the book from her

mothers hands. A pen fell to the ground unnoticed.

Jamie shoved the book in it's hiding spot, tugging the sheets over the hole

as if it weren't even there.

“You said I have to be strong Jamie,” her mom said, standing up, “that

starts now.”

Not now, Jamie thought, anytime but now.

The front door opened, slamming shut with the same velocity as the car

door had moments earlier. Jamie was in full panic mode.

“Mom, please,” she said.

“No Jamie. You're my daughter, I have to protect you.” her mom said.

“I don't want you to get hurt out of duty,” Jamie said, her voice getting

higher and higher pitched as her heart pounded. Sweat collected at her

hairline, her pulse's almost audible frantic beat rushed through her, and

still, through all the chaos her mom refused to budge.

“It's not out of duty,” she said, as the ever heavy footsteps made their way

down the hall, getting closer and closer to them with every drunk thud. “It's

out of love.”

“Good luck Honey, I love you.” Jamie's mom pulled Jamie toward her and

laid a small kiss on her forehead.

“I love you too.”

Silent tears wove their ways down Jamie’s face as her mother so blatantly

lied against her.

“…She tried to shove me in her closet so I couldn’t protect him,” Mary was

crying again, she met Jamie’s gaze for the first time.

Her eyes were full of apologies, but sometimes sorry just isn’t enough. She

spoke a silent plea to her daughter. Shoving her emotions back Jamie

shook her head once and looked down at the table re-memorizing the

printed-on wooden pattern.

Mary burst into a whole new set of tears and court took a break.

“What happened in there?” Tammy asked Jamie as they entered the

hallway.

“What do you mean?” Jamie asked, leaving her eyes to trail the ground.

“Between you and your mom,” Tammy said, “You were looking at each

other. Like you were communicating without words or something.”

“We’ve always been close like that,” Jamie said with a slight smile, “she

used to say we would never need a shrink as long as we could read each

others thoughts.”

“You’re avoiding the question,” Tammy said.

“Am I?” Jamie asked, “or am I answering at my own pace?”

Tammy sighed, “whatever it is, you’d better hurry it up, we have three

minutes before we have to be back.”

Jamie continued watching the floor as it passed beneath her feet.

Red tile, white tile, red tile, white tile, blue tile….where’d that come from?

Red tile, white tile…

“Jamie, what went on between you and your mom today?”

“She was lying.” Jamie looked up at Tammy, who was now watching the

ground with great interest.

“That’s just great,” she mumbled, now heading back to the

courtroom, “Ortega’s got them pulling out all the fucking stops…”

“Tammy, what’s wrong?” Jamie asked, trying to match her pace.

“A few years ago I almost busted Ortega for lying in one of his cases, but

nobody heard me. Now he’s doing it again. He doesn’t get clients because

he’s a good lawyer, he gets them because he’s an excellent liar.”

They never broke pace as they half-ran down the aisle to their table. Judge

Vogel was now calling the court back to order.

“Mr. Ortega, your next witness please,” she said.

Jamie leaned toward Tammy putting her mouth close to her ear, “what

about my mom?” she asked.

“She left. Once people get hysterical it’s best not to upset them further,”

Tammy answered just as quietly.

Ortega smiled and went up to the front of the room. Jamie's hands shook,

and she pushed them hard onto the desk until the turned white, the blood

leaving them.

“My next witness,” Ortega said in a loud authoritative voice, “is Richard

Dumont.”

Once again, a thick silence coated the room, heads turned, all looking for

any sign of a miraculously healed man come to testify against his

daughter. Nobody came, whispers flooded the room as they all realized

what Ortega had just done.

Judge Vogel slammed her gavel against the table, silence the room once

more.

“Mr. Dumont is unable to be here today Mr. Ortega, as he is in the hospital,

you know that,” she said.

There was another victory smile from Ortega, one that reached up to his

eyes, embedded itself into his every deep wrinkle.

“My point exactly.”

Exerpt from Chapter 17 -A point of Re-direction

Chapter 33- Cheaters and Liars NOW POSTED!!!:idea: