Chapter 4:
"Hey Mom!"
Ororo turned, to see Andi come flying up the sidewalk toward her and the courthouse. She opened her arms wide and hugged the younger girl. "I missed you," she whispered into the long, silky brown hair.
Andi hugged her back equally tightly. "I missed you too, Mom," she said. They remained that way for a long time, then Emma, standing behind Ororo, cleared her throat discreetly. Andi broke the embrace and smiled, walking forward and opening the door for the two women.
Alex Cabot was waiting just inside the front door. "Are you ready?" she asked Andi.
Andi took a deep breath and smiled nervously. "I guess so," she said.
The tall blond woman smiled. "Don't worry, you'll do fine. Just like last time. Actually, I think the jury's pretty much made up its mind already that Robert and Chelsea are guilty; the evidence from the doctor was pretty conclusive. But I still think it'll be a good idea for you to testify."
Andi walked into the courtroom, and there in the seats beside the defense lawyer were her parents. They both turned and looked at her as she came in, and Andi felt a little of her old nervousness creep in as she saw their stony glares. Ororo took Andi's hand, giving it a squeeze, and Detective Benson, over on Cabot's other side, gave her an encouraging smile as the judge walked in and brought the court to order.
Andi walked up and took the oath bravely, then sat down. Alex got up. "Tell us about your parents, Andi."
Andi started without preamble. "Mother and Father never wanted me. They were completely surprised when my biological mother brought me to my father and told him that I was his daughter, borne out of a one night stand with her. She threatened to tell the press that Robert Bruce Sanderson, the Wall Street power broker, had picked up a cheap whore to have sex with instead of his wife. So to keep my biological mother happy they took me in. They promised her they would love me and care for me; they did neither."
She took a breath. "The earliest instance I can remember of my mother hitting me was when I was five. I had sneaked into my mother's room and used her makeup. She came in and found me with lipstick all over my face and me smiling and asking her if I was as pretty as she was. She didn't answer. She grabbed handfuls of my hair and yanked me out of the chair, then dragged me into the bathroom and bent me over the edge of the bathtub. She put a bucket in there and filled it up with hot water, really hot water, and scrubbed at my face with a toilet brush. I screamed, because it hurt so bad, but she ignored me, and she pushed my head into the bucket. I tried to get away, but it wasn't until I had water in my lungs that she pulled my head up. As soon as I had gotten my breath back, she pushed my head in again. I don't know how many times she did it.
"I kept screaming that I was sorry, that I'd never do it again, and she finally listened to me. She dragged me into my room and made me bend over the back of my desk chair, then pulled my panties down and raised my skirt. She made me wait there while she went and got a long metal yardstick she'd had lying around the house, and she began beating me with it. She hit me all over my butt and my legs; I think I started screaming and begging after the tenth one, but I'm not sure. She threatened to tie me down if I didn't hold still, but I couldn't stay still, it hurt too much. Mother finally got dishtowels and tied me bent over the chair and beat me until I passed out."
Andi paused, staring down at her fingers, laced nervously in her lap. "That was pretty much the way she'd punish me; tie me down and beat me with the yardstick. But she didn't always hurt me to punish me. She'd humiliate me by making me choose between being beaten or sitting in a small closet under the stairs called the punishment closet naked. She wouldn't let me out to go to the bathroom, or eat, or anything. I remember one time I was in the closet for a week; Mother put me in there and she and Father went on vacation. I was always silent when I was in there; if I made any noise Mother would stuff dishtowels in my mouth and tie me to a ring in the wall. She did that that time; so none of the house staff knew I was in there. After six days I was so weak I knew I had to get out, no matter how I got punished when I did, so I started to bang my feet on the floor. The maid heard me and let me out. They gave me food and water, and put me to bed. I was still there when Mother and Father came home.
"The maid was fired for letting me out; and I went back in the closet for three more days." Andi sighed. "That was pretty much it, until I was ten. I hit puberty early; I had breasts at eleven. I started having my…time of month… at eleven and a half.
