Jeanie rolled her eyes dismissively. “Sure, it occurred to me. I ain’t blind nor stupid. But the thing is, Mr. Hamilton, after your children grow up, you still love ’em, but you leave ’em alone. Once they’re grown, you’ve done your job. They’re adults, and they’re gonna do what they wanna do.”
“But what if that behavior is harmful?”
“Benny Jack and Dez wasn’t hurting anybody that I could see.”
“And what about Mrs. McGilly?”
Jeanie blinked. “What about her?”
“Is she hurting anybody?”
“If you’re saying she’s hurting Mimi by being ... or having been gay, she most certainly is not.
She’s devoted to that child. She and Benny Jack both are. I’ve been proud of my son, seeing him take on responsibilities like he has.”
“Mrs. McGilly’s history of homosexuality doesn’t concern you?”
“She and Benny Jack seem to have a happy marriage. And even if Lily is a lesbian, I don’t see how it’s any of my bizness.”
“Well,” Hamilton said, sounding worried, “Mimi is a female child. Aren’t you concerned with the dangers of sexual molestation?”
“Why, Mr. Hamilton, I’ve got half a mind to wash your mouth out with soap! I raised three boys.
Do you think I messed with them just ’cause I like men?”
“Well, no, of course not —”
Jeanie stood up. “Mr. Hamilton, do you have any more questions for me? ’Cause I don’t want to waste another minute of my life talking to somebody as nasty-minded as you.”
For the first time today, Hamilton looked flustered. “Oh, no further questions.”
Big Ben McGilly also held his own on the stand. When Hamilton asked him his personal feelings about homosexuality, he paused a moment, then said, “It takes all kindsa people to make a world, Mr.
Hamilton. When I was in the army, I worked with black men, white men, Jewish men, straight men, and gay men ... and I never had a bit of trouble with a one of ’em. Seemed to me that’s how it oughta be, all different kindsa people working together for one cause.”
“But what about homosexuals who choose to raise children?”
Big Ben shrugged. “Hell, at least they choose it ... not like most people who lets their baser instincts get the best of them, and then just start spitting out young’uns by accident. I know your kind always wants to see kids brought up in a home where the mother and daddy’s married to each other ... and where they believe in God and the Bible.” Big Ben looked off in the distance for a moment. “Well, I grew up in a home like that ... for a while, anyway. My mother and daddy was married and went to church every Sunday. Trouble was, every Friday night Daddy went out and got drunk as a skunk, then come home and beat the hell outta Mama and me. She finally got a bellyful of his meanness and run him off with a shotgun.”
Lily thought of the shotgun in the back window of Granny McGilly’s pickup. She had had a feeling the old woman wouldn’t hesitate to use it, with cause.
“After Mama run Daddy off,” Big Ben continued, “we was even poorer than we’d been before.
But every day of my life was happier than when Daddy had been in the house. So what I’m saying, Mr.
Hamilton, is I started out in a family that looked the way you think families is supposed to look. But I was a whole lot happier when I ended up in one of them single-mother families your kind is always railing about.”
“I don’t see how that relates to my question, Mr. McGilly.”
“All I’m saying is that your way ain’t always the best way, Mr. Hamilton. Just ’cause somethin’
looks good from the outside, that don’t mean there ain’t somethin’ bad wrong on the inside. And you might not like the way homosexuals are on the outside, but that don’t mean some of them ain’t good people on the inside.”
“This is, of course, just your opinion, Mr. McGilly?”
“Of course it’s just my opinion! And everything you’ve said today is just your opinion. Everybody here’s got an opinion — that’s what we need a judge for!”
Lily and Ben were both subdued on the stand. They answered Buzz’s gentle questions as rehearsed, and when the time for cross-examination came, they each followed Buzz’s instructions: “No matter how much that sonuvabitch tries to provoke you, don’t say anything but that you both love Mimi and that you plan to raise her in a healthy, supportive environment.”
When all the testimony had been given, it was nearly four o’clock. Judge Sanders took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. With his glasses back in place, he said, “We’ve heard some very persuasive evidence from both sides today,” he began, “but it seems to me that there is one factor that has been overlooked —or intentionally ignored— by both Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Dobson, the claim that Mr. Benny Jack McGilly is Mimi Maycomb’s biological father. If Mr. McGilly is indeed the child’s father, it is only fitting that I give custody to Mr. McGilly, and, of course, his wife.”
Judge Sanders sucked in his breath, then exhaled. “however, Mr. McGilly’s claim to paternity is unproven. If Mr. McGilly is not the child’s father, certain evidence — particularly the video evidence presented by Mr. Hamilton — persuades me that the Maycombs could provide Mimi Maycomb with a healthier, more morally sound home environment.”
He took off his glasses to rub his eyes again. Lily wished his eyeballs would fall out into his hands. “Mr. Benny Jack McGilly,” the judge intoned, “I order you to submit to a DNA test to determine paternity. If you are Mimi’s father, in the interest of the rights of biological fathers, I will award custody to you and your wife, Lily McGilly. In the event that you have deceived this court and are not Mimi Maycomb’s father, custody will be awarded to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Maycomb.”