Read Online The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor - Free Book Online

stood in front of him. Any pity that he might have felt for this old black woman lay buried under the memory of a hundred such faces on countless other mornings like this one. It never ended—someone’s somebody—all persistently filed in to bruise their heads upon the rigid walls of due process.
    “Lady,” he said with a tone of genuine sadness, “there’s a man laying in the morgue because of an argument in a bar with your son, and a police officer has a broken wrist. Do you understand? Now if you want to help him, I suggest that you get a lawyer, or come back and talk to the public defender in the afternoon. That would be the best thing thatyou could do for him right now. Okay? Please, go home. Here are the regulations and visiting hours.” And he bent his head back over his reports.
    Mattie looked at the inked markings on the slip of paper that dictated the conditions for her ever touching Basil again. She studied the fine lines and loops, commas and periods that had come between them, and they etched themselves into her mind. She crumpled the paper and dropped it on the floor.
    “Thank you,” she said, turned, and walked toward the door.
    Sergeant Manchester glanced at her back, saw the paper on the floor, and called to her. “Lady, you forgot the visiting hours.”
    “No, I didn’t,” she said, without turning around, and went through the door.
    There was no need to worry, the bifocals kept telling her later that day, after seeing Basil. Acquittal was certain. This was his first major offense, and the other party had provoked the fight. There were several witnesses to this and to the fact that death had occurred when the other party’s head hit the edge of the bar. The assault on the police officer would be a bit sticky, but the court was certain to suspend the sentence when it was argued that the defendant was in an unduly agitated state of mind. It would really be an easy case, should take two days at the most, once it’s brought to trial. When would that be? The date would be set tomorrow at the arraignment. Of course, she could go in now and see her son. And please, there was no need to worry
.
    Cecil Garvin pulled off his glasses and tapped the handle against his teeth as he thoughtfully watched Mattie’s retreating back. He wondered why she hadn’t let the public defender take care of such a simple case. He would be receiving a huge fee for something that wouldn’t even require a trialby jury if it was in the next county. Well, he sighed, and put his glasses back on. Thank God for ignorance of the law and frantic mothers.
    “Baby, there ain’t nothing to worry about,” she told Basil as she stroked his hand, trying to calm the frightened look in his eyes. “I went to Reverend Kelly, and he referred me to a good criminal lawyer. Now he said it would be all right, and it will.”
    “When am I getting out of here? That’s what I want to know.” And he snatched his hand away and nervously drummed it on the table.
    “Tomorrow, after some kind of hearing, they’ll tell us when you’ll go to trial.”
    “I don’t understand this!” he exploded. “Why should there be a trial? It was an accident! And that guy was picking on me over some broad. I don’t even know his name.”
    “I know, honey, but a man is dead, and there’s gotta be some kind of proceeding about it.”
    “Well, he’s better off than me. This place is a hellhole, and see what those bastards did to my face.”
    Mattie winced as she forced herself to stare at his bruised face. “They said you resisted arrest, Basil, and broke a policeman’s wrist,” she said softly.
    “So what!” He glared at her. “They wanted to put me in jail for something that wasn’t my fault. They had no right to do this to me, and now you’re sticking up for them.”
    “Oh, Basil,” Mattie sighed, suddenly feeling the strain of the last twelve hours, “I ain’t sticking up for nobody, but we gotta face what happened so we can see our way