"Mother was home. The maid found the toilet paper in the wastebasket and told Mother. Mother called me into her bedroom and showed me this book with all kinds of pictures in it; pictures of men and women having sex. I told her I thought that was gross. She told me to get used to the idea, because that's what men would do to me when I got older. She got this…thing…out that looked like the men in the book, only this had straps. She put it on and said she'd show me what it was like. I tried to fight, but she forced me to bend over the footboard of her bed and she used it on me. It hurt terribly; I remember screaming and begging her, but she ignored me and kept using it on me until I passed out. I woke up a while later in my own bed with a cotton bed pad on the bed under me. Mother told me to stay in bed until the bleeding stopped.
"It didn't stop for three days. Mother finally came in, saw how much blood there was on the bed, and left. She came back with an old bedsheet and ripped it up, then stuffed the pieces up into my body until the bleeding stopped."
One of the jurors put a hand up over her mouth in shock. Andi didn't see it; her voice and eyes dropped as she went on. "After that, whenever I got beaten, Mother would insist that I follow her and Father up to the bedroom they shared and stand in the corner naked. There was a mirror in the corner, and they'd make me…stand there…and watch…while…they…" She tried to continue, but her humiliation and pain were too much, and she buried her face in her hands and started to sob. Ororo half-stood, looking at Cabot pleadingly. Cabot stood. "Your Honor, I ask for a recess."
The judge nodded. "Court will take a fifteen minute recess."
Ororo rushed up to the witness stand, and Andi wrapped her arms around Ororo and cried. Ororo stroked her hair, murmuring soft, soothing noises in her ear. Across the room, she saw Chelsea and Robert, staring at Andi as though they wanted to hurt her. Ororo drew Andi closer, protectively. She wouldn't let them hurt her daughter.
The recess ended all too quickly for both Andi and Ororo. Andi took a deep breath as she began talking again. "I almost welcomed being able to go to the boarding schools," she said. "There, if I did something wrong, I wouldn't get beaten or humiliated. I didn't have to watch my parents….have intimate encounters after my punishments." She told the court about the boarding schools, her parents' carelessness, and then finally about the accident and about her parents subsequently putting her in the asylum. She told them about her parents never coming to visit, never asking about her, never checking up on her; and then their callous disregard for her when she came back from the asylum silent and withdrawn, bruised and beaten and emaciated.
Through it all, her parents watched stony-faced and unresponsive. As the defense attorney sat down from the cross examination, Chelsea made her first movement. "Ungrateful, selfish little--" she started to splutter. "We took you in when your own mother didn't even want you! We fed your greedy little mouth, bought you all those expensive clothes, we gave you a room…do you have any idea what we sacrificed for you? Trips to Europe--"
Andi sprang upright, disregarding Cabot's 'Objection!' and the banging of the judge's gavel. "Trips to Europe that you funded out of the trust Uncle Mike set up for me! Uncle Mike is my father, Mother, my biological father! That trust fund he set up was for me! For you to get me clothes and stuff! Instead you used it for your trips, your parties, your desires, while I got stuck with shabby clothes and no food! You enjoyed all that stuff while I sat in a closet in my own body waste with dishtowels stuffed in my mouth, my arms aching because you tied them too tight! You bought that big comfortable bed that I had to watch you and Father couple in, while I stood in the corner, naked and bruised and in pain because you beat me bloody!! You raped me with that horrible thing and took my virginity! You hurt me, Mother! You promised to love me and instead you hurt me! Why!? Why didn't you just let my biological mother put me in an orphanage if you weren't going to love me?!"
The jurors were in tears. The defense attorney sat, stunned. Even the judge was visibly moved. Ororo hurried up to the witness stand and helped Andi down. The girl was shaking and sobbing, and Ororo wrapped her arms around Andi's head as they passed the defense table. Alex tipped her head out toward the hall, and Ororo guided Andi out into it, and sat down with her on the bench outside as Andi cried. Emma joined them, sitting on Andi's other side and projecting love, calm, and comfort as she rubbed her back.
They had been sitting out there for only half an hour when Benson and Cabot came out of the courtroom. "Are you all right?" Benson asked Andi. The girl responded with a weak smile and nodded.
Emma looked at Alex and said, "What happens now?"
Emma said, "I don't think we'll have to wait long for the verdict. There is very little chance that it's going to be anything but guilty. And when it does, they'll be going to jail for a long time."
Andi sighed. "I hate to say it, but I'll be glad," she said as she nestled against Ororo's side.
