started telling the truth, it was just easier to believe you were the ones who were lying. It
frustrates me to even read it in the trial record, so I can only imagine how you all feel.”
The phone rang, and Jackie jumped up to answer it. She came back a few minutes later.
“Eddie said that people are getting restless. They want to know when he’s going to be there.”
Minnie stood up and straightened her dress. “Well, we should probably get going down
there. They been waiting most of the day for you.”
When I looked confused, Minnie smiled. “Oh, I told the rest of the family we would bring
you down there, since it’s so hard to find where they live if you’ve never been there before.
His sisters, nephews, nieces, and other folks all want to meet you.” I tried not to show my
alarm, but I was getting worried about the time.
We piled into my two-door Corolla, which was stacked with papers, trial transcripts, and
court records. “You must spend your money on other things,” Jackie joked as we pulled
away.
“Yes, expensive suits are my spending priority these days,” I replied.
“There’s nothing wrong with your suit or your car,” Minnie said protectively.
I followed their directions down a long, winding dirt road full of impossible turns through a
heavily wooded area. As darkness fell around us, the road twisted through dense forest for
several miles until it came to a short, narrow bridge with room for only one car to pass. It
looked shaky and unstable, so I slowed the car to a stop.
“It’s okay. It hasn’t rained that much, and that’s the only time when it’s really a problem,”
Minnie said.
“What kind of problem?” I didn’t want to sound scared, but we were in the middle of
nowhere and in the pitch-black night I couldn’t tell whether it was a swamp, a creek, or a
small river under the bridge.
“It will be all right. People drive through here every day,” Jackie chimed in.
It would have been too embarrassing to turn around, so I drove slowly across the bridge
and was relieved when we had made it to the other side. I continued for another mile until
the forest began to give way to trailers, a few small homes, and finally, an entire community
hidden away in the woods.
We pulled up a hill until we reached a trailer that was glowing in the darkness, lit by a fire
burning in a barrel out front. Six or seven small children were playing outside; they dashed
into the trailer when they saw our car pull up. As we got out of the car, a tall man emerged
from the trailer. He walked up to us and hugged Minnie and Jackie before shaking my hand.
“They been waiting for you,” he told me. “I know you probably got a lot of work to do, but
we appreciate you coming to meet with us. I’m Giles, Walter’s nephew.”
Giles led me to the trailer and opened the door for me to step inside. The small home was
packed with more than thirty people, whose chattering fell silent when I walked in. I was
startled by the size of the group, which stared at me appraisingly and then, one by one,
started to smile at me. Then, to my amazement, the room broke into loud applause. I was
stunned by the gesture. No one had ever applauded me just for showing up. There were older
women, younger women, men Walter’s age, and several men much older. Their faces were
creased with a by-now familiar look of anxiety. When the applause had died down, I began to
speak.