A Map of the World - Jane Hamilton [102]
“Afterward.”
“After what?”
“After she made me go in the box.”
“What box?”
“In the dark room.”
“What dark room?”
“That place the sick people go.”
“Does your father live with you, Robbie?”
“No.”
“Does your mom bring her boyfriends around the house?”
“Objection,” Mrs. Dirks said. “Irrelevant.”
Rafferty spoke as he walked to the bench. “Your Honor,” he said, “I’d like to establish whether or not the witness has ever been exposed to adult sexuality at home.”
“I’ll overrule this time, Mr. Rafferty,” Judge Peterson said. “Be mindful that I’m prejudiced against you this morning.”
“Thank you, Your Honor. Ever any boyfriends around?” Rafferty asked again.
“I don’t know.”
“Does your mom have the same boyfriend all the time?”
Mrs. Mackessy now had that impassive look, identical to her son’s. She was staring out into the empty courtroom. “Does your mom have the same boyfriend all the time?”
“Sometimes they’re the same.”
“Do you like some of them?”
Robbie’s occasional glower had been hostile all along. It was more and more poisonous as the questioning progressed. “They’re okay.”
“Are there some of them you don’t like?”
“I SAID, they’re okay.”
“Do your mom’s boyfriends play with you, Robbie? Maybe take you to the ball game, or the pool, or the park?”
“I got my own friends,” he snapped.
“You have friends? What do you do when your mom goes somewhere without you, and you stay at home?”
“Play.” He said this with a sneer, as if he was trying to match the sarcasm of “Pal.”
“Watch TV?” Rafferty asked.
Robbie did that quick up-and-down shrug. It was like a puppet’s motion, an invisible handler working the shoulder strings.
“Did you watch TV this morning?”
“Yeah.”
“What did you see?”
“I don’t know.”
“Can you think of one program you saw this morning?”
“I said I forget.”
“You forget what you saw two hours ago?”
“I turn the channels back and forth.”
“Oh, so you don’t sit and watch one show for long?”
“My mom got us sixty-four channels.”
“So you can see a lot of different programs, I bet?”
“I just said, we have sixty-four channels.”
“What are your favorite shows?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you watch cartoons, shows like ‘Goof Troop,’ ‘Ninja Turtles,’ ah, ‘Tiny Toons’—what’s it called, ‘Loony Tunes’?”
“Yeah.”
“Now that you’re six do you stay up late sometimes?”
“Yeah.”
“And you watch TV at night, flipping through those cable channels?”
“Yeah.”
Each time Robbie said “yeah” he had more disdain in his voice.
“Does your mom get videos from the video store?”
“Yeah.”
“So sometimes at night you might see a video she brought home?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you ever see naked people on TV, Robbie?”
Susan Dirks shook her bangled fists, calling out again that Rafferty was asking irrelevant questions, tiring the boy, getting nowhere. “We’re not having a trial here, judge,” she yapped. “All I have to do is prove that the charge is reasonable.”
The judge seemed to have contracted a stiff neck. He turned his head with evident pain from Mrs. Dirks to Rafferty. “Your objection is overruled, Mrs. Dirks. Bring this to a close, Mr. Rafferty, before I lose my patience.”
“Did you ever see naked people on TV, Robbie?” Rafferty asked in the same even tone he’d used the first time.
“No.”
“The people you see on TV all through those sixty-four channels you’re flipping through always have every bit of their clothing on?”
“Yeah.”
“Do your mother’s boyfriends stay overnight—”
At the same time Susan screeched, “Objection,” Robbie stood up from his mother’s lap and shouted, “No!”
“Question withdrawn,” Rafferty said. “When you’re at school did you see the nurse about once a week?”
“I TOLD you I’m allergic,” Robbie said. “I get rashes and fevers sometimes.”
“When did you tell me you were allergic?”
“At the beginning.”
“Did you tell me what you’re allergic to?”
“I said, I’m allergic.”
“All right then, you’re allergic. When your allergies flared up did you go see the nurse?”
“Duh.”
“Isn’t Mrs. Goodwin’s office right next to the principal’s office?”
“I don’t know.”
“Isn’t it also next to the secretary’s desk?