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The ominous storm cloud had finally blown in: the trial date had arrived.
Salinski's case was well prepared. He had subpoenaed Hammerschmidt's ex-wife and former girlfriend as witnesses. In depositions, they both told of Hammerschmidt's violent side inspired by perverse, sexual satisfaction. Both women got out of their relationships with Hammerschmidt because of his neurotic behavior.
Salinski felt their testimonies were powerful for his cause, but he also knew that both witnesses had some character issues that the prosecution would exploit to discredit their testimonies.
While studying the prosecution's discovery (i.e., material the prosecution planned to introduce as evidence), Salinski came across an official looking affidavit form on Duncan Elementary stationery. This was the paper Hammerschmidt brought to Miss Annabelle's house that evening as an excuse to get into her house. From that piece of evidence plus some of the other discovery, Salinski was convinced the prosecution would submit a theory that Miss Annabelle and Mr. Melbourne attacked the unsuspecting Hammerschmidt out of rage or revenge. The prosecution charged Mr. Melbourne and Miss Annabelle with voluntary manslaughter. The prosecution offered, during plea bargaining, to reduce the charges to involuntary manslaughter, which Salinski rejected. He believed he could get his clients acquitted.
Salinski could have delayed the trial for months, perhaps a full year or longer, with a number of motions. But he and his clients wanted to get it over with and felt confident and ready. So, they opted to go straight to trial. Thus, the day after Independence Day, the trial date had arrived.
Jury selection lasted just one afternoon. Opening arguments were delivered the next morning. As suspected, the prosecution pursued the theory that Mr. Melbourne and Miss Annabelle ambushed an innocent, unsuspecting Mr. Hammerschmidt who was merely following up with his civic duty to deliver the affidavit to Miss Annabelle for her side of the story in a school inquisition.
Salinski, however, felt he had the key puzzle parts to snap together a theory that would hold together. He would show that Hammerschmidt planned to batter and rape Miss Annabelle, but was surprised by Mr. Melbourne; a fight ensued, during which Hammerschmidt accidentally received a fatal wound and died. Mr. Melbourne and Miss Annabelle acted in self-defense in exercising their most basic right of protecting themselves.
The day of the opening arguments, second day of the trial, Miss Annabelle noticed something strange: the judge seemed to subtly favor the prosecuting attorney over Salinski. She was not sure, but the judge's tone of voice and disposition seemed more tolerant with the prosecution. She wondered if she was just being paranoid or if her observation could be true. She also noticed how the judge sat so high in his courtroom, towering over everyone else. He is supposed to be an indifferent third party moderating the trial, she thought. Why would he want to interfere with the search for justice? But as the day progressed, she became convinced that the judge was taking the side of the prosecution. He was also befriending the jurors in the paternal way he talked to them. Therefore, she thought, his opinion would carry more weight on his "adopted" jury members.
At an afternoon break, Miss Annabelle asked Salinski, "Why does the judge rule in the prosecution's favor almost unanimously? It seems almost like he's taking their side."
Salinski was quiet, not sure how to answer. Mr. Melbourne looked at Salinski curiously, for Mr. Melbourne had come to the same conclusion about the judge.
*
The next day, the defense would get their answer. The prosecution called its witnesses first. At the last minute before the trial, the prosecution had added three more witnesses to its list of witnesses. Salinski observed that they were prominent members of the community: the mayor of Buffalo, the former lieutenant governor of New York, the district's congressman. Salinski knew these witnesses were summoned as character witnesses on behalf of Hammerschmidt. But he never expected the judge to become influenced by witnesses -- political or otherwise. Salinski was a good courtroom lawyer, but he was young. He was about to learn a lesson in ego justice.
The prosecution spent most of the day building its theory that Hammerschmidt was innocently delivering official school papers following Miss Annabelle's upsetting school board meeting. Salinski felt confident, however, sure he could tear down that theory. He cross examined the prosecution's witnesses and nearly destroyed the theory on cross examination alone. But, in mid-afternoon, the prosecutor called forth one of the three witnesses who were added last to the witness list.
He called to the witness chair Congressman Adams. After being sworn in, the seasoned prosecutor began,
"How long did you know Charles Hammerschmidt, sir?"
