Weekly Writing Challenge: Foreshadow. From WordPress: “This week, we want you to toy with your readers’ emotions and try your hand at foreshadow xxx anticipation — moments where your imagination fills your mind with emotions about an event that has yet to happen.xxx Foreshadow in different flavors: Foreshadow can be overt, almost in-your-face, with phrases such as: ‘If I’d seen it in a crystal ball, I never would have believed what happened next.’xxx ‘The creature crawled out from its slimy lair and slithered behind the door to wait. It knew she’d be home, soon. Soon.’xxx ‘What Charlie couldn’t possibly know was that death would be joining them for lunch.’xxx Or, foreshadow can be much more subtle, such as:’The ice formed early, that November. ‘(Perhaps foreshadowing a tragic event, such as a death.)xxxAnd now, over to you. There are a few ways you can participate in this challenge. Feel welcome to modify, change, or otherwise adapt this challenge to meet your needs as a writer. No judgement.xxx”

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     “This is not in the Rules of Court…  this is not in the cases… it is not in the lecture notes… they didn’t teach this in law school.”  Seventeen months in practice and she still mutters to herself.

     The witness is in a state of coma. He exhibits no vital signs: no pulse, no brain waves, he barely looks at her.  Police Officer 1 Deligencia had been prepped a week ago, he was interviewed, given a Q and A, given a direct and cross, briefed, and sent reminders,

       He had a lobotomy in between.

      “please state your name, your age, mailing address, and occupation…”

      The preliminaries take 20 minutes because it takes him ten minutes to remember his office address,  another  ten minutes to state what he does for a living.

       “and can you please state your duties …”

      “aaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…uhh ….ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…aaahhhhhh”

         A series of vowels, in different variations and tones followed.

        “you’re assigned to district 12  from 5pm to …”

        “leading your honor”

       “preliminaries”

        “no, leading your honor”

       So…

      She hasn’t got a clue.

   She rephrased the question three different ways,  in three different dialects,  in varying slowness … with mime… flapping hand signals… and a tap dance to spell the words,  until finally, in a flash of recognition, SPO1 turned to her and said…”I… can’t… remember.”

      She wanted to electrocute the witness. The electric stand fan could be doused and used as a rod, she muttered to herself.   

       She finally decided to forego the preliminaries and the entire format,  and just wanted to go home. Instead, she went to the folders. Then remembered she could use one more:  the classic, time-tested, all-around, multi-purpose question for direct —   “And why are you in court today, Mr. Witness?”

     “No basis.”

       “he is in court, your honor, that is the basis.”

      And finally, by extracting syllables from the witness like extracting body parts from a car wreck, she was allowed to pull out her copy of the  investigation report. She resorted to  making him read  aloud the paragraphs that stated what happened.

       No cross.

       Years later, she would look back on this incident, and mutter to herself, “he wasn’t dumb. He was smart, by making me think he was dumb.”

      The story of  SPO1  Deligencia. Notes, she muttered.