The judge called for a brief recess and the room finally exhaled as the bailiff began to lead the witnesses out into the hallway. “Are you holding up okay?” Gwen asked me while she started to pack the medical records back into her leather briefcase.
I told her the truth that I was not doing well and that I felt like the air in the room was too thick to breathe. Jim Tucker stepped over to us and I could see the gray at his temples that had not been there when we were in the desert.
“You stayed upright and you told the truth, Cassidy,” Jim said while placing a heavy hand on my good shoulder to offer some support. I thanked him for coming all this way and he told me that he would never let one of his own stand alone in a fight.
My brother Jason approached me in the hallway but he stopped just beyond arm’s reach as if the distance could protect him from my anger. “I honestly did not know that you were actually hurt that badly,” he claimed while looking at his expensive leather shoes.
I told him that he only stayed in the dark because he never bothered to ask me a single question about my life or my travels. “Mom said you wanted to be left alone and that you were ashamed of where you had been,” he added as a weak excuse.
I laughed because that lie made everything so much easier for him to accept while he waited for his share of the inheritance to arrive. My mother never came over to speak to me as she sat at a far table with her hands wrapped around a cold paper cup.
After the recess ended the judge found the evidence to be credible and upheld the transfer of the duplex and the investment account to me. He also made a statement for the record about false testimony and referred the matter to the district attorney for a formal review.
The part I remember most was standing in the hallway afterward and feeling the hot Arizona air hit my face like a physical weight. My mother was waiting near a water fountain and she looked much older now that she was no longer performing for a judge.
“I really did take care of him for all those years while you were gone,” she whispered as I tried to walk past her toward the exit. I looked at her and said that I already knew that was true but that it did not excuse the things she said.