For the second time that morning, all the Temple women gathered around the kitchen table. This time they were all drinking coffee, or rather, four of them were drinking it while poor Katie held onto her mug with both hands, letting the heat rise up and over her beleaguered face. All her thought and energy seemed to be focused on keeping her wits together, for Beth’s sake, or perhaps for the sake of the family at large.
It was Eric who did it to her, she said. All at once the mugs hit the table and the other women looked at her aghast. The little bastard lied to his parents. Or they lied to me on the phone. Either way, he and Beth did leave the dance together. He drove her halfway home and then turned off-road into a peach orchard. He took her way out past the tree line where no one could see them parking. They started to fool around in the backseat, and when he tried to make her go all the way, she told him to stop. That’s when things turned ugly.
Sitting next to Mama, I noticed she had covered her mouth with her hand, and hadn’t moved it since Katie started talking. All of them, in fact, had locked their bodies into rigid, unnatural postures, and seemed set on staying that way for the time being. Even Dawn had reverted back to her statue-like gaze from the car, hearing every sordid word that was said, but reacting to none of it.
She did exactly as I taught her to do if she ever found herself in that situation. She went for his balls. Gave em a good kick from the sound of it. But then, as she was trying to get the door open to run away, he came up from behind and jumped on her. Hit her so many times she thought she might faint. Then he kicked her out onto the dirt and drove off. Left her to walk home alone in the dark with her face all battered and one eye swollen shut. She said the only reason her brothers found her was because by then there was just enough light that she could make out their car on the road. Before that, she’d ducked out of the way any time someone was coming up behind her on the road. Too scared to take a chance on a passerby.
The whole table was silent for what felt like a long time. When Katie finally took a sip from her mug, the others seemed to regain their awareness of their own bodies and started moving around. Dawn reached for a napkin and dried her eyes. Claudia made the sign of the cross on her chest. That one small gesture appeared to do wonders for relieving her pain, or at least it gave her what she needed to keep the pain inside. She slid her arm over the table and took hold of Katie’s hand.
He didn’t succeed, though, did he? Her purity is still intact?
Katie didn’t look at her. She didn’t seem to be looking at anything, as a matter of fact. She’s still a virgin, she said. If that’s what you mean.
Claudia patted her wrist. Well, she said. We can thank God for that.
Dawn pushed her chair back from the table so fast that one of the legs scraped the floor. She took a few hurried breaths and started walking to the other end of the kitchen. We’ve got to do something, she said. We’ve got to call the police.
She was halfway to the phone when Jennifer slipped in front of her and blocked her path. Not so fast, Jennifer said. We have to discuss this. We have to talk about it rationally.
There’s nothing to talk about, Dawn said. She looked down at Katie and then at the rest of the mothers. Then at me. My God, she said. This could’ve happened to any one of the girls. It could’ve happened to Ellie. We can’t just sit here while that little monster is out walking free.
Calm down, Jennifer said. Please. There are things we have to consider before getting the authorities involved in this. First and foremost, we need to think about what’s best for the children. All of them. Including Beth. After everything that’s already happened, there’s no sense in dragging her through another ordeal.
I want justice for her, Katie said. She pushed the coffee mug away and scanned our faces. For a moment, at least, it looked like the indomitable old Katie had returned. She deserves justice for all she’s been through, she said. That means seeing the boy punished for what he’s done.
Jennifer came and stood by her. There are different kinds of justice, she said. We’ve got to ask ourselves whether it’s fair to the other children to make them all suffer simply to win justice for one of them.
Mama stood up suddenly and started pacing the floor with her wooly house slippers smacking her heels. I don’t see what good it does any of them to try and sweep this under the rug, she said. That’s no sort of lesson to be teaching them, that they need to hide their heads in the sand anytime someone wrongs them.
From the look on her face, I gathered Jennifer was mighty surprised by Mama’s reaction. She wasn’t the only one. Most of the time it was easy to regard Mama along the same lines as a potted houseplant, as a delicate thing that you kept in a room and tended to constantly without expecting anything but passive endurance in return. But now here she was laying it on the line for what she really cared about. Dawn’s prediction had come true. She’d finally surprised me.
The lesson we need to teach them, Jennifer said, is to weigh the costs and benefits of a decision before rushing ahead with it. You all talk about justice like it’s simply a matter of calling up the sheriff’s office and watching them drag the boy away in chains. But it’s so much more complicated than that. If we press charges, there’s going to be a trial and hearings and all the questions that go along with that sort of thing. The lawyers will call Beth to the stand and pick her story apart piece by piece. Long before that, though, they’ll try to get at us any way they can. We already know the boy’s parents have strong ties in the community. Wasn’t that one of the things that impressed you, Katie, when they first started dating?
Our eyes turned back to Katie, whose spirit had once again receded. Eric’s father sits on the city council down in Visalia, she said. He runs a trucking company that moves goods and produce between here and the coast.
Jennifer nodded. He’s well-off, then, she said. Well-off and well-established. The sort of man who wouldn’t stand to see his family’s name being tarnished. You think he’ll sit by and watch his son get hauled off to juvenile detention?
He can try to fight it all he likes, Katie said. But what does it matter? You saw her face. It’s obvious the boy’s guilty.
It’s Beth’s word against his, Jennifer said. That’s all a judge and jury are going to care about. And some people might take issue with the fact that she let herself end up in that orchard to begin with. They might wonder what sort of girl sits in a parked car with a boy late at night, and how many boys there were before this one.
Katie opened her mouth very slowly. That’s way out of line, she said. She’s fourteen. Who would think to shame her like that?
I’m not saying it’s right, Jennifer said. I’m just laying out exactly how things will unfold if you call the sheriff. Go ahead. Tell me I’m wrong.