"Oh, I've known Charlie...excuse me...I knew Charlie for over 20 years," the Congressman said in his warmest, trained voice. "Twenty one years ago, when my daughter was a few months old, I was a struggling lawyer just out of law school. It was tight rationing for awhile. Once, when it got too bad for my family, he loaned me two thousand dollars. He was an assistant accountant at the time. Two thousand dollars was a lot of money to him. But that was the kind of man Charlie was. He'd loan his next paycheck to a person in need."
Salinski felt sick. His gut legal sense knew this was just fantasy rhetoric, so he objected on grounds that there is no evidence of this so-called $2000 loan. But he was caught off guard with the judge's seemingly uncharacteristic response:
"Overruled! Mr. Salinski, the honorable Congressman Peter Adams has been our district's esteemed congressman for six years. His word is respected in New York, and it's respected in this courtroom."
Salinski sat down, in shock. What a subjective statement, he thought, right in a court of law! He had not yet run into this sort of thing in which the judge took a position and then worked his agenda into his court.
The next day, more would follow. Salinski was helpless at stopping the prosecution, the political witnesses, and the judge. That political team had an agenda and was creating a fraudulent fantasy about Hammerschmidt's character. Obviously, Hammerschmidt was politically well connected. Moreover, most politicians were his soul mates and would do whatever they could to support him, regardless of lies or injustice, especially if they could personally look good doing so.
By the third day of the trial, the prosecution had completed its case. Salinski felt ambushed by a political agenda. Hammerschmidt's character had been built up beyond harm. He was like a legendary philanthropist in the eyes of the vulnerable jury. The judge not only allowed, but saw to it that the jury was dazzled by the three political witnesses. For Salinski to try to cut down to size Hammerschmidt's character with his four lowly witnesses by comparison would be ineffectual now, particularly after cross examination. It mattered not what reality was. The prosecution, led by the judge himself, had created an illusion that could not be vanished.
Salinski tried his best, but he was fighting a fraud and had no way to overcome the judge-led prosecution. The judge had decided it would be best for his political future to tacitly join the prosecution. It was a tough lesson for Salinski, even tougher for Miss Annabelle and Mr. Melbourne.
Salinski certainly had powerful witnesses of his own: the bartender who testified that on the night of his death, Hammerschmidt was drinking a lot and telling people he was going to go teach some "little bitch" a lesson after he left the bar; Hammerschmidt's ex-wife who testified that Hammerschmidt did have a drinking problem and that he did physically abuse her, especially when he was drinking; his ex-girlfriend who confirmed his ex-wife's story. But it didn't matter. Aggressive cross examination by the prosecutor made these three witnesses appear either incompetent to give testimony or driven by vengeance. Although Salinski was able to demonstrate that his witnesses had no such motives other than to state the truth and that, indeed, his ex-wife and former girlfriend were genuinely saddened by his accidental death, the damage had been done.
With the help of the judge, the trial became something of a contest between the characters of the prosecution's esteemed witnesses versus the characters of the defense witnesses. The point of the trial seemed to get lost as the prosecution's witnesses, with outright adulation from the judge, shone as ideal pillars of society who should be trusted whereas the defense's witnesses, with implicit disgust from the judge, sank as lowly alcoholics and irresponsible menaces to society who should not be trusted. Influenced by the judge, the jury implicitly associated Hammerschmidt to the esteemed witnesses; the jury associated Miss Annabelle and Mr. Melbourne to the "low-lifes". Trapped in the judge's court of ego justice, Salinski did not stand a chance.
That night, Salinski hoped for a breakthrough. The trial had slipped between his fingers, and he knew it. The next day would be the closing arguments. "I need to bring everyone back to the facts," he thought. But he knew that even that would not be enough, for the characters behind those facts had been destroyed in the jurors' minds. "Is there something even more powerful than the facts?" he wondered.
That night, the team gathered at Salinski's home: Miss Annabelle, Mr. Melbourne, Jessie and Angie. As the young lawyer faced his two clients, he was overcome with remorse. "I'm so sorry," he said. "I didn't expect this trial to go this way. I've never seen anything like this and could have never anticipated it, not even in my darkest imagination."
"Anticipated what, exactly?" Miss Annabelle asked.
"The judge...it's like he's best friends with the prosecution and those three political witnesses. It almost feels like some kind of conspiracy. It's so wrong."
"We can appeal if we lose," John Melbourne said.
