Grace House: The Trial of Obscurity

by Rob Summers

Chapter 19 The Damning Evidence

  By this time the chairs in the room were filling up with nearly the entire household. Humility and Faith had come in, as well as nearly all their children, including their eldest son Joy, who was home on a school vacation. Reason’s sisters Calm and Enjoyment had come, too, and were seated with Conscience. Selfishness was at the back of the room with Miss Worry, at who’s invitation he had come. Honesty sat up front near Reason and Bits. Truth, the court recorder, sat at a small table near the judge’s bench. He opened a ledger and began to write.

  Finally, the accused entered, wearing her usual gray uniform, and found her place beside Grace and across the aisle from the prosecutors. Dignity, looking unusually capable in Grace’s black robes, now mounted the two steps to the bench and sat down. He raised a little gavel and rapped with it.

  “This court of the Heavenly Kingdom is now in session. The case is Grace House vs. Big ‘O’ Security Systems, and specifically the defendant is Miss Obscurity, who is the sole owner and proprietor of that business. Obscurity is accused of the following crimes:

  First, of being a paid informant and saboteur for the City administration, and under that heading,

  of having practiced germ warfare against the inhabitants of Grace House,

  of having partially incapacitated the telephones of Grace House,

  of having stolen a copy of a book, The Pride Story, as part of her spy mission,

  of having the same book’s publicity fliers printed with the wrong phone number,

  of having misdirected a publisher’s query for the same book, thus preventing the query from being mailed,

  of having, by trickery, temporarily deprived Mr. Dignity of Grace House of the use of his voice, thus sabotaging both a press conference and a TV show appearance, both intended to promote the same book,

  and of having prevented a Mrs. D’Ego from visiting Grace House when Mrs. D’Ego’s purpose was to bring a contract to be signed for the publication of the same book.”

  Dignity paused and looked down from his high seat. Obscurity was watching him from the front row, her face neither hopeful nor resigned. He felt a fool dressed up to play a part. On the only other occasion that he had been in a courtroom, he had been the defendant and had been dreadfully, inescapably guilty. Was Obscurity feeling as he had then? Boiling with emotion, mortified, stunned? If so, he simply wanted to let her go. Nevertheless, he went on.

  “Will the accused please stand?”

  She did so, her head high and her white hair gleaming.

  “You’ve heard the charges against you. How do you plead?”

  “Not guilty, Your Honor.”

  Dignity blinked at the use of the title. “OK, sit down. Will the prosecution now present their opening statement?”

  Bits glided forward wearing a black and tan checked suit, tan shirt, and yellow tie. He wore the smile of someone who has just told a joke to those too dull to understand, but which he himself has enjoyed immensely. He spoke without notes.

  “Your Honor, the accused insults this court and your intelligence by pleading not guilty, since her actions are plainly established by many witnesses. In only one instance have we as yet failed to establish how Miss Obscurity carried out her diabolical mission in this house. I refer to the sickness that began to spread here shortly after her arrival. However, we may yet have the answer, and it may be before this trial is over. On that one charge, the evidence is circumstantial, though strong. Concerning every other charge, we know precisely what Obscurity did and how she did it. Concerning the flu that spread through the Orchard family, I’ll make just these points: First, as I said, that it started immediately after Obscurity’s arrival; second, that Obscurity, in her guise as a security expert, had full access to all the air ducts in the house, to the water supply, and even to the very food eaten by the inhabitants; third, that the illness affected native Heavenites only—that natives of this City, such as you, Your Honor, and Reason, were unaffected; fourth, that native Heavenites such as Grace and Truth, who were in Grace House very little during those weeks, were similarly unaffected; fifth, that the sickness has been declared by the doctors Modern and Conventional to be both previously unknown to this City and—although no quarantine was in effect—strictly limited to Grace House. Copies of the doctors’ written statements have been provided both to the court and to the defense.”

  Bits half turned to the spectators. “So what’s the picture? After Miss Obscurity’s arrival, a debilitating and exotic disease breaks out in Grace House, a disease that only affects native Heavenites, and only those spending most of their time at home. This flu is unknown elsewhere.”

  Bits’ face lengthened. “Now this dark picture, of what we can only call germ warfare, is part of a bigger picture, similarly dark. We have solid, unmistakable evidence that Obscurity, at the same time that she was contracted by the Heavenly Embassy to protect Grace House, was in contact with the City administration and was receiving cash payments from them. We have a witness who both saw a payoff and traced it to the City law offices. We’ll save the details on that until Honesty’s testimony.

  “This is the background, this the context, of the accused’s many acts of sabotage. She came here, we believe, having heard a rumor about a book, The Pride Story, a book which includes a shocking exposé of corruption in the City administration. When she was hardly in the door, she took a publisher’s query of that book, a query that was intended to be mailed, and she hid it in her van. The query was found there later.

  “Then she stole a copy of The Pride Story, read it, and reported on it to the City.” Bits strode to the evidence table, took a book, and held it up. “Here it is. This copy was found hidden in a drawer in her room. Now I will allow Prosecutor Reason to continue the opening statement. She will detail Miss Obscurity’s steps to prevent the book from coming to public notice.”

  As Bits sat down, Reason left her baby and approached the bench. She did use notes and spoke in a matter-of-fact voice.

  “Your Honor, Obscurity took notice of attempts to publicize The Pride Story and blocked every one of them. To prevent publicity messages from going out, she sabotaged the phones. When she was done with them, the lines would only call in. She did this in plain view of several witnesses. She also called the printers of publicity fliers for the book and had them change the phone number printed on them. The number she gave them was incorrect. When we complained to the printers, they told us that a woman had called and told them to make the change. Then when we confronted her, Obscurity admitted to making that phone call.”

  Reason searched for another paper. “OK, then there’s the Christmas Eve events. Everyone in the house knew that Mrs. D’Ego was coming, possibly to work out a publishing deal for the book. Obscurity knew this, and she used her influence with the Embassy to call down a blizzard. Not content with that, she turned on a fog machine that further hid the house. We’ve since learned from a letter from Mrs. D’Ego that, despite fog and blizzard and all, she got as far as our door, or some door on the street. She was apparently confused. At any rate, after her failure to find us, she became angry with us. She was bringing us a publishing contract, but now we don’t expect to hear from her again.”

  Reason put down her notepad. “So, Your Honor, considering that the defense isn’t even contesting most of the accusations, and since the evidence is so clear and damning, we expect that you’ll render a verdict of guilty on all counts. Obscurity is an enemy of Heaven and must be expelled from this house. Thank you.”

  Reason sat down.

  Dignity took a deep breath. “Some of you will think it’s too early, but I’m ready for a break after that. Just a short one. Ambassador, is that agreeable? OK, let’s take ten.”