Episode 60: Scene Five
"Christian Harris."
Christian licked his lips after stating his name. His throat was incredibly dry, the result of the unfathomable stress he had been experiencing as of late. The moment of truth was finally upon him.
"Christian, what grade are you in?" the attorney asked, trying to sound as friendly as possible.
"I'm going into the ninth."
The man smiled at Christian and then at the courtroom audience, showing that he had no intentions of ripping into the young man. "Are you feeling nervous about your first year of high school?"
Christian shrugged and shifted in his uncomfortable seat. He was mildly annoyed at the line of questioning the lawyer had taken, but still attempted to answer the questions as politely as possible. "A little. I'm mostly looking forward to theatre. That's all I really care about anymore."
The man stopped his pacing back and forth in front of Christian. "Really? And why is that?"
"Because that's all there's left to care about. That and my little sister," Christian answered, refusing to say anything more than was required of him.
"Don't you care about your parents?"
Silence.
"Please answer the question, Christian," the man urged.
Christian looked away from the attorney and his parents. "Yeah, I guess."
"I see," he resumed his pacing. "What do you think the problem is?"
"They don't care about anyone except themselves."
"Let me put this another way. Which one do you believe is causing the problem?"
"Objection!" the opposing attorney jumped to her feet. "The counselor is showing absolutely no discretion towards the child or his feelings."
"I'm not a child!" Christian snapped.
"I'm merely trying to find out what this young man is going through," the man said.
"No you're not. You're just trying to get a couple of hundred bucks in your pocket so you can go drive off in your Jaguar to your multi-million dollar home in the suburbs," Christian found himself saying before he could stop himself.
"Order!" the judge crowed from her seat.
"You don't give a d*mn about me or my sister or my parents and what we're going through. All you want to do is smile, get me to answer your dumb*ss questions, and get out of here so you can get back to your sl*tty bimbos back at your house!" Christian all of his built up emotions boiling over.
"Christian!" Sarah, Christian's mother, gasped in horror. "Don't say such things!"
"Order!" the judge yelled again, this time striking her gavel against a small wooden block.
"Well, let me tell you what I think of you and this crappy court system: you're all a bunch of freakin' phonies with nothing better to do than tear apart people's lives, and you can all go to h*ll!"
Everyone in the courtroom gasped and began talking amongst themselves. The courtroom promptly turned into a circus, with counselors arguing with one another, Nelson and Sarah yelling at each other, Christian's little sister crying, and the judge slamming her gavel on the block. Christian slumped down into his chair and folded his arms across his chest. This is where being in a court gets you, he thought to himself.
"ORDER!" the judge screamed once again, slamming her gavel so hard against the block that the hammerhead-like part of the object broke off and struck the male counselor in the head. "This court will come to order now or you will all be fined!"
The courtroom quickly became silent.
"Now, we are all going to take a short recess while I go back into my chambers to come up with a verdict. I will be back in thirty minutes with a verdict," the judge said, then rose to exit the room.
Christian remained sitting in his chair since he hadn't been instructed to step down. This is such a mess. But thank God it's almost over. I'll finally be able to get on with my life after this. I just want to move on and forget about it. Just forget the whole thing happened. Yeah, just forget it ever happened.