"Yes, we could. But I get the feeling higher courts would not call for a new trial over this. There's something tacitly going on, something tacitly accepted."
"Like a soul mate thing," Jessie said.
"I'm sorry to do this, but I must ask all of you to leave," Salinski said abruptly. "I've got a lot to do...a lot to sort out before tomorrow. Things look bad right now, and I have to see if there's anything in my power that can change that." Then he looked directly into Miss Annabelle's eyes, then Mr. Melbourne's eyes. He knew their futures were in his hands.
Miss Annabelle looked scared. For the first time, she wondered what it would mean to lose the trial.
*
At 8:00 am, the fifth and final day of trial, the defense team gathered outside the courtroom. Miss Annabelle and Mr. Melbourne searched Salinski's eyes to read if he had some sort of breakthrough. Salinski looked like he had not slept. He looked exhausted and distraught. Only his nervous energy kept him going. Neither Miss Annabelle nor Mr. Melbourne could read him. But they did not want to ask him, either. He looked too preoccupied...like he was wrestling with thoughts. Miss Annabelle observed that this trial deeply affected the young Salinski and changed his outlook as a lawyer. He was not the same man now that he was a week ago.
"I'm going to do something in there today no other lawyer would do," Salinski said suddenly, jumping out of his tormented thoughts to talk to his two clients and their dear friends, Jessie and Angie. "Being around you four people these past two months has done something to me. This past week made me realize I don't like the path I'm on. And only by realizing this could I do what I'm going to do today. It goes beyond the facts I've presented. It's the most powerful course to take today and offers you the best chance. I'm...I'm going to expose the judge."
Miss Annabelle, Mr. Melbourne, Jessie and Angie felt their bond for each other reach out and embrace the young lawyer before them. They knew this could be career suicide, but he was a rare lawyer who chose honesty as his course.
"No matter what happens, we're proud of you," Miss Annabelle said, looking into his eyes. He looked scared, but he took a deep breath and headed into the courtroom.
"All rise!" cried the bailiff.
Here we go, Salinski said to himself.
Closing arguments started with the prosecution: "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, as so clearly demonstrated these past few days -- and so thoroughly confirmed by your honorable mayor, your respected congressman, your..." so the prosecutor began. For the next hour and fifteen minutes, he would repeat just about everything said by his three political witnesses. The jurors were all wide-eyed and alert.
But Salinski was not listening. He already knew what would be said. Instead, he was still trying to put together the puzzle in his head to rise to the next level. What...oh what switched the judge into the leading member of the prosecution? Aside from the obvious political advantages, what was the hidden force that transmogrified him into a monster who could rob major portions of innocent people's lives? For, if Miss Annabelle and Mr. Melbourne are found guilty, Salinski thought, they'd lose years of their lives in prison. For what? No career advantages could be that important!
As he searched for an answer, he realized how much precious time he spent the night before, tormented, trying to decide whether or not to expose the judge. A crushing realization the night before paralyzed him for hours: this behavior was not isolated to this judge. He realized with great pain that this subjective, political-agenda court was malignant and happening everywhere. If he rebelled, he knew this judge and others would punish him, losing future cases for him, harming innocent future clients. He knew his career and future clients would suffer. But, if he did not expose the judge, he would sail smoothly along in a promising career. He was bright and hard working. He knew he could be at the top someday.
But what shamed him today was that he spent two additional hours the night before tempting himself to what he knew was not the honest path. As he sat there not listening to the prosecutor, still struggling to grasp the bigger picture, he could not help but wonder if those two unnecessary additional hours last night may cost him the case for two innocent people, for he needed every moment to figure out his finalé that would expose the judge so the jurors could see the injustice, too.
The prosecutor was coming to a close: "May God be our witness: you owe it to your mayor, to your congressman, to your lieutenant governor, to your schools, to your children, to your country to send these dangerous killers to prison!" the prosecutor yelled in righteous ecstasy.
What, oh what, Salinski struggled to know, was the elusive force that drove the judge to tacitly take a side? He still did not have a definitive answer when he heard the judge calling out his name.
"Mr. Salinski...Mr. Salinski, the court is ready for your closing arguments."
"Thank...thank you, your honor," Salinski stammered as he stood up. He was so close to putting it all together...so close to why judges perpetrate this dark cloud into their courtrooms that obscures the clarifying light of justice. As he stood, facing the jury, all Salinski could think of at that moment was: Damn! Those two additional hours last night!
