Free Jury of Peers by Troy L Brodsky Page B

mind occupied anyway.  She stood and looked at him, wondering if the pain the Iraqi felt while lost in that storm was anything like what this slight young man was going through right now.  Probably, she decided.  But there were different kinds of pain.
                  She left him holding his wife’s hand and he didn’t look up.
                  Two minutes later though, Seth rose and walked across the room.  He took the chart from where the doctor had accidentally left it and returned to his seat.  He looked at his wife, and then at the chart.  He opened it and began to read.
                  Signs of additional trauma at the point of entry suggest aggravated penetration….Semen found in the abdomen.
                  He read and reread it all.  And then again.  It coded to his memory.
    He couldn’t muster any emotion.  Something else was replacing it all and he could feel it like a distant fire warming the palms of his hands… tingling, comforting.  Hate. 
     
    *               *              *
     
                  “Seth?”
                  He tried to open his eyes, but found that even the good one was matted shut.  He wrenched it open with his fingers as he sat up from the chair.
    “Seth?” she said again.
                  He leaned over her, gripping her hand and trying to smile.  He felt the sutures in his lips pull, one popped.  “I’m here, I’m here baby,” he said.  A drop of his blood pattered down on her gown and he wiped it into an awful dark smudge.  “I’m here.”
                  Emily wheezed, then coughed.  She groaned in pain, and tried to hold her belly, only to find that her hands were restrained at her sides.  “Why….”
                  “You got hurt,” Seth said.  The words tumbled out.  Empty.
                  Her eyes welled up with tears as they darted over his swollen face.  She began to speak, drew in a sharp breath… and held it.  He saw the understanding dawn.  The memories.
                  “Jenny,” she lurched up, her body rigid all at once.  “ Baby ,” she shrieked.
                  There were no words, he just leaned in and held her as she screamed.  The nurses converged at once, and within sixty seconds the wailing subsided.  He cooed in her ear, telling her that it was all right and knowing that it was a singular lie.  His head pounded, aching to escape; a dizziness descended and he found himself sitting on the floor without warning.  He struggled back up. 
                  “No, please…please…” Emily breathed before her body relaxed and she passed back into unconsciousness.
     
    *              *              *
     
                  Emily’s parents arrived from the San Francisco just before two in the morning.  They sat in silence with their daughter and son–in–law for nearly an hour while Seth told them everything.  He left nothing out of the telling, hoping it would be some sort of catharsis.  He stammered on, unable to find any sort of resolution, and eventually they left him alone with his words.  Seth wanted them to stay but couldn’t bring himself to ask.  They had always been kind to him, welcomed him into their family and treated him as if he were their very own.  He wanted them to say that it was okay, that he’d been a victim and nothing more, but they didn’t.  His father–in–law shed quiet tears, stood, and left the room having never uttered a word.
                  Seth watched him go.
                  "He'll come around honey," Em's mother said in her soft way.  "He's not angry with you," she lied.  Even as tears rolled through the fine powder on her cheeks, she continued to placate as if it were her divine duty, "I don't know why things like this happen," she said,