"I will be as well, Andi," Ororo said. "I cannot bear seeing what they put you through."
Andi looked at her, puzzled. "Why?"
Ororo tried to find words to explain how she felt. "Andi, seeing you in pain hurts me. When I see you cry, I want to cry too. I love you. What hurts you hurts me too. If I were injured or in some kind of pain, would that not hurt you?"
"Yes," Andi said. "Yeah, Mom, it would. I'd hate it."
"Then how do you think I feel?" Ororo said. "I saw your parents in there. Do you know how much I would like to strike them with a lightning bolt and electrocute them as they allowed Dr. Hebron to electrocute you? I want to hurt them as much as they hurt you. Andi, I may not be your real mother, but I love you as though you were my real daughter. Can you understand that?"
Andi hugged Ororo tightly.
* * *
"Hey, Mom," came a cheerful voice from the doorway.
Linda Harper smiled as she saw her son come in. "Staying for dinner tonight, Ryan? Or are you going out with that new girl you've been hanging out with?" she said, giving Ryan a peck on the cheek and ruffling his hair.
"Mom!" Ryan said, blushing in offended dignity as he straightened his hair. "I'll be staying for dinner tonight; I want to talk to Uncle Jason."
"Something wrong?" Linda looked at her son's suddenly serious face.
Ryan hauled himself onto one of the high stools in front of the kitchen bar. "Yeah. The girl I've been going out with, Andi? Well, one of the girls in her class was picking on her friend. When Andi tried to stick up for her, she got hurt. Friday I saw a nasty bruise on her ribs where the other girl kicked her. Mom, Candace can't be allowed to get away with it. I want to talk to Uncle Jason about getting her kicked out."
"Andi?" Linda tilted her head. "Andi Munroe?"
It was Ryan's turn to be surprised. "You know her?"
Linda Harper turned on the kitchen TV, and Ryan saw Andi, accompanied by Ororo and the DA leaving the courthouse amidst a barrage of reporters; Andi looked like she'd been crying. "She was testifying today in her parents' trial," Linda said. "This is the girl you're dating, right?"
"Yeah," Ryan said, staring at the screen.
Linda returned to where she was chopping up vegetables for dinner. 'That poor girl," she said. "I've been watching the coverage all day. Oh, her parents did some horrible things to her. Her own mother tried to drown her when she was five; and they beat her, they locked her in a tiny closet for days, they starved her. You know, I even heard one reporter say her own mother raped her when she was eleven."
"They said what?" Ryan stared at his mother in shock. "How could any mother do that to her own child?"
Linda shook her head. "I don't know. You know, there were times when I wondered if I was being a good mother to you and your brother; I think almost every parent thinks that once in a while. I just saw today what a really bad mother can do to a child. Thank God she's still all right."
"She isn't," Ryan said grimly. "Mom, she's got scars all over. Her shoulders, her back, on her kidneys, her chest, her ribs, and on her hips. All the places where the skin is thinnest and most sensitive. I couldn't believe them when I saw them. She's been through too much crap to put up with more sh--"
"Ryan! Watch your language," his mother warned, but it was a half-hearted warning at best.
Ryan continued, "...crap from this other girl Candace Roth. Uncle Jason can have her kicked out."
Linda put down the knife. "Well. All this effort you've put into keeping everyone from knowing the principal's your uncle, and you're going to blow it all?"
"Mom, I did that for my privacy. Privacy be damned when it comes to the girl I love. I swore I'd never use my influence with Uncle Jason to get rid of anyone I didn't like, but this is different. This isn't about me, it's about someone being harassed because she's better than the girl doing the persecuting. It's not allowed at school anyway; if any of the teachers knew Candace would have been out on her little butt as soon as he hurt Andi the first time. Andi's too secretive; she tends not to talk about herself much. I'm worried Candace will take advantage of that quietness and do something to really hurt Andi."
Linda sighed. "I suppose if you're that determined, I can't stop you," she said. "But think about this. Is Andi going to like your meddling?"
"Probably not," Ryan said, grabbing an apple from the bowl on the table. "But I'm going to do it anyway. She rarely sticks up for herself; someone's got to do it for her if she won't." He took a bite of the apple as he headed up to his room.
