Free Off the Beaten Path by Unknown Page A

delivered the entire courtroom, including the jury was watching Daniel and his wife Wendy like they were an episode of “Dancing with the stars”
    Before the judge sent the jury off to reach their verdict the slick attorney had reiterated those points in his closing statement with all the charm and assurance of a man positive of his client’s innocence.
    After the jury filed back into the courtroom the judge turned toward the jury foreman and asked if they had reached a verdict. The jury foreman said that they had and handed the slip of paper with the verdict on it to the bailiff who in turn handed it ceremoniously to the Judge. The judge slipped on his bifocals and starred at the paper for what seemed like an eternity. As he lifted his gaze from the scrap of paper he addressed the jury, “What say the jury in the people vs. Gathier? The jury foreman who had been waiting patiently drew in a breath and recited their decision tonelessly. “We find the accused, Daniel Gathier, Not Guilty.”
    When those eight infamous words drifted over the courtroom and settled on the crowd that was holding its collective breath, the overflowing courtroom erupted. The deafening cheers and painful moans of the crowd merged into a hysterical screech that sounded like the last gasp of a dying animal.
    Mr. Congeniality remained seated at the defense table despite the hands that tugged at him trying to drag him to his feet to congratulate him. He forced himself to peer through the sea of suits and expensive dresses that had spilled over into the front of the courtroom. He knew before he looked what he would see. Jennifer Louise Conley was the only other person still sitting in the courtroom. There were also hands and arms attempting to pull her to her feet, but for a different reason, to console her.
    What the defense attorney saw next was not what he had envisioned. The girl was not starring down into her lap or crying into her hands hysterically she was looking straight at him. Everything in his mind stopped, he couldn't hear the praise from his client or his family. He couldn't hear the sobbing from the young girl’s mother as she tried to embrace her. The distance between them seemed to contract into a narrow tunnel of light and imagination. A tunnel that excluded everyone and everything else in existence. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. There was moisture in and around her eyes they were as clear and bright as any eyes he had ever seen. Jennifer was looking at him with........sympathy, like he was the one that had just lost. A single tear escaped and trickled down her cheek and a slow painful smile creased the corners of her mouth. He tried to smile back at her, but as hard as he tried he could not force even a hint of a smile. And it hit him, the tear she shed was not for herself, it was for him.
    The moment was broken when a large sweaty hand broke the field of vision between them and he heard a smooth practiced voice say, “God Bless you, Son”. It was none other than Pastor Jacob Gaither himself bestowing praise and God's blessing on him for seeing that justice was done. The attorney looked from the sweaty hand up the fleshy arm and into the face of the distinguished reverend. His first thought as he looked into the flabby face was, “The self-righteous, Bastard really believes that justice was done”.
    His next thought was a question, who was worse, him or the good reverend. He could understand the blind loyalty of a parent to a child, but to consciously choose to defend someone who he suspected, no, knew to be guilty as sin. He realized with unforgiving clarity who was worse, he was.
    He did not shake the sweaty hand extended in his direction. Instead he tried to move around the rather large frame of the reverend blocking his vision and tried to get another glance at the girl that he had just destroyed.
     
    The truth was that she had not been destroyed. The reality was that from the very beginning of this ordeal Jennifer