Diapers Never Lie Scene 177

The courtroom we had been assigned was smaller than I had expected, and the compact nature of the room left me closer to mother than I would have wanted to be. We had entered the room with our attorneys only minutes before the hearing was to begin. Mother was seated by herself in the second row on the left side of the room. She didn’t turn around when my uncle pulled open the door to the courtroom and ushered us in. I squeezed ahead of my aunt and immediately walked into the back row on the right side of the room, putting as much space between myself and mother as I possibly could. I kept my eyes focused on the front of the room, a rising wooden podium where the judge would be seated, refusing to make so much as a glance in mother’s direction.