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defendant hadn't ripped me off. She took
my money, pulled down my pants behind the liquor store and when I had them
around my knees, she took off running."
    I heard people stifling their laughing. I wanted to laugh myself and then I
felt bad for feeling like I wanted to.
    "Did you have sex with the defendant?"
    "Did you have sex with the defendant?"
    "Did you have sex with the defendant?"
    I left the courtroom when I couldn't listen to that question any more. I
wanted to go back to believing she was a virgin when she came to me and that we
didn't have no one else ever knowing what was between
us. I sat out in the hallway until lunchtime when the door opened and the
courtroom emptied for the noontime recess.
    Mr. Green found me and steered me towards the cafeteria.
    I looked at him and asked what else had happened since I left the courtroom.
    He just shook his head and told me, "More of the same, more of the
same."
    When we got to the lunch line, I didn't want nothing to eat. Mr. Green bought me some vegetable soup and tried to make me drink it.
I felt like throwing up. I couldn't even bring the stuff to my mouth.
    We didn't talk at all during lunch. What was Mr. Green gonna say to me? "Sorry everyone has slept with your girl? Sorry I missed my
opportunity?" I began to wonder if he did. Maybe that's why he was trying
harder now.
    I saw Mrs. Wiggington across the lunchroom. She
didn't look like she was eating too good herself. Her daughter was worse than
just a killer. She was the whore of whores.
    Mr. Green cuffed me on the head to knock me out of my stupor.
    "That was before you, Billy Ray, before you. Don't forget that."
    Yeah, I guess. If one could forget she blew the jailer.
    The afternoon went a bit better because Mr. Green was calling the shots. He
got some other men of Eagle Rock on the stand and they had some nicer things to
say about Charlene.
    "I thought she was a sweet girl. She seemed confused. I didn't even
want to sleep with her but she insisted she needed the money."
    "I don't think she had a place to sleep. She looked hungry. I gave her
five dollars and she went down on me. Five dollars." The man looked around at the courtroom's expressions. "Hey, it was all I
had that week."
    Finally, one man said, "She didn't even seem to know her own name. I
thought she might be on drugs but I didn't see any track marks on her arms. I
thought then maybe she was crazy."
    So the jury left the day knowing that Charlene was a whore but not knowing
what made her one. Mr. Green said it was a win for the defense. Charlene may
have been a whore but she was hungry, homeless, and maybe crazy. The best part
was when I heard that she didn't know her name. Maybe Charlene was telling the
truth about not remembering things.
     
    ********************
     
     
    January 8 - Day Four
     
     
    This morning the prosecutor destroyed all the good things Mr. Green had the
jury thinking when they went home last night.
    The first man on the stand said she tried to kill him with a knife when he
asked her to leave the motel room he'd gotten himself for the whole night.
    The second man said she not only stole his money, but she stole all his wife's jewelry from the bedside stand.
    The third man said she tried to blackmail him after she found out he was on
the city council.
    Finally, someone said they saw Charlene with Mr. Doe a few days before she
disappeared from Eagle Rock.
    Mr. Dawson was very interested in this particular story. His face lit up and
he looked over at the jury to make sure they were awake and paying attention.
    "Mr. Clemens," he asked, "You own a motel?"
    "Yes, sir. I own the Lighthouse Motel on Sandy
Avenue.”
    "How much does it cost to rent a room there?"
    "For the night?"
    There was laughter scattered about the room and Mr. Clemens smiled out at
the audience.
    "Yes, sir, for a night."
    "That would be $26 if you were by yourself and $35 for two if you
didn't lie and sneak the second person in." Mr. Clemens seemed to