"Mr. Salinski!" the judge snapped.
Damn! If only I hadn't wasted those two hours last night -- all because of my goddamned ego!
"Mr. Salinski, I've had just about enough of you and your bumbling..." the judge sanctimoniously started, but Salinski cut in.
"Ego! That's it -- ego!" Salinski shouted involuntarily. He might as well have shouted "eureka!" the way the words exploded from his mouth. In his disgust of the path he almost chose -- ego over honesty -- and the precious time he wasted that might have cost an irreplaceable portion of his clients' lives, he broke through. He realized that unearned ego was the driving force behind that path that many lawyers take, and that unearned ego was behind the judge taking a similar path that offers unearned, easy career advantages upon tacitly entering the politicians' club for soul mates. Suddenly realizing he had blurted out his thoughts, Salinski continued talking spontaneously as the puzzle snapped together in his head. He focussed on the jurors:
"Let me ask you some rhetorical questions: you like the prosecutor, don't you? ...You like his witnesses, don't you? You don't really like me, do you? ...You certainly don't like my witnesses, right? ...And, most important of all, you really like our judge, am I right?"
"Mr. Salinski," the judge abruptly interrupted, scowling down at the young lawyer. "You keep your questions focused on the people on trial here. Do you understand me?"
Salinski knew he was in a tight spot and decided to play along with the judge. "Yes, your honor, I'm sorry. No more such questions."
The judge relaxed, and Salinski continued, "I must make one point for the sake of justice itself, and is that not what all members of this court ultimately seeks: justice?" Salinski looked straight at the judge, who looked away. "When a juror takes an emotional position that is based not on specific facts, but general feelings based on vague stories, then that juror is no longer wearing blindfolds -- the very symbol of justice itself." Salinski reached behind his desk and pulled out a drawing of the blindfolded Lady of Justice. He held it up to the jurors and continued. "Instead, the blindfolds are off and the juror is trying his friend...or enemy. In jury selection, we try to eliminate bias. But now, you must ask yourself, `Am I now biased?' Do you like the prosecutor and his witnesses for any particular set of specific facts...or is it somehow just a feeling?"
The judge was becoming irritated and said, "Get to your point, Mr. Salinski, or I'll stop this nonsense!" Interestingly, Salinski observed, the objections were not even coming from the prosecutor, but from the judge.
"Yes, your honor," Salinski said obediently, "I'll get to my point." He put down the drawing, turned back to the jurors, and said, "When you go into deliberations, I ask you to put aside all those feelings that have been, with great calculation, steadily pumped into you the past five days; you're all like big floats filled with these emotions of like and dislike. Your feet are not on the ground, and you can be easily pushed this way and that. But, if you get real honest with yourselves and come back down to earth, you'll realize that those feelings inside you are not based on the facts of this case, but on the special connection you've had these past few days with some prominent personalities in our society, which would have to feel good to just about anybody's ego. Those personalities are graciously respected by the prosecutor, by the audience, by you, and by your leader...the judge himself. Who can possibly go against all that?" Salinski shrugged his shoulders and looked around as if in search of anyone who could defy that question. If the audience was not unanimously in agreement with him, his point sure was thought-provoking, for every eye was wide open, every mind contemplating and hanging on his every word. Then he turned back to the jury and spoke with contagious passion, "But that feel-good connection is not the point here! Almost everyone here has motivation to go along with those prominent personalities for different reasons. You do, the judge does, even I do. Those reasons all come back to our egos, including the judge's career, my career. But our egos cannot come between us and justice. Our egos must not cause innocent people to lose the most important years of their lives, which is what will happen to my clients. Salt of the earth people who had no agendas to fill and who were not clever enough to create illusions told you the facts. The cold, hard facts must override warm, pleasant feelings -- no matter who is creating those feelings. When you go in that room to deliberate, you remember the Lady of Justice. You put your blindfolds back on and you forget about all this feel-good friendship between you and the mayor, you and the congressman, you and the lieutenant governor, you and the judge. Your job in that deliberation room is to look at the facts. That is the only way justice can be served. You -- not the mayor, not the congressman, not the lieutenant governor, not the judge, not your ego, not their egos -- you alone with the bare facts have full responsibility to serve justice. Do not come back here to deliver ego justice. Come back here to deliver objective justice."
