A Map of the World - Jane Hamilton [101]
“Did the nurse touch you?”
“Miss Flint asked, ‘Did the nurse touch you?’ ”
“Yeah.”
“What did you say?”
“I showed her on the doll.”
“Did you ever see your mom doing some of those things with her—”
“Your Honor,” Mrs. Dirks cried, “we all know what Mr. Rafferty’s tack is here. He violates the dignity of this court, as well as the witness.
Mr. Rafferty is asking questions which are based on hearsay, which are argumentative—”
“Mr. Rafferty,” the judge said slowly, “you will remember the age of the witness. I am warning you, do you understand?”
“Yes, Your Honor.” Rafferty removed his foot from the chair and stood straight, with his hands clasped behind his back.
“What color pants were you wearing when that happened in the nurse’s office?”
He shrugged.
“You don’t remember?”
“I forget.”
“Did you wear a belt?”
“My dad gave me suspenders with Batman.”
“Did you wear your suspenders to the nurse’s office?”
“No.”
“Did you wear a belt?”
“I don’t got a belt.”
“Did your pants have a snap on them at the top?” Rafferty opened his jacket and pointed to his own waist. “Right about here?”
“Maybe.”
“Who unbuttoned your pants in the nurse’s office?”
“She always pushed me down.”
“Who unbuttoned your pants?”
“She did.”
“Who is she?”
“The nurse.”
“Did she unzip the pants first?”
“Yeah.”
“So she unzipped the pants first, and then she unbuttoned the pants.”
Most children would have said yes, I’m sure, to be done with it. Robbie appeared to think. “She unbuttoned the pants first,” he said.
“Where was the principal?”
“I don’t know.”
Rafferty asked where the guidance counselor was, where the secretary sat. For several minutes he asked Robbie to again describe his pants, if there were pockets, how the nurse got them down to his ankles, if she took them off, where she put them. For a good many of the answers Robbie said he didn’t know.
“On May eighteenth you had a beesting, Robbie, and your arm got puffy. You went to see Mrs. Goodwin at her office because of the sting. Do you remember that day?”
“I think so.”
“Do you remember what she put on your arm to make the sting feel better?”
“She hollered at me,” he said in a monotone.
“What did she holler?”
“She called me bad names.”
“Bad names?”
“She said she was going to tie me to a chair.”
“Did she tie you to a chair?”
“She always pushed me down.”
“Did she treat you for the beesting that May eighteenth, when you got stung on the playground?”
He shrugged, his shoulders jerking up and down just once.
“Did she treat you for that beesting?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know? You don’t remember?”
“I SAID, ‘I don’t know’!” Robbie glared at Rafferty for an instant before lowering his eyes back to the carpet.
“So you did, so you did. Why did Mrs. Ritter have to send you down to the principal’s office so often, Robbie?”
“Objection,” Mrs. Dirks called.
“Mr. Rafferty,” Judge Peterson said, “your line of questioning is argumentative. I am not going to tolerate badgering. Let’s get on with this hearing in a dignified manner.”
“Yes, sir,” Rafferty said, nodding his head and clasping his hands at his navel, altar-boy style. “Did you ever start fights, Robbie?”
No answer.
“Did you ever use words you weren’t supposed to use?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did Mrs. Goodwin ever give you medicine?”
“Yeah.”
“So sometimes you weren’t feeling well, and she gave you medicine so you’d get better?”
“Yeah, right,” Robbie said, looking up again. “She gave me medicine so I’d get sick.”
Rafferty moved forward quickly. “Do you talk back to your teachers, to the principal, the way you’re talking back to me, young man?”
Mrs. Dirks called for a side bar. There was a short inaudible conference up front with the judge. When they were finished Rafferty went and stood the proper distance from the boy and his mother.
“Wasn’t Mrs. Goodwin trying to help you by giving you medicine when you were sick?”
“She pushed me down.”
“What did you do when you went to her office to get your medicine?”
“She push—”
“You’d walk in the door of her office, right?”
“She was always pushing me down.”
“When