Judge Withers looked at me and smiled. “Do you need a short recess before we continue?” he asked.
I shook my head. I wished I had a glass of water, but I didn’t ask for it. I kept my hands on my knees, holding tight to keep them from shaking.
There was a hush in the courtroom, as if all the clocks had stopped and time wasn’t ticking by.
Then Judge Withers said, “Tell us what happened at the cliff, Angie. Tell it exactly the way you remember it.”
I looked out across the room and saw Miss Emma watching me. She sat up straight and gave me a little nod. She seemed to be saying, That’s right, Angie. You go ahead and tell everybody the truth. Tell them what really happened.
I pictured the scene in my mind. The fear and anger in Dodie’s eyes. The way she had tried to get away from Jefferson Clement. I remembered the warning look Mr. Clement had given me just before he climbed over the cliff’s edge.
I glanced at him now. He wore the same expression he had then. A look as cold as ice. Dry ice. I remembered how dry ice could burn. I looked away from him and began.
“Dodie and Mr. Clement were standing near the edge of the cliff. They were talking loud, and I could hear everything they said. Dodie told Mr. Clement to leave her alone. She said, ‘If you don’t, I’ll tell everybody what you’ve been trying to do to me.’”
“And what was that?” Judge Withers wanted to know.
I looked down at my lap. Then I looked up at Miss Emma. Her eyes were moist around the edges, but she gave me the tiniest little nod. When I started to answer, my voice was so low that Judge Withers had to tell me to speak up.
“Mr. Clement wanted to … to … put his hands where he oughtn’t.”
A murmuring rose in the room. It got louder and louder. I felt my face heat up. I stopped and looked over at the judge. Then I looked at the sea of faces in the room. Everyone was watching me.
I wanted to close my eyes, but I didn’t. I kept my head up while he rapped on the table with his gavel. He had to rap quite a while to get people calmed down.
“If there are any more disturbances like that, I will clear this room,” he said. Then he looked at me. “Are you feeling all right, Angie?” he asked.
I looked at him. I thought he had kind eyes. I nodded my head. “I want to tell what really happened.”
“Dodie tried to get away from him. But Mr. Clement wouldn’t let her go. He reached out and tried to grab her. I yelled at her to watch out, and that’s when he saw that I was standing there watching. He told me to get away from there, and he called me a meddlesome brat. He started coming toward me, but his foot slipped. He was standing right at the edge of the cliff, and he lost his balance.”
“Mr. Clement lost his balance?”
“That’s right. He almost fell, but Dodie grabbed his shirt. She might be kind of skinny, but she’s strong. He would have fallen right over the edge if she hadn’t pulled him back up. That’s the way his shirt got ripped, not from getting caught on thornbushes.”
I heard a kind of murmuring from the audience. Good, I thought. They were paying attention.
“When Mr. Clement straightened up and stepped away from the cliff, he never said a word to her about saving his life. He just hollered at her and shook his fist in her face. He called her stupid and said it was her fault he almost fell.”
The room hushed. It seemed that everyone had inhaled and couldn’t let their breath out. Then I heard a low murmuring as folks nudged each other and put their heads close together. Mr. Clement looked straight ahead, without any expression on his face, as if I had been talking about a stranger.
Judge Withers gave me a nod, so I went on with my story. “Dodie started to walk toward me, and when Mr. Clement saw that, he put his foot right out and tripped her. I know he did it on purpose.
“Dodie put out her arm to break her fall, but her wrist hit the ground hard. I wanted to help her up, but I was scared of what he might do to me.”
I looked down at my lap and was surprised to see blood on my finger where I’d been tearing at a hangnail.
“What happened next, Angie?”
Judge Withers’s voice was soft and gentle, the way I talked to Buster when I petted him.
“It’s important for you to tell us exactly what happened next,” he told me. “Take your time. Tell us what you saw.”
Jefferson Clement leaned forward in his seat, staring straight at me. He had lied and tried to make people think Willie Jack shoved Dodie off the cliff. Lying in court was a crime, wasn’t it? Would they put him in jail for that? Jail was where I wanted him to go.
Tell the truth, Angie. Tell it just the way it happened.
All I had to say was that Jefferson Clement put out his hand and gave Dodie a shove. That’s all it would take to get him out of our lives forever. I looked straight into his face and saw the fear in his eyes. I looked away from Mr. Clement and faced the judge.
“Dodie got up. She was holding her arm up against her chest. She started walking backward to get away from Mr. Clement and she backed right up to the edge of the cliff.
“When she started to fall I yelled at Mr. Clement to help her. But he never moved. Even when she screamed, he just watched her. Then she was gone.”
