Drown #13: the story we tell, part 4

August 2086. Angelo Shaw is 24. Jeremiah Day is 29. Stephanie Nova is 26. George McCarthy is 32.

* disclaimer: bad courtroom writing, probably. I write chick-lit, not legal dramas. ;) 


Jeremiah glanced into the courtroom. Stephanie was already there with her lawyer, but the sight of her was wrong. At first, in his head, he tried to bargain with the universe that she'd just gotten really, really fat. But, no, that wasn't right.

Then he tried to bargain that she was having his baby. Some fluke of genetics, some unnatural accident. Then he realized that was impossible. No amount of math, no stretching of the years or dates, no lingering sperm on some forgotten towel could make that even remotely possible.

She was pregnant by another man. Judging from the size of her, she was almost due.



"She's pregnant."

"Yeah, looks like it. So what?"

"What is wrong with you? My wife is pregnant by that dweeb squirrel. He probably had her knocked up before I even got home."


"Listen, calm the hell down," Angelo said. "You can't go in there talking like that. Don’t even think about it."

Jeremiah hadn’t expected how furious he would feel to know that she was pregnant by Justin. He hadn't entertained that idea, because he was still waiting for that moment that the novelty wore off and she grew bored. How could Justin be what she really wanted?

Jeremiah rushed into the courtroom.

"I’m your legal husband, doesn’t that make it mine?"

"Uh, no, not, it's not yours," Stephanie stammered.

Her lawyer ushered her to her seat. "No, Mr. Day. That law hasn’t been on the books for fifty years. And even then, it still wouldn’t be yours because of the length of the separation."

"We weren’t even separated until the night I got home."

"Please don’t speak to my client." George turned to Stephanie. "Stephanie, please ignore him. You don't need to say a single word to him today."


"She's my wife. It should have been mine. Stephanie, it would have been mine if you’d given me a chance. You loved me when I left for war, and you didn’t when I got back. What changed?"

"Stephanie, don’t engage."

"You would have reconsidered if you'd just given me some time to talk to you. You would, Stephanie. But now look at you. You ruined everything. Any day now, huh? How does that work out? He must have had you knocked up before I even got home. Disgusting. You two are a class act."


Angelo pulled him out of the courtroom back into the hallway. "Shut the fuck up, you're going to blow it all. Go splash some water on your face or something."



It was the height of summer outside and the water wasn't even cold. He popped one of the pills that he refused to take that morning and washed it down.

His therapist said to him, You have to let go of the hope that she might change her mind. Your future can't depend upon her changing her mind, because there's a good chance that will never happen.


Never. Stephanie was ruined now, with Justin's baby swimming inside her like a worm.

Maybe she wouldn't change her mind. Then what satisfaction was left for him? How does a man move on without vengeance? How was it fair that she got to walk away with everything and leave him with nothing? That wasn't fair. He was not going to let it happen that way. He was going to take something from her. She would not get to walk away with everything.

But first, he had to play this game. The pills didn't change anything. It wasn’t enough, not soon enough, not strong enough. They were probably a placebo anyway. Fake pharmaceutical bullshit. He'd have to do it on his own. He jumped in place, he boxed the air, he slapped his own cheeks and splashed more lukewarm water on them. He took three deep breaths and went back into the courtroom.


The judge had since arrived and he looked irritated.

"Glad to have you join us, Mr. Day. Does anyone else need a bathroom break, or might we begin?"


Judge Martin began.

"I don't suspect that we'll decide everything today, but perhaps we might make some progress. We have three issues to consider. First, the division of marital property. Second, the question of several domestic disturbances and the resulting protection order. Third, custody and visitation of a shared child, Willow Nova. I think we might be able to put the first issue to rest, so shall we begin with the cabin?"


George said, "Ms. Nova can compromise about the cabin, but half doesn’t seem quite fair. Mr. Day only lived there for a year and it was her family inheritance. If it would please him to have some proceeds from the cabin, then we can work with that. But we will not budge about custody.

