Dreams Of Fame
1.18 - Inconclusive
“You’ve got this, Liberty,” Catherine smiled, gesturing for her to come up to the front of the room.
Liberty slowly rose to her feet and walked carefully over to the chair Summer has just been seated in.
“If you could pick up where Ms. Holiday left off, Ms. Lee, that’d be appreciated,” the judge sighed.
Liberty looked around anxiously.
“Ms. Lee?” the judge asked.
Catherine gave Liberty an encouraging nod.
Liberty took in deep breath, cleared her throat, and began to speak. “Well, er, yeah, Giovanna was in Zoe’s home- not Patel Zoe, Presley Zoe-, and, I mean, my Zoe actually knows her?”
The judge gave an exasperated sigh. “We need the specifics Ms. Lee.”
“I-I-I don’t know what to say? Other than Giovanna definitely living with us, she literally adopted me, but I don’t have any pictures or evidence, or…” Liberty stammered.
“Hold on a minute, she adopted you guys?” Patel asked, shocked. “That’s dumb. She’d never! You’ve read my books, you know that!”
The judge ignored her. “If you could, please explain why either of you failed to bring Mrs. Cardwell to this hearing… if anyone, she alone could clear up this whole mess!” the judge exclaimed.
“She’s a crazy lady,” Patel suggested.
“What Ms. Patel meant, your honor, was that Mrs. Cardwell isn’t… well, entirely sane. Undoubtedly, anything she said in that case couldn't stand up in court, am I correct?” Catherine asked.
The judge put her head in her hands. “No, it isn’t a matter of what she says, one of you two would bring Mrs. Cardwell to the hearing, and that’d solve this whole dilemma. Her mere presence is enough to bring about a solution. The fact that we even have to have a dedicated case for something so... infantile is honestly ridiculous.”
The judge rose to her feet. “Until either of you manage to bring Mrs. Cardwell to this courthouse, I’m declaring the results inconclusive,” she said loudly, banging her gravel on her desk.
“What?” Patel screeched, outraged.
“This isn’t fair!” Zoe exclaimed.
“Please leave before I ban both of you and your friends from this courthouse,” the judge sighed. “I’m not sure how, but you two have managed to give me the most wicked headache…”
Zoe fumed all the way home. She expected this case to be over and done with already, she’d worked all her life and had finally hit upon success, and now, she’d lost it all because of this dumb Patel woman.
“This is all your fault, Liberty,” Zoe said snidely.
“In what world is this my fault?” Liberty yelled. “If you ask me, I bet it’s karma for, oh, I don’t know, locking a woman in your basement and driving her to insanity?”
“Oh, cause you have the right to talk when you launched off to space the moment that very same woman threatened you with adoption,” Zoe shot back.
“Wasn’t your therapy session supposed to fix this whole… rage issue?” Summer said innocently.
“Like you can even call that therapy,” Zoe snarled. “She just wasn’t the best at what she did and I’m able to break through whatever block she built in my mind.”
“You know, none of us should really live together, we’re always fighting,” Liberty remarked.
“Everyone, calm down,” Summer smiled. “It’s just one court case…”
“Don’t even start, Summer,” Travis cut in. “We’re all aware you only screwed up your testimony to be petty and watch the fallout Zoe would have Liberty.”
“HOW DARE-“
“EVERYONE SHUT UP!” Charlie yelled.
Everyone, surprisingly enough, did as she asked.
Charlie stepped aside to reveal a sobbing Catherine. “I-I’m so sorry, Travis, Zoe, everyone, I failed you as a lawyer, gee, you know what? Maybe Giovanna will be a better mother to you than I could ever hope to be, Travis!”
“Mom,” Travis said, sitting down next to her. “In no world does you failing to win a court case make you a bad mother. You, and mom, I couldn’t have wished for better parents! You two raised me so well, I mean, you can’t call yourself a failure when your son is working for the government. Who needs a father figure when you have two amazing moms?”
“Travis!” Catherine sobbed.
The two hugged each other tightly as Charlie looked on, a slight smile on her face.
Summer rolled her eyes. “Ick. Family love.” She then left to go and drink wine in her bedroom.
Zoe, feeling awkward, went downstairs to talk to Giovanna while Liberty went outside.
“Drama in the Patel household?” Giovanna asked when Zoe entered her bedroom.
“Don’t mention that woman’s name!” Zoe shouted. “Wait… Patel household?”
Giovanna grinned. “I thought it’d be fun to call it that!”
Zoe sighed deeply. If Giovanna was going around calling their own family Patel at home, there was no way she’d be able to walk into a courthouse and swear she lived with Zoe Presley.
She didn’t know what she was going to do.
Liberty decided to visit Beatrice and ask her what she would do in this situation. Beatrice had, after all, been an ambassador between the human race and the aliens for a long time before whatever occurred that forced her to flee her home planet. She had to have some ideas.
Beatrice had recently started paying rent for a cheap condo in one of the more rundown neighborhoods of Willow Creek. And luckily enough, Beatrice was there when Liberty came knocking.
“Hey Beatrice, I… I really hate to ask but could you help me with this court case? I have it all on my phone…” Liberty muttered.
“My house is a disaster, could we please speak outside?” Beatrice asked.
Liberty nodded.
The two sat down at a picnic table that had clearly been placed in the shared yard as an afterthought, and Liberty explained the whole ordeal.
“The judge is right, you really should just bring Giovanna in,” Beatrice said. “It’s easy.”
Liberty frowned. “But, she really isn’t sane…”
Beatrice shrugged. “Want me to give the woman a mind-jolt?”
“A mind what?” Liberty asked, intrigued.
“I have the ability to scramble people’s minds… in theory, I could attempt to remedy whatever went wrong while she trapped in your friends basement… remove the memory, perhaps, but there’s no real guarantee… could even make the matter worse…”
“Here, let me show you,” Beatrice said, gesturing for Liberty to prepare herself.
Beatrice then blasted Liberty with a jolt of alien energy.
“Feeling any better? Less stressed? That’s what I was aiming for…” Beatrice explained.
“Yes, yes I am!” Liberty exclaimed.
Liberty took a minute to process the idea of using a similar power on Giovanna. While it would be nice to have Giovanna returned to how she’d been in the first month or so they’d known her, no one could really say she’d been sane back then either. And if it made her even worse… that wasn’t even an idea Liberty wanted to entertain.
“No,” Liberty said, shaking her head. “I appreciate the offer, but I can’t risk her getting worse… But you know what you could do?”
“Tell me,” Beatrice grinned, leaning across the table.