Read Online Res Judicata by Vicki Grant - Free Book Online Page B

was rushing around with a pile of bugs on a tray and didn’t realize he’d accidentally dropped a few of his“specimens” in Dr. Reith’s coffee. (Suddenly Chuck’s pumpkin boogers didn’t sound all that bad to me.)
    Dr. Reith noticed a sort of weird taste but didn’t think anything of it until he got to the bottom of the cup and saw all these wiggly things flopping around and no doubt going, “Help me! Help me!”
    He screamed. (Surprise. Surprise.)
    Sanderson was all horrified at what happened. Or he was for a while anyway, until he saw how white Dr. Reith’s teeth had gotten all of a sudden.
    Coffee that bleaches your teeth?
    These guys were no fools. They knew right away they were sitting on a gold mine.
    First, though, they had to get rid of that “lousy” taste, not to mention the tooth decay, bad breath and all the other lovely side effects that early versions of Gleamoccino caused. They even had to design a stronger coffee cup because Gleamoccino whitened a hole clear through the regular ones.
    It took them years, but Sanderson and Reith finally invented a “flavor-free sea louse additive” that didn’t maim, mutilate or make you smell funny. They were millionaires within a few years, billionaires before you could say, “Smile for the birdie!”
    Unfortunately, Mike Reith died of a degenerative nerve disease and was unable to “enjoy the full success of Gleamoccino.” Ernest did his best to look really broken up when he said that—the camera even zoomed in on this one big tear just sort of glistening in his eye—but he pulled himself together enough to take viewers on a tour of his fabulous seventeen-bedroom oceanfront “cottage.”
    The rest of the show was about the global impact of “the world’s favorite coffee.” There were street shots of people drinking the stuff in front of the Eiffel Tower and Machu Picchu and the Great Wall of China and then this really depressing picture of all these white and silver cups littering the trail all the way up to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro. (Yup. Gleamoccino sure has had a global impact.)
    There was so much great stuff here. I started fantasizing about my little student documentary turning into
The Inconvenient Truth about Coffee
. I could just see myself up on the podium thanking Andy, Chuck and, of course, Mary Mulderry-MacIsaac for all her love and support. I’d invite Biff to the premiere, and Andy would be so happy and proud of me that she’d actually consent to talk to him, and of course, as soon as she did, they’d both realize their mistake and they’d make up and we’d live happily ever after again.
    The sad thing is I’m not joking. I actually kind of believed that.

chapter 14
    Victim Impact Statement
A written statement that describes the harm suffered
by the victim of an offence. It allows victims to
participate in the sentencing of the offender by
explaining how the crime has affected them.
    The next day I made a rough cut of some of the old footage and brought it home to show Andy. I was pretty proud of it. It wasn’t perfect or anything, but I figured it had to be a bit more interesting than most kids’ projects. I mean, Erin Carroll was doing hers on “Advances in Carpet Cleaning: The Steam Revolution.” Next to that, my little video looked like the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
    Andy, of course, thought it was fabulous, but I knew she would. She’s not so great about the cooking/cleaning/acting normal part of parenthood, but for a social misfit she sure is supportive. Even if I’d been the one stuck with carpet cleaning and Erin got to do Gleamoccino, Andy would have liked my project better. Being biased isn’t always such a bad thing.
    She wanted to borrow the camera so she could show the video to Atula and Chuck (and, no doubt, Spielberg if she could reach him), but I said no way.
    She was outraged. She