"Mr. Day, what percentage of the cabin's value are you asking for?" Judge Martin asked.

"My concern isn't about the cabin, either," Jeremiah said. "I want shared custody of my daughter. But the money will help me get reestablished after a long time away at war, so I won't decline that."

They settled on a number. Jeremiah would take thirty-five percent and Stephanie would keep the rest.


"Second, Mr. Day, in order for you to see your daughter, I need to be convinced that I should lift the protection order that was placed against you. I need to know that you are not a threat to your family."

Angelo said, "My client only has one year of promised non-deployment and six months of it has been wasted already. This is very time sensitive. My client wants shared custody, he wants time with his daughter in South Carolina. The military provides well for its families, and Willow will have a comfortable home wherever he is stationed. Mr. Day has lost enough time with his daughter as it stands. When can we start?"

"Mr. Day, you need to establish a relationship with your daughter before I can let you take her to South Carolina on your own. You've only seen her for a few hours since she was an infant."

"He planned the move to South Carolina before he returned from war," Angelo said. "He was under the impression that they'd be moving there as a family. It was what Ms. Nova wanted."

George said, "Your honor, my client said no such thing."

"She did," Jeremiah said. "I asked her where she wanted to go. She said South Carolina. So I put in a bid for a spot in South Carolina."

Stephanie glanced between the judge and her lawyer, looking baffled. "I don't remember saying that. If I did, it would have been years and years ago. He never asked me properly."


"Your honor, this is beside the point, Angelo said. "The point is that my client is duty bound in South Carolina now, and he is not a danger to his daughter. We have evidence to present that his outbursts were a natural and forgivable reaction to the news, completely understandable under the circumstances. He was a married man, coming home from war. Next minute, her lover pulled up the driveway and she took off with the kid. Who wouldn't be upset about that?"

Judge Martin said, "Mr. Day, am I supposed to believe that in three years away, you had no idea that your wife’s affections were waning? That neither you or she suggested there might be trouble?"

"No, sir," Jeremiah said. "In fact, she often reassured me of the opposite. She told me that she loved me. She never mentioned a thing about this other man she was seeing. In fact, I heard more about him from my daughter. She called regularly, almost on schedule for a while, she sent videos, she … well, she sent me pictures of an amorous nature."

"We can submit them as evidence," Angelo said.


Angelo opened a file and pulled out a stack of papers, waving one nude photo between his fingers.


Stephanie and her lawyer both cringed simultaneously.


The judge saw one at a distance and waved the others away. "So a married woman sent her husband some photos? Can you get to the point of what you think these photos prove?"

"Certainly," Angelo said. "It proves that Ms. Nova led my client on. He had every reason to believe that they would continue their marriage when he returned, but it was all lies. When he found out that none of this was true, it was an understandable shock that would have been a challenge for even the most mild-tempered man. Ms. Nova lied when she said she loved him. She sent him romantic photos while she was sleeping around behind his back. To add insult to injury, as you can see, your honor, she didn't even wait to start a family with her lover. From the look of it, she didn't even wait until her husband returned from war. Perhaps she might like to share with us when exactly the baby was conceived?"

"That won't be necessary," Judge Martin said.


"Your honor," Jeremiah said, "I thought the marriage was fine. You can understand how upset I was to learn that she’d been lying to me for three years. I was shocked. I felt betrayed by both of them. I had no idea. I thought he was my friend, too. We went to each other’s weddings. I’m not sure why she led me on for so long. The thing my wife fails to appreciate is that for the three years I was away at war, the idea of coming back to her and to Willow was all I had to live for. So, even though our time together might have been very short and she may have considered it irrelevant, she spent three years moving on with another man and I spent three years married to the idea of our love. If there was a discrepancy between us when I got home, then that would be why. You can see how I had reason to be upset. For three long years, I was fighting a war, living for the day I could return to my loving, doting wife. But I came home to nothing. I was angry, and I might have been out of line, but I am not dangerous."


