Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Spring (as in the season) (11/28/05)
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TITLE: Don't Let The Tears Fool You | Previous Challenge Entry
By Daphne Lewis
12/01/05 -
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My husband’s attorney stepped into me right away: first reminding me of my wedding vows and then drilling me with questions about my role in the accident without leaving room for me to answer him. Somehow he managed to paint a picture of my husband as the victim and suggest that I led him down a dark road to destruction. I could hear the tears gathering in the back of my mind as if they were preparing to speak for me.
It never crossed my mind that anyone would think that I was responsible for what had happened to me. Is it ever possible for a wife to deserve or desire for her husband to do the things that Jeremy had done to me? Does his lawyer really believe that I could have left him at any time? I searched and searched through the courtroom, hoping to find just one understanding or sympathetic glance. Instead, my eyes met up with Jeremy’s glare. He had such a smirk of victory on his face that I dropped my head in what I believed at the time to be surrender. But then I grabbed hold of the cross that I was wearing around my neck and everything was settled in my mind. I knew that I wasn’t just helping myself.
“Your Honor,” begged my attorney, “please ask the counselor to allow my client to answer him.” By then, however, I already had all the support I needed. While the lawyers were fighting, I thought about what I had been through and the tears finally began to flow. I could hear Jeremy’s insults and feel every push and slap and kick that I endured. I remembered spending two weeks in the hospital trying desperately not lose the little one that is now growing inside of me. Yes, Mr. Lawyer, I remembered running away and being dragged back; asking for help and only getting band-aids; and longing for an end that never came. But most importantly, I remembered loving him anyway.
I managed to give my testimony, the truth as I knew it. Jeremy managed to work in the fact that I was needy and greedy—and I think I even heard sleepy and sneezy. But that didn’t bother me because I was in a different place. In that very moment my tears of defeat were replaced with tears of joy. It felt as if spring had come alive inside of me.
I thought that it was over as I left the witness stand, but Jeremy wanted the last word.
“You’ll come crying back,” he said as he slammed his hand on the table.
“Don’t let the tears fool you,” I said calmly, “because I’m not lost without you.”
I realized that I was no longer a part of the world that he was trying to hold me to. Whether he went to jail or not, I was finally free from my prison and I wasn’t looking back. I left the courthouse and I took my time walking to my car, enjoying the freshness of spring and praising God for the ability to finally breathe again.
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The only jarring note was the "sleepy and sneezy" line, which was humorous, but seemed out of place in such a serious piece.
Very convincingly written.