The Littlest Prosecutor novel · Chapter 24 of 24
Chapter 24: Last Donut
"Order," I said, "or I'll clear the room."
Nobody cleared anything.
It was the first Sunday in November, a year and two weeks after the dinner where I stood on a chair.
I was seven now, with a front tooth missing, and the wooden spoon had been replaced by a real gavel that Grandpa had had made for me.
It was small, and the head was walnut, and it had my initials burned in the handle.
I sat at the end of Grandpa's long dining table, on two cushions, because my feet still did not reach the floor.
The whole family was there.
The five uncles took up one side, loud and cheerful, passing a pink donut box down the row.
Aunt Jo was cutting the roast.
Grandpa sat at the far end, with his cane hooked on the back of his chair, as he had every Sunday since the winter.
He had stopped calling it court.
He called it dinner now, but he still brought the old gavel out for the dessert.
On my right sat Daddy, in a tie, with both hands folded on the cloth.
He looked nervous.
"The court will hear the petition," I said.
"The petition," said Uncle Desmond, who had a napkin tucked in his collar, "is by the defendant in the matter of Patrick Aldridge, regarding his probation."
"Which is not a real petition," said the third uncle.
"It's a perfectly real petition."
"He wrote it on a menu."
"It's on a menu from a very good restaurant," said Daddy, with dignity.
He stood up and cleared his throat.
"Your Honor," he said. "It has been three hundred and seventy-nine days."
"Three hundred and eighty," I said. "You forgot today."
The uncles cracked up.
Daddy waited until they were done.
"In that time, I have slept outside my daughter's door, and later inside it, and once in a chair at her bed for a week, because she had the flu."
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