"Your honor, that all sounds like a beautiful story," George said. "But they're gravely discounting the calculating nature of the relationship between Mr. Day and Ms. Nova. These are all an elaborate fabrication. Mr. Day is a calculating and manipulative man. He used fear to persuade Ms. Nova to send those pictures and to say that she loved him. He used to threaten self harm when he felt Ms. Nova's affections were waning. She had good reason to believe that he would have intended to do harm to himself or others in retaliation. That is emotional blackmail. She was afraid to tell him that she intended to leave due to years of psychological abuse."

"Do you have any of that documented?"

"My client deleted the messages from earlier on in the relationship," George said. "Mr. Day scared her a great deal. You can see the evidence of how and why in their later correspondence. We submit as evidence the documents of her legal name change, dated March of 2085, nine months before Mr. Day returned to Earth, which prove her intent to leave him. In the summer of 2085, still months before Mr. Day’s return, they had conversations on the phone that my client interpreted as that he knew what was going on."

"Ms. Nova," Judge Martin said, "Can you tell me why you deleted the emails?"

"Yes, sir. It was because I ... I wanted them to go away."

"To the best of your recollection, could you prepare a statement of what those emails said?"

"We have a statement here."

The court clerk passed over the document. 

"He said he wanted to see me crying. He wanted to see my face looking scared that he might die. He used to say that I was all his, that it drove him crazy to think that I didn't love him anymore. He said I had to make it worthwhile for him, I had to give him something to come home to. He asked me to say that I loved him. He demanded that I say it. So I did."  

Jeremiah shouted, "How could I make her do something she didn't want to do from millions of miles away?"

George said, "We also have home surveillance camera footage, showing that Mr. Day withheld the car keys from his wife to prevent her from leaving the house, taking advantage of the outdoor climate to restrain her. Ms. Nova had reason to suspect her husband intended to rape her that night."

"That is all speculation!" Angelo shouted. "This is ridiculous! Rape accusations? You can’t prove any of that!"

George submitted a video file, as well as a series of still photos from the footage.



"The Nova family had hidden surveillance cameras in every room of the first floor," George said. "It was a common precaution in those months, from the wartime raids and home invasions. As you can see here, after some discussion at the door, Mr. Day goes to sit at the kitchen table. The table was bare when he sat down and for many hours throughout the night, but only immediately after Ms. Nova left the house, he placed the keys on the table. Mr. Day refused to give Ms Nova the keys when she asked for them.

"We also present the air quality report dated for the week of December 18th, 2085, that details the air was breathable for only thirty seconds, proving that Ms. Nova could not have left the house without her vehicle. She likely would have suffered to even run to a neighbor, and it would have been out of the question to run to a neighbor for help while carrying her then four-year-old daughter through six inches of unplowed snow."

"There’s no audio!" Angelo said. "How can you prove that she even asked for the keys? Maybe he didn’t know she really wanted them. She could have run to a neighbor. And the rape threats are totally out of line. He never even touched his wife that night and if she had some paranoid delusion about what she thought he would do, then that's not his problem."


"Mr. Day," Judge Martin boomed, "are you aware that restraining a person against their will constitutes false imprisonment? If she had pressed charges against you, this would be a case for criminal court and not family court. You could be charged with a felony? Did she ask you for the keys that night?"

"Well, yes, but I offered to go to the car for her instead."

"So you admit that she asked you for the keys and you refused to give them to her?"

"She didn't tell me that she wanted them so she could leave."

George said, "No, because in cases of domestic abuse, when a wife tries to leave her husband, she doesn't announce that's what she's doing. Your honor, you can see the mind games as play here. Mr. Day is certainly very dangerous to his family, especially to his very young daughter."