Salinski sat down and held up his 14x17 drawing of the historical symbol of justice. He knew, regardless of the outcome, he had just soared to a new level of law and justice. He realized he had soared to the next level by being brutally honest with himself and the world around him. He felt powerful and proud. Without knowing the words, he had jumped into using Neothink. Miss Annabelle, Mr. Melbourne, Jessie and Angie looked at the young Salinski sitting tall and strong, boldly holding up the Lady of Justice, and they wanted to cheer. Their hearts welcomed this newcomer to their little civilization growing on planet Earth...consisting of them and the twelve students...the little Neo-Tech World of profound honesty forming on planet Earth. The prosecution could not respond. The judge nervously adjourned the court for lunch.
*
As the court resumed for the afternoon session, Miss Annabelle was thinking about her students. She had asked them in the last weekly summer class to please not attend the trial. She said there was no reason to, since it would be full of falsities flung at her and Mr. Melbourne. She said she knew her students were thinking of her and were with her in spirit. Now, as she sat at the defense table as the prosecuting attorney and Salinski and the judge reviewed the jury instructions, she had mixed feelings. She would have loved for her students to have witnessed Salinski's closing argument...and to have welcomed him into their world of honesty.
"Bring in the jurors," the judge was saying.
The judge delivered the agreed upon jury instructions, which took about 15 or 20 minutes. Miss Annabelle studied the jurors, several of them looked directly back at her with pleasant expressions. Three women jurors even smiled at her. Salinski did it, she thought, he turned this whole thing around!
Unfortunately, the judge felt the sea change, too. In a completely unexpected and unethical move, which surprised even the prosecuting attorneys, the judge did not stop talking after delivering the jury instructions. He continued talking for another five minutes in a speech he obviously prepared during the lunch break to counter the unprecedented closing argument and stunning turnaround by Salinski.
The judge's unethical ego-instructions seemed, to the unsuspecting jurors, to be simply more jury instructions. Instead, his extended monologue was his own, personal agenda to instruct the jurors to deliver a guilty verdict, regardless of the facts.
For nearly five minutes, he in essence assured the jurors that the trial was done the way trials have been done "many thousands of times for hundreds of years". He assured the jurors they should not be persuaded from their original conclusions that they had reached on their own.
"Trust the feelings from your heart," he concluded in his unethical ego-instructions. "You're good people with good hearts. Of course you'll feel compassion, even love, toward a good man who may have needlessly died! And you'll naturally feel respect for his friends. You'll feel many things. From my 32 years as a judge, I urge you to seriously weigh those feelings. They're often telling you the right thing to do. The blindfolded Lady of Justice does not see, but she feels. So do you. Go place your verdict from your hearts."
Miss Annabelle looked at the jurors again. Not a single juror would look back at her. Their leader had spoken, and he told them to vote guilty. He controlled their bicameral minds.
They were sent into deliberations. The judge told all parties to stay nearby. It was 3:10 p.m.
Sitting in the courthouse cafeteria, at 4:25 p.m., the court runner came and told Salinski and his clients that the jury had reached a decision. Back in the courtroom, Miss Annabelle and Mr. Melbourne held hands as the jury entered. Not one juror looked at them.
"Have you reached a verdict?"
"We have, your honor," the jurors' foreman said, handing the decision to the bailiff, who took it over to the judge.
"What is your verdict?" the judge asked, after looking at the written decision.
"Guilty on the felony count of voluntary manslaughter."
"Miss Annabelle gasped; Mr. Melbourne hugged her. One of the women jurors who had earlier smiled at Miss Annabelle started sobbing. Suddenly, the powerful voice of a child filled the courtroom.
"The judge is a fraud! The judge is a fraud! The judge is a fraud!"
The loud voice of a child said it over and over. Everyone in the courtroom looked to where that powerful voice was coming from. In the back, there stood Teddy Winters, red with passion and ready to battle. It was quite a moving moment to see such a young child so passionate, so fearless, so deep-thinking.
"Stop that yelling, young man!" the judge bellowed through his microphone. His loud voice invoked fear in everyone in that room...except Teddy.
"The judge is a fraud. I do not recognize your authority, sir! You're a fraud. The judge is a political animal. The judge is a fraud!"
