Fortune's rocks_ a novel - Anita Shreve [150]
“No, quite. Are Phillip Biddeford and the Orphanage of Saint Andre represented here today?”
“Phillip Biddeford has declined representation and agrees to provide testimony on behalf of the relator. I believe the Orphanage of Saint Andre has also declined representation and has agreed to provide testimony on behalf of the respondents, who are represented by my colleague Mr. Addison Sears.”
“Is this true, Mr. Sears?”
“Yes, Your Honor, it is.”
Looking up from his notes, Tucker addresses the judge less formally. “Your Honor, because this trail of unlawful events inevitably leads to the child being in the custody of Albertine and Telesphore Bolduc, and because this is not a criminal case but rather a petition for custody, the relator can only sue the Bolducs as foster parents for custody. It remains to be seen whether criminal charges will be brought at a later date.”
“Am I to understand that the father of the infant male child cannot be located?” Littlefield asks.
“That is correct,” says Payson Tucker.
“Very well,” says Judge Littlefield. “Let us proceed.”
• • •
Addison Sears, who is not even as tall as Olympia, rises and moves to the lectern and adjusts his monocle. Olympia notes that he has not one but several diamond rings on the soft fingers of his left hand. His frock coat is finely cut, in stark contrast to the clothes of his clients. He takes a long drink from a glass of water he has carried to the lectern.
“Good morning, Your Honor,” Sears says in a tone that suggests he knows the judge personally.
“Good morning, Mr. Sears,” the judge says amiably.
“Your Honor, this is a simple case,” Sears begins, still riffling through his notes as if he were not really beginning at all. “There is no statute in the land that would prompt a court to give custody of Pierre Francis Haskell to the young person sitting to my left.”
He pauses to let the implications of the words young person have their full effect.
“Let us consider the facts,” he continues. “A wanton fifteen-year-old girl, a mere child herself, with a child’s faculties and lack of mature judgment, fornicates with a man nearly three times her age, causing this man to commit adultery and to leave his wife and four children.” Sears pauses to allow the impact of this moral transgression to settle upon the court. “She then gives birth to an infant male, whom she abandons,” he continues. “Through the years, she shows no interest whatsoever in his welfare. She does not support the child, either morally or financially. She does not inquire as to his health and well-being. She never visits him. And then she seeks custody of this child?”
Sears shakes his head, as though bewildered.
“In truth, Your Honor, if these were not such serious proceedings, this situation would be laughable.”
Judge Littlefield does not laugh. Sears tucks his fingers into his paisley vest pockets.
“Without resorting to the obfuscation of the language of our esteemed profession, I should like permission to set forth the respondents’ position in a manner that the young person to my left might understand,” says Sears, looking pointedly at Tucker, who did not, of course, think to reject the obfuscation of the language of the law himself.
“Very well, Mr. Sears. Proceed.”
“The task of the respondents today is twofold,” says Sears. “We shall prove that Olympia Biddeford is not a fit parent for this or any other child. And we shall prove as well that it is in the best interests of the child to remain in the care of Albertine and Telesphore Bolduc, who have been the boy’s foster parents almost from birth.”
Sears takes another drink of water and then clears his throat.
“We shall show, Your Honor, that the relator, Olympia Biddeford, when she was only fifteen years of age, an age, I might add, when one’s character is being formed, participated in an improper sexual relationship with a man who was married and had four children of his own. That Olympia Biddeford not only is guilty of wanton and lascivious behavior but also has shown herself