"That was a misunderstanding," Angelo said. "My client is a scorned husband, an eager father, a war hero, trying to salvage his marriage and family. He has shown temperamental tendencies, sure, but also a devotion to work on his personal character. He is not a danger to his daughter and we request that visitation, beginning where you see fit, but absolutely working toward shared custody in my client’s place of residence."

"Bottom line," Judge Martin said, "Mr. Day, your therapist has not recommended shared custody at this time."


"What?"

"As I said, she does not recommend unsupervised custody of any kind. And, after the events of today's court session, I have to say that I agree with her. However, she does think that seeing your daughter might be to the benefit of your treatment. She would like to continue treatment for three months with supervised visits every other weekend. Visits will be supervised by Willow’s social worker, Mrs. Blair, who is asked to supply a detailed report to your doctor. The visits will take place at an authorized visitation facility, approved by this court and the Lake County Police Department, and I would like to add the provision that the meetings are attended by two police officers."

"That’s ridiculous!" Jeremiah said. "That’s not visitation, that's like a damn circus!"

"Shhh," Angelo said.

"Mr. Day, I can assure you that the facility is very nice. You will be provided with toys, movies, and snacks, but you are also welcome to bring your own toys for your daughter. The attitude you bring to the meeting is up to you, though."

"How can I make it back to Michigan every other weekend from South Carolina? That’ll be impossible. Don’t you see what she’s doing here? She wants me to fail so she can write me out of the picture."

"That’s the deal we’re offering you. Every second and fourth Saturday for three hours. You're taking thirty-five percent of the value of the cabin, so I assume you'll find the means to travel. The ISCA has a good record of making allowances for family, so I have no doubt they'll work with our schedule. I will supply an order asking them to give you every second and fourth Friday off for travel.

"The restraining order has expired, but the prohibition of travel across state borders for Willow Nova still remains. Mr. Day, I urge you not to contact Stephanie except through her lawyer and do not try to attempt visitation except on the agreed time and place.

"The second Saturday of August is quite soon, so perhaps we might start the fourth Saturday. The twenty-fourth of August?"

"My baby is due that week," Stephanie said.

"Mr. Day, would you like to extend another two weeks as a kindness to Ms. Nova?"

"No," Jeremiah said. "I've lost enough time already. I want to see my daughter now."

"Are you sure about that?" Judge Martin asked.

Jeremiah grit his jaw and nodded.

"Ms. Nova, I’m sure you have some family who could help facilitate the visitation. It’s within Mr. Day’s rights to begin visitation with his daughter. I'm afraid we cannot delay it any longer."

Stephanie nodded.

"August 24th then. Visitations will continue every second and fourth Saturday as noted in the documentation. We can review the case again after three months time to discuss the next steps. Mr. Day, I urge you to take these meetings very seriously. Court is dismissed."


Stephanie and her lawyer left the room promptly. Then, after the judge left the room, Angelo burst.

"Jesus fucking Christ on a cracker! You didn’t tell me about the keys on the night you got home. You didn't tell me they had their house rigged up with cameras! Is that true? She was trying to leave and you hijacked her keys and it was recorded on video?"

Angelo kept shouting, but Jeremiah got up from the table. He had more to say to Stephanie. He wasn't done.


He could see in the hallway that she was met by her whole family. They surrounded her.

He needed to tell her this, You don’t get to give everything I wanted to another man. He needed to say it, but she was surrounded. Justin, her parents, her lawyer. Of course her house was rigged up with cameras. He didn't tell Angelo that her lover was some kind of computer nerd and half of her family were police. She had her head tucked down between so many bodies. He couldn't look her in the eyes. She wouldn't look at him. Nothing. He got nothing. She had an army and he had no one and it wasn't fair.

He felt the pills starting to work, too late. They softened him. They turned him into something that he hated.

—

off camera and outtakes: morning of the big day // pep talks // mother-approved // the cafeteria // stern // court clerk problems // upset one and two

gameplay notes: stuck on you