I lied

by Ann

OBJECTION!

The middle-aged man stands and explains in a confident, authoritative tone.  He glares at the contentious witness and dominates the room with his skillful set of cross-examination questions.  After each string of unrelenting inquiry, he pauses dramatically, plays with his glasses, and pummels his adversaries with wit, eloquence, and the law.  The only problem is that:

1)  He is in his pajamas and

2)  The actors in the trial exist only his mind.

As a public defender, I do more than just represent the accused.  I also represent the mentally ill who are a danger to themselves or others.  This is because before the state can commit you for a finite period of time, they must first have a hearing to determine that you are mentally ill, a danger to yourself or others, and in need of treatment.  This avoids the archaic and inhumane treatment of the mentally ill which occurred up until the middle of the 20th century.  These hearings are also a safeguard against wrongful involuntary committment of healthy people. 

I had only been a public defender for about a week when I had my first hearing.  I walked past the pajama clad barista to my client's room where we would speak in private through a glass door.  "Hi, ma'am," my voice stammered as I looked at her.  There she was in a room with nothing but a bed.  There she was all of her wearing nothing but a smile.  I tried not to stare.  Her wrinkly skin drooped off of her bones the way wax droops off of a candle and her flesh had a mind of its own that cared not for the laws of physics.  She would move to the left and all of her would move to the right, left, and middle all at the same time in the same way that a waterbed flows all over when you fall in the middle.  And yet, her head maintained its steadiness despite the fact that it was sticking out of a body atrophied from years of neglect and ravaged by the poisons of her antipsychotic meds.  I was uncomfortable that she was naked, but I had a job to do and I just assumed some of the patients were naked for their own protection. 

"What do you want?" she barked.  Still unnerved and preoccupied with her state of undress I explained that I was there to represent her, what the state wanted, and asked what her position was.  She mumbled a lot and stared at me.  I asked her if she wanted to attend her hearing.  She did.  I waved to the authorities that she was ready.  Two big burly guys came to get her and jumped back at her nakedness.

"You didn't just sit here all that time talking to her while she was naked, did you?"

The older one asked me incredulously.

"She's naked?"  I asked.  "I didn't even notice."

I lied.