The people in the court suddenly felt moved by this boy who so clearly saw through the judge's agenda. Two other women jurors who had earlier smiled at Miss Annabelle, started crying, too. Teddy was piercing the illusion and awakening people to the idea that they were hoaxed by a judge who cared only about his own political career and ego. Of course, the judge instinctively reacted.
"Settle down your son, there," the angry judge warned Teddy's father who was standing next to the boy. "Stop him, or I'll have the bailiff escort you both out of here!"
Teddy's dad looked at his son, who momentarily stopped, not sure what his father would say to him. Then his father looked back at the judge and said, "I won't stop him from telling the truth, your honor."
"Bailiff!" the judge roared, "get them out of here!"
What a sight it was: a man with a uniform and gun holding a 9-year-old boy, whose voice was years away from changing, and his gentle father by their arms, forcing them out of the room of fraudulent justice. Anger and sadness swelled at the sight.
As the jurors left the courtroom, an elderly man was the first juror since the verdict to look at Miss Annabelle and Mr. Melbourne, who were still hugging each other. The old man looked very sad, and his mouth shaped the words, "I'm sorry."
The jurors are like my students' parents, Miss Annabelle sadly realized as she watched them shuffle forward, in line, heads bent down, forever subservient to their external authorities. They're good people; they know I'm innocent, but in the end they cannot go against the authority...trapped in the bicameral mentality.
*
The trial went by in a blur for Miss Annabelle; how very much a life can change forever in one week! She and her love were going to prison.
Three weeks later they gathered again before the judge to be sentenced. The judge seemed different today than he did during the trial. Salinski asked the judge to pass the minimum sentence allowed by law. The prosecuting attorney asked the judge to pass the maximum sentence, saying the judge must be tough and make an example of people who use brutal violence against dedicated public servants. But the judge seemed impatient with the prosecuting attorney. He asked Miss Annabelle and Mr. Melbourne if they had any statements to make. They did not.
So, the judge proceeded with his sentence. To Salinski's surprise, the judge passed the minimum sentence allowed by law.
*
Miss Annabelle and Mr. Melbourne were to report to prison in five weeks. After that, they would not see each other for three years -- if all went well. Moreover, Miss Annabelle would not see her students for three years. What would that mean? She could not imagine it...not yet.
As the days passed one by one, she was never so aware of how wonderful freedom was. She never had any idea how exhilarating it was to go where she wanted to go, when she wanted to go there. Not until her freedom would soon be taken away did she realize how wonderful it was. ...Ironically, that made her realize how wonderful Sally and her mother's time together must be.
Miss Annabelle thought about what human life, her life, was made of. Life was made of one's string of experiences. Those experiences that turn into memories are the substance of one's life...permanent chunks of one's life, even as memories. Prison would take away her freedom to have experiences. Three years without experiences was the same as irreplaceably killing three years of her life, she concluded. The judge murdered three years of her life and her lover's life.
*
Gathering with her students for the last time before leaving for at least three years was very emotional. She knew she had to hold her feelings back or she would lose control and break down. The next time I see them, she thought, they'll be at least twelve years old. Three years is a lot of time at their age...I'll miss so much of their changes. "The judge committed a sick crime on us!" she shouted inside her mind. ...The tragedy of being murdered for three or more years was beginning to sink in.
The children were terribly in need of understanding how the jury could do this to their innocent teacher. Miss Annabelle explained that not until the mentality out there changes from the bicameral mentality to the God-Man mentality could the jurors have thought for themselves, as sovereigns, free of leaders.
Then, Miss Annabelle gave her last speech to her students. They listened sadly to her words on how to remain in their honest God-Man world without her. As she looked at their sad faces, she remembered that same gloom when Ms. Minner put the substitute in her class early in the school year. My God, Miss Annabelle thought, how I wish I could turn this situation around like I did last time they tried to separate us!
But this time, she was helpless. She could not light up those twelve beautiful faces.
After the last child left Miss Annabelle's home that sad day, the emotional pain washed through her like waves, one wave of pain right after the other. She stood in the middle of her living room and cried uncontrollably. Her cry was the merciless, primal wail of a mother separated from her young. The weight of the relentless waves of pain were too much. She collapsed to the floor and curled into the fetal position and cried so hard her stomach cramped. Mr. Melbourne picked her up and carried her to bed where she cried herself to sleep.
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