Chapter 13: In Chambers

The child specialist met us at the chambers door on Monday with a basket of crayons on her arm.

She was a small woman in a gray cardigan, and she crouched to June's height before she said a word to me.

"Hi, June. I'm going to talk with you and the judge for a while. Is that okay?"

June looked at the closed door.

Then she looked at me.

"Will you be here when I come out?"

"Right on that bench," I said. "I won't move."

"Promise?"

June keeps promises hard, and she asks for them the same way.

"I promise," I said.

She nodded once, took the specialist's hand, and walked in with the bear under her arm.

The door shut.

Across the corridor, Derek sat with his lawyer in a navy suit, his ankles crossed, his face pleasant.

He caught my eye and smiled at the door.

I kept my promise.

I sat on that bench for forty minutes by the clock over the water fountain, and I did not move once.

When the door opened, June came out eating a cracker.

She climbed onto my lap without a word and put her face in my collar.

"Are you okay?" I whispered.

"I told the truth," she said. "It was hard. The lady gave me crackers."

"You did so well."

"I drew the judge a picture."

The specialist stood in the doorway.

"Ms. Kane, Mr. Kane, counsel," she said. "The judge would like you inside. June can stay out here with a court officer."

June held my sleeve for a second before she let go.

The judge was not on the bench.

She sat at a plain table in her robe with a legal pad and one sheet of construction paper in front of her.

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