A Time for Mercy (Jake Brigance #3) - John Grisham Page 0,126

no small amount of resentment for the way he’ll be portrayed at trial. We have to be careful.”

Carla said, “Enough of that. Who wants peach cobbler?”

30

The following Saturday, Jake and Carla dropped off Hanna in Karaway to spend the day with her grandparents. She saw Jake’s parents every week but it was never enough. After a quick cup of coffee and a brief visit, they left her there and it was impossible to tell who was more excited, Hanna or Mr. and Mrs. Brigance.

They headed to Oxford, a town they would always love because of their college days. They had met at a fraternity party when they were juniors and had been together ever since. One of their favorite day trips was to spend a Saturday at an Ole Miss football game and tailgate with old college friends. Several times a year they made the hour drive for no reason other than to get out of town, to park on the picturesque square, visit the bookstore, and have a long lunch in one of the many good restaurants before returning to Clanton.

In the backseat were the housewarming gifts—a toaster and a platter of Carla’s chocolate chip cookies. She had wanted to bring baby gifts because Kiera would have nothing, but Jake said no. As a lawyer, he had witnessed firsthand the damage that could be done once a young mother saw her baby, held it, and immediately got attached to it. They often changed their minds and refused to go forward with the adoption. He knew that Josie would not let that happen. Nonetheless, Jake insisted that they do nothing that might arouse the powerful feelings of motherhood.

Two years earlier he had spent an entire day at the hospital in Clanton, waiting with the paperwork as a fifteen-year-old mother agonized over her final signature. His clients, a childless couple in their early forties, sat in his office and stared at the phone. Late in the day, the hospital administrator informed Jake that, with such indecision, she could not sign off. The administrator felt as though the mother was being coerced by her mother, the new grandmother, and any decision was not being freely made. As Jake lingered, he was eventually told that a decision had been made and the child would not be given up for adoption.

He drove to his office and broke the news to his clients. The scene was still painful to recall.

He and Carla were not yet committed to an addition to their family. They had discussed it for hours and had agreed to keep talking about it. They had a doctor friend in town whose phone rang at four o’clock one morning. He and his wife hustled over to Tupelo and returned home at noon with a three-day-old baby, their second adoption. Their decision had been instant, but then they had been searching for a long time. They knew what they wanted and were committed. Jake and Carla weren’t there yet. Before Kiera, they had not thought about adopting for many years.

The idea was laden with complications. Though Jake claimed not to worry about the town and any appearance of impropriety, he knew that they would be criticized by some for seizing the opportunity to take a baby from a client. To this, Carla pushed back with her belief that any criticism would be temporary and would go away as the years passed and the child prospered in a good home. Besides, wasn’t Jake being condemned enough already? Let ’em talk. Their families and friends would be thrilled for them and would circle the wagons. Who else really mattered?

Jake worried about raising a child in a community where his DNA might become known. He would be the product of a rape. His real father had been murdered. His real mother was just a kid herself. Carla pushed back with the argument that the child would never know it. “No one gets to pick their parents,” she liked to say. The child would be sheltered and loved as much as any lucky kid, and with time folks would accept him for what he was. The DNA couldn’t be changed.

Jake didn’t like the fact that the Kofers would always be close by. He doubted they would have any interest in the child, but that was not a certainty. Carla believed they would not. Besides, neither she nor Jake had ever met the Kofers. They lived in another part of the county and their paths had never crossed.