man’s face darkened.
“What?” Lucy felt her fears return. “How bad is he?”
“It’s nothing like that, dear,” Cathy soothed as she shot her husband a warning look. “Everything will be fine.”
“The man should have retired years ago,” Lou muttered.
“He’s the same age as you are,” Cathy reminded him.
“He has no heart.”
The bantering was halted by the arrival of Lucy’s brother, Zach, and his wife. They hurried toward her and Zach wrapped his arms around her for a warm embrace then hugged Nick.
“Everything will be fine,” her sister-in-law, Ginna whispered.
Lucy wasn’t as confident, but now was the time to find out. Together, they all walked up the steps and went through the security checkpoint, then they looked for the courtroom in which Nick’s case would be heard.
Lucy was relieved to see Nick’s attorney already there. She only wished he didn’t look like Opie from The Andy Griffith Show. It didn’t help that at their first meeting he had told her to call him Ritchey. All that did was bump him up to the teenager from Happy Days.
Oh my God, she wailed to herself, I’d forgotten that my son’s lawyer looks twelve years old! She dredged up a faint sickly resemblance of a smile.
“Hey, Mrs. Donner.” Ritchey grinned as he offered his hand. He nodded at Nick. “Are you ready, Nick?”
“Sure,” the boy said, sounding almost adult.
“Maybe he is, but I’m not. But I guess that won’t matter, will it?” She touched her stomach, which sent out burning signals again. “You don’t think—” She found herself afraid even to say the words. “He won’t be—” She stopped because she just plain couldn’t go on and voice what had been giving her nightmares since this had all begun.
“I wouldn’t worry, Mrs. Donner. I’m sure Nick will be put on probation and assigned to community service,” he assured her. “We’ll be in and out of here in no time.”
Lucy breathed her first sigh of relief in days.
“I’m sorry, Mom,” Nick said quietly as he touched her shoulder.
She didn’t hug him, because she knew a display of affection would only embarrass him.
“No matter what the judge does to you, you are still grounded until you’re a hundred and five,” she told him as they went inside.
“You told me I was grounded until I was fifty,” he reminded her.
“I changed my mind.”
Lucy’s sense that things would turn out all right disappeared the moment the judge entered the courtroom and settled into a high-backed black leather chair. Her blood turned to ice as she saw the man’s stern expression.
We have Opie for an attorney and Boris Karloff for a judge. My son is going to Devil’s Island!
The five adults sat in the front row with Lucy in the middle.
The judge leveled a piercing gaze at Nick.
“Come up here, young man, and let’s talk,” he ordered in a rumbling deep voice that rivaled Orson Welles’s.
Lucy again silently vowed to stop watching late-night television. Her imagination was running away with her. She could see her baby being led off in chains to a dark and dank hole where he would spend the remainder of his life unless he managed to escape by digging through dirt and stone with a small spoon.
She was vaguely aware of Cathy taking her hand between her two.
“Frank’s a fair man,” Cathy whispered.
Lou refuted her assessment. “He’s an idiot.”
The judge’s head snapped up and he scowled in their direction.
“If people can’t respect the court and be quiet, they’ll be thrown out,” he threatened.
Lucy heard a small sound of distress travel up her throat. The last thing she needed was anyone putting Judge Kincaid in a bad mood.
As the judge questioned Nick, she vaguely heard his attorney interject a few times, but each time the judge ignored him.
Again he addressed Nick. “Young man, what you did was more than malicious mischief. You knowingly destroyed Fairfield Academy’s computer files.”
Lucy felt her heart sink down to her toes. This was it. Her baby was going to prison for the rest of his life. She was so lost in her misery she barely heard the judge’s pronouncement.
“The dean and I had a long talk about this, young man,” the judge said sternly. “Expulsion would be too good for you, namely because I don’t believe that expulsion from school is a punishment. I'd rather see that student punished in school, loaded down with extra work. And that is what you will be doing for the rest of the school year. Be prepared to write a lot of book reports, young man.”
Lucy’s spirits started to rise. Lots of homework for Nick? Not a bad thing, in her eyes. She’d never believed in expelling students either. But she realized the judge wasn’t finished.
“Along with your extra school work, you will have six months community service to be spent working at the Valley Animal Clinic and Shelter,” the judge ordered.
“What?” She felt her neck crack as she whipped her head from side to side to look at Cathy and Ginna.
Lou shot to his feet. “Your Honor, may I speak?”
The judge scowled. “Why?”
“Young Nicholas has been working at my garage for the past four months. Is there any reason why he can’t serve his time there?”
“There is an excellent reason why he cannot. I didn’t order him to work there,” Judge Kincaid snapped. “From what I can see, it didn’t do him any good to work under your supervision if he felt he needed to find an outlet by committing this act. I can assure you he will be working very hard at the shelter, and he won’t have the time or energy to think up ways to create mischief.”
“An animal clinic? He refuses to clean the cat’s litter box!” Lucy blurted out without thinking. “I’m sorry, Your Honor,” she whispered, wilting under his condemning glower.
The judge focused on her. “Madam, it seems your son needs more supervision than you can give him. If he knows what’s good for him, he will use this time to reconsider his actions. He will also tender a letter of apology to the Dean of Students at Fairfield Academy and will not be participating in any computer labs for the next semester.” He turned back to Nick who looked about as solemn as Lucy had ever seen him. “Report to Dr. Kincaid at three-thirty tomorrow afternoon, young man. If you know what’s good for you, you won’t end up in my courtroom again. I can assure you the next time I won’t be so lenient.”
Nick didn’t flinch under the
