Stephanie Tammy's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

Stephanie had the licensing hall back and one night to hold it. By dawn, her aunt would ride in with a lawyer from the valley, and Stephanie had no one of equal weight to sit beside her at the hearing. She stood at the counter with the permit books open and made a list of every attorney within two days' ride. The list had three names. All three had done work for Aunt Tammy in the past year. She crossed them out and went to find Ed. He was at his desk in the courthouse, sorting the day's filings. She stopped in the doorway before he looked up. "I need a lawyer by morning," she said. "Every one I can name owes her money or a favor." Ed set down his pen. "I can't help you from the bench. If I coach you, she gets the ruling thrown out on appeal, and the permits go back to her." "I know." "Then argue it yourself." "She'll bring a man who has argued a hundred hearings. I have argued one will." Ed was quiet. Then he opened his drawer and pulled out a thin stack of pages. It was the will she had written for Justin, copied in Elizabeth's hand for the court record. He slid it across the desk. "You wrote a law where there wasn't one," he said. "You proved a false kinship claim off a ledger nobody else could read. Bring the ledger. Bring the bylaw. Bring the copy the clerk witnessed. Stand up alone and read it out." "That isn't counsel." "No," he said. "But it's what you have." She went back to the licensing hall and worked through the night at the main counter. She copied the residency bylaw onto its own sheet. She marked the kinship ledger with a ribbon at the T pages. She wrote out her argument in three parts and read each part aloud to the empty room until the sentences held. At sunrise Aunt Tammy came up the steps with a gray-haired man in a black coat. He carried a leather case and did not look at Stephanie. He set his case on the counter and began stacking briefs beside it, one, two, three, four. Stephanie set down her single folder next to his stack. Aunt Tammy smiled. Ed took the bench. He called the hearing. He asked who represented the petitioner. The gray-haired man rose and named himself. Ed asked who represented the respondent. Stephanie stood. "I do. For myself." The gray-haired man opened his first brief and began to read. He was good. He cited three bylaws Stephanie had not seen. He asked the court to strike Ed's void order for bias, because Ed was the respondent's boyfriend. Ed's face did not move. He wrote something on his pad and told Stephanie to answer. She had no answer for the bias claim. The hearing had turned in one sentence, and she was still standing alone.