A Time for Mercy (Jake Brigance #3) - John Grisham Page 0,220
The hour has come.”
Carla took a deep breath and mumbled, “She’s early.” They had not yet told Hanna.
The child missed nothing, and from the backseat she asked, “Is Miss Josie okay?”
“She’s fine,” Jake said. “It was nothing.”
“Then why’d she call?”
“It was nothing.”
After a sermon that seemed far too long, they visited with Pastor McGarry and Meg for a moment, then got away. They hustled home and ate a quick lunch while staring at the phone. Hours passed. Hanna’s birth had been a nightmare, and they remembered all the things that could go wrong. Jake tried to watch a football game while Carla puttered in the kitchen, as close to the phone as possible.
Finally, at four-thirty, Josie called with the news that the baby had arrived. Kiera had been a rock star. Mother and child were doing fine with no complications. Seven pounds, four ounces, and of course he was beautiful and looked just like his mother. Hanna knew something strange was going on and watched every move.
On Monday, she and her mother left for school as usual. Jake was at his office, reviewing paperwork. He called his attorney in Oxford, a friend from law school, and they walked through their plan. He called his parents with the news. Carla had called hers Sunday night.
After school, they dropped off Hanna at a friend’s house and drove to the hospital in Oxford. Kiera’s room was a wreck because both Josie and Drew had spent the night there on foldaway beds. The family was ready to go home. Drew seemed particularly bored with it all.
At Jake’s insistence, Kiera had not seen her baby. He walked them through the procedures and explained the legalities. Kiera was emotional and cried through most of the meeting. Carla stood by her bed and patted her arm. She looked even younger than fourteen.
“That poor child,” Carla said, wiping her cheeks as they left the room and walked away. “That poor child.”
Jake almost said something banal, like the worst was behind them and now they could move on, but with Drew’s legal problems hanging like a sword it was difficult to be optimistic. By the time they got to the maternity ward, though, the sadness was gone. After a quick peek at the baby, they declared him to be just perfect.
That night they finally sat down with Hanna and broke the news that she was about to get a little brother. Her days as the only child were coming to an end. She was thrilled and had a thousand questions, and for hours they talked about his arrival, and his name, and his room, and on and on. Jake and Carla had decided to postpone any discussion of the mother’s identity. They described her only as a beautiful young girl who couldn’t keep her baby. This mattered little to Hanna. She was ecstatic over the idea of her new brother.
Jake worked late into the night assembling a new crib they had hidden in a storage closet, while Carla and Hanna unwrapped new gowns and blankets and baby clothes. Hanna insisted on sleeping with them that night, not an unusual occurrence, and they almost had to muzzle her to get some sleep.
They awoke early for the big day and dressed like they were going to church. Hanna helped pack a diaper bag with more stuff than any newborn could possibly need. She chattered all the way to Oxford while her parents tried in vain to answer all her questions. At the hospital, they parked her in a waiting room with strict instructions and stopped by to see the administrator, who reviewed the paperwork and signed off. They went to Kiera’s room and found her and Josie packed and ready to leave. Drew was already at school. The doctor had signed the discharge forms and the Gambles had had enough of the hospital. With hugs and tears they said goodbye and promised to get together soon. Then they raced to the maternity ward to collect the boy. The nurse handed him over to Carla, who was speechless, and they hurried away to the waiting room where they presented him to his big sister. Hanna, finally, was speechless too, for a moment. She cuddled him like a doll and insisted that he wear a soft blue outfit, one she had selected and that was more appropriate for the occasion.
They would call him Luke, a name that Hanna approved. On his amended birth certificate his legal name would be Lucien, a name that Carla had at first resisted. Naming their child after the biggest rogue in Clanton might present all sorts of problems, but Jake was adamant. By the time the kid was ten, Lucien Wilbanks would be gone and forgotten by most of the town. Jake, though, would treasure his memories for the rest of his life.
They drove to the square and parked in front of the office of Arnie Pierce, a close friend of Jake’s from their law school days. Before she met Jake, Carla had once dated Arnie, so the relationships were old and trusted. They walked across the street to the Lafayette County Courthouse where Pierce had arranged a special appointment with Chancellor Purvis Wesson, a youthful judge Jake knew well. They gathered in his chambers for a private hearing with a court reporter present. Like a priest at a christening, Judge Wesson held the baby, examined him, and declared him ready to be adopted.
Portia arrived just in time for the occasion. Three weeks into the grind of law school, she was more than willing to skip a class or two and witness the adoption.
With Arnie feeding him paperwork, Judge Wesson waived the three-day waiting period and the six months probation. He examined the petition and the consent forms signed by Josie and Kiera. For the record, he read the specifics from the father’s death certificate. He signed his name twice, and little Luke Brigance became the legