SERENA JOY'S PRISON CHRONICLE - 14th SYMPOSIUM

Officer West: Ok, Ms. Blue is gone, and your lawyer is just outside. She's on the phone, so will be a few minutes. Ms. Blue has asked that you get this, this letter. It's been redacted in a few places. I'm sorry, but some of the redactions on the front page have obliterated some of the words on the back - can't be helped.

Waterford: My jailers at their best. -reading-

Lawyer: Hi Serena, sorry to keep you waiting. I've been dealing with other clients about winding up a few files. Since the Commander's death, our office has been busy.

I also had a chat with the warden about the choreography for tomorrow. Apparently it has leaked out, that tomorrow you'll be transferred to house arrest in Toronto. There's no telling if reporters will be here. Or there. But I'll plan for it. You're quite the story, and as I told you, the publication ban has made it a free-for-all for speculation in the press and on-line, especially with the anti-Gilead bloggers. Pro-Gilead bloggers have gone all eeriely silent!

Waterford: No worries, I just finished with this. It's Rita's last jab. She says we're not friends.

Lawyer: Can I see it? -reading- Not all of it makes a lot of sense, what with the redactions. I looked into it, but there's nothing that can be done about Rita telling the Commander about the pregnancy. Still, it seems Ms. Blue is suffering from some of the misinformation out there that lifting the publication ban could clear up.

Waterford: Should it be lifted?

Lawyer: Not while I'm your lawyer. Not until you've had a few weeks out of here and the legal landscape calms down.

Waterford: How's the family?

Lawyer: Hey, thanks for asking. We should get down to business, but just to let you know: now even my daughters have had to absent themselves from social media. You're not the most popular person to defend; I keep telling my girls that if Serena Joy Waterford is not allowed a full and robust defence, then we may as well scrap our democracy. Like you did. The one we're defending - all the while navigating the draconian Canadian Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act.

Waterford: How are the girls?

Lawyer: Both their boyfriends broke up with them, and they're now at a different school. It's been difficult. My wife wants all this to be over.

Waterford: I am sorry that this has happened.

Lawyer: But look at it this way, I'm making the big money here.

Waterford: No you're not!

Lawyer: Kidding! But let's get down to it. I'm staying in Kitchener tonight so I can be here at 5:30 am tomorrow. As usual, you're not to say anything, nothing unless I tell you to respond directly to something. Got that? Not to the press, not to anyone with a badge. Especially not to anyone without one. Something they cannot hear through me. All the official stuff. Questions about the forms. Are we good?

Waterford: Yes. We're good. Are we leaving that early?

Lawyer: Far from it. I want to get into the facility while it is still reasonably dark. I'd be recognized by media. I can leave the car in the parking lot, the rental company will pick it up later. I'll be in the van with you all the way to the CBSA office in Toronto, before the hop to you house. It'll be a long ride. Paparazzi are guaranteed to be in pursuit.

Waterford: Ok.

Lawyer: Once again, there's going to be a confusing array of people there. Everyone including ICC, Americans, Canadians. You'll need a map. With Canadians, there's going to be CBSA, RCMP, CSIS, military intelligence, court appointed monitors, and a few more. There's also a dizzying array of agencies that the Americans still preside over, as well as within the RCMP and CSIS. They may be in exile, but boy do they love bureaucracy. Some cops will be uniformed, others will not be. It'll be hard to tell who's who, so watch out. Just to add to it, Canadian Forces have a piece of this, so a few Colonels and Generals and military police will be there too. Don't confuse them with American military. The one group they hate far more than Gilead are Americans! Trust me, I'm Canadian. They all have their paperwork. My office has seen to a lot of it already, but you'll probably have to initial some documents. Don't do anything without my say-so. Just to let you know - if you refuse, they have an army of notaries public ready to witness that you had refused. They will cross t's and dot all i's.

Waterford: Wow.

Lawyer: So between you and me, you'll officially be outta here tomorrow at about noon. Unless. Appeal by The Crown is still possible, and courts can intervene overnight. Can't be helped. The tape June Osborne made for Luke Bankole is in your favour. But even that won't keep the ankle bracelet from your leg.

Waterford: Ok, this is too much detail. I won't make a fuss. I was in media in the before times. I can play it by ear and insert myself if I think it productive. But I'm under no illusions. I actually do care how it looks.

Lawyer: Ok, that's about it. Any other questions?

Waterford: No. You'll be there. We can whisper in each other's ear if I need to know something.

Lawyer: We've been through that. Nothing that can even be mistaken for intimacy. Besides, I already have a wife, and there's at least one blogger out there who's convinced that you and I are up to something. You don't know how lucky you had it in Gilead not to have the internet or social media. Then again, I do know how lucky I am not to have been raised in Gilead, so makes us kind of even.

Waterford: I hope you don't think I've been ungrateful on that account?

Lawyer: Look, I get the big bucks either way, I get my career ruined as a bonus. Still, I'm a middle aged, married lesbian with a mortgage and kids. How many Gileadens can say that! Besides, it's not as if I'm going to be denied entrance into a dyke-bar because of you. Even the Queens are dressing as you! It's been 20 years since I've seen the inside of one as it is.

Waterford: I appreciate the efforts you've made, the sacrifices, I do.

Lawyer: Hey, it's not about me. We still have to make it until noon tomorrow. My firm will have my back - I'm getting a two month holiday out of this, I mean if I can close up some other files before the end of the week. Me and the wife, paid holiday to Maui. The senior partner's timeshare. As you once said, "treason and coconuts." But the partners have a plan to have me doing some, what would you call it, less high profile work for the next year or so. Not until your trial. Or unless you change your mind about wanting the baby.

Waterford: So there might be a chance for an innocence verdict with the tape?

Lawyer: Look, this is a political case. In any normal litigation, it would have been a slam dunk to have charges thrown out because of that tape. There it is, in her own voice - the baby she's had with your driver had been, "born out of love". Any normal case, that's reasonable doubt on your war-crimes, rape charge. But let's focus on tomorrow.

Waterford: -silence- You've not asked me about the baby.

Lawyer: My colleague, Sahni at the firm, is handling that. She says there's not much to do, because you're not making a fuss. Your daughter, she's a Canadian-by-law, the prison system acted properly, as did Child Services of Ontario. The ball's in your court.

Waterford: -long silence- I'm still staggered to be the subject of a show-trial.

Lawyer: Well, no, I wouldn't say that. Let's go back to the very first conversation you and I had, way back when. You're guilty, Mrs. Waterford. You know it. I know it. They know it. I have the capacity to put on a good show, I can shred a hostile witness, I can go all "civil liberties" with the best of them. But at the end of the day: they have the evidence, they have your husband's depositions, they have Osborn and Blue. The holes in the legislation are more than covered off by the political necessity to find you guilty. Same would have happened with Fred. -smiling- Come on, Mrs. Waterford, it's not, just not going to be struck down over the prosecution of a Gileaden, not one from the top echelons.

Waterford: So I was going to be convicted no matter what. So was Fred.

Lawyer: Between you and me? You were going to be convicted when you decided to write your book. In what you call, the before times. But that's just me, an old lesbian. And I'm one of the few advocating for you! And, yes, they would have convicted Fred. With your help. And you'd like it. But the courts intervened, Fred got deported, and the rest is history. Look, I should go. We'll get the officer back in here. We'll see you early tomorrow morning.

Waterford: Well, Rita; she can keep the baby for all I care. As long as I stay out of Gilead, I'm good. -pause- Regardless of what you think of me, I do want to thank you. Blessings to you and your family. You've made sacrifices for me that I appreciate.

Lawyer: Sacrifices? I've made sacrifices for a system I believe in. For you? -pause- Unsure. Well, maybe that's something we can whisper about in the van. Get the tabloids going. Tomorrow.

FOURTEENTH SYMPOSIUM NOTE

Fourteenth symposium note: there is reason to believe that this transcript is artificially truncated at this point, and had continued into other events surrounding Serena Joy Waterford's last days in Canada. It is included here in the 'Rita Blue material', because that's where it had been found, in situ.

Further research suggests that Serena Joy never was sent to 'house arrest'. At that point, academics await the crucial "finds" and authentications to construct a more complete record of the her life.

Crucial missing information awaits. Was Serena welcomed back into New Gilead society? As either a newly married Wife, or even as a handmaid? Or was she 'deported' in the same manner as her husband? Only a minority of peer-reviewed researchers hold to a fourth possibility, the 'she was sent to house arrest' theory.

If anyone can help out, please be in direct contact with Professor Crescent Moon.