Chapter 15: Under Oath

The court-appointed doctor spent Wednesday morning at my mother's kitchen table, and at the end of it she asked me what day I was most proud of.

"Saturday," I said.

"The day you were called a breakdown?"

"The day I stopped the music in front of three hundred people and nobody got hurt."

She wrote that down and thanked my mother for the tea.

On Thursday at nine, the courtroom in Ellsworth was packed.

There were reporters in the back, and two of my twelve employees in the second row, and Enid beside me in her church cardigan.

Judith sat across the aisle with her lawyers and one pearl earring.

Langston sat behind her, not beside her.

He did not look at me.

The judge was a tired woman with half-moon glasses and a stack of paper.

"Counsel for the petitioner," she said. "Your case rests on a sworn statement from the respondent's husband and on a recording. Proceed."

Judith's lawyer stood.

He played the clip.

My voice, cut and rebuilt, came through the courtroom speakers.

"I'll end all of you. I'll burn it down."

Judith closed her eyes as if it hurt her.

When it was over, the lawyer called Langston Ellery to the stand.

He walked up slowly, in a grey suit that hung loose on him now.

The clerk swore him in.

He put his hand on the book and his eyes on the floor.

"Mr. Ellery," the lawyer said, "you signed this affidavit on Tuesday."

"I did."

"It says your wife threatened you and your family."

"It does."

"Did she say those words you just heard?"

Langston looked at the lawyer, and then at Judith, who gave him a very small nod.

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