I couldn’t talk for a minute. I clenched my hands until my nails bit into my palms. When I finally said something, it didn’t sound like me at all, but like a voice somewhere outside myself.
“I’m telling the truth,” I said. “Mr. Clement never reached out to help Dodie. He put his hands down at his sides and watched her fall.” I swallowed hard and forced out the rest, the bitter-tasting words that would set Jefferson Clement free.
“But he didn’t … he didn’t push her … off the cliff.”
The spectators seemed to let out one breath in a big whoosh. Mr. Clement gave me a thin little smile that made him look as satisfied as a cat that’s cornered a mouse.
Judge Withers closed the notebook he had been writing in and stood up. I stood up, too. “I’m not finished,” I said.
Judge Withers sat back down, but I didn’t. I glanced around the courtroom and fastened my eyes on Miss Emma. She was patting her furs and watching me.
“Mr. Clement did bad things,” I said. “Dodie showed me the bruises on her arm that he made when she wouldn’t let him touch her anymore. He’s the one who tried to sneak into our tent when we were camping out in the minister’s backyard. He’s got my dog’s teeth marks in his backside if you need proof. He used his binoculars to look at us in our bathing suits, too.”
People began talking right out loud. Some of the ladies pressed their fingers against their mouths like I’d seen people do when they could hardly believe what they’d heard. Judge Withers had to pound the table with his gavel to get the room quiet enough for me to continue.
“I told the truth when I said he didn’t push Dodie over the cliff, but I’m also telling the truth when I say that it was his fault that she fell.
“Mr. Clement knew I heard Dodie say she would tell the whole town what he tried to do to her. He saw me standing there. He knew I had heard everything.”
Jefferson Clement jumped up so fast his chair tipped over. “Nobody will believe you, you lying little brat.” He was breathing hard, and his face was as red and swollen as an overripe tomato. “I never did any of those things. It was an accident. Nothing but an accident.”
He spoke as though Dodie’s injuries were no more important than a broken dish or a stubbed toe.
Judge Withers raised his voice. “You are out of order, Mr. Clement. Another outburst like that, and you will be removed from this room in the custody of the sheriff.”
Mr. Clement sat down. Nobody spoke. Nobody moved.
I looked at Judge Withers. “I’ve been wondering,” I said, “why it is that people can know that a person has been doing bad things, but they just look the other way and try not to think about it.”
He looked at me for what seemed like a long time. Then he turned to the people in the courtroom. Some of them lowered their eyes, and others began to fidget as if their clothes were too tight. Judge Withers shook his head. “I wish I had an answer for you,” he said.
The courtroom was silent except for the sound of his nails tap-tapping once again on the wooden table.
Finally he said, “Thank you, Angelina. You may be excused.”
I walked back to my seat. I was hardly aware of Geraldine or Reba Lu until they each took one of my hands and held them tight. There wasn’t a sound in the courtroom until Mr. Clement got up and turned to leave the room. But Judge Withers stopped him.
“Just a minute there,” he said. “You’re saying now that Dodie Crumper’s injury was an accident. But you testified that Willie Jack Kelly pushed her off the cliff. Are you saying that you want to change your statement?”
Mr. Clement didn’t answer. He glared at his wife with a look that told her the whole thing was her fault.
The judge waited for him to say something. But he didn’t. Judge Withers cleared his throat. It was so quiet in the room, I thought I could hear people breathing.
“A jury will have to make a decision about the cause of Dodie Crumper’s injuries. In the meantime, Mr. Clement, you have just convicted yourself of perjury. Lying to an officer of the court is a serious offense. You and I have a few things to talk about.” Judge Withers nodded toward the uniformed man who was standing by the door.
The rest of us stood to go, but the man at the door stopped Mr. Clement as he tried to leave the room.
I looked at Reba Lu and Geraldine. They were grinning. Charles held a fist in the air and mouthed the word YES.
Outside, the heat struck me like an oven suddenly opened wide. It felt good. It helped take away the coldness deep in my bones.
Mama and Daddy both put their arms around me, and Eddie gave me one of his crooked smiles. Reba Lu and Geraldine were talking excitedly about what was going to happen to Jefferson Clement now.
I wondered what Judge Withers was saying to him right that minute. Would he eventually be able to go home and live across the street from us again? Would I have to look into his face and see his little cat’s smile? I had a feeling that I hadn’t done anything to stop him … I had just slowed him down.
Charles was suddenly beside me. He put one hand on my arm. “You did fine,” he said.
“It was the best I could.” We looked at each other a few seconds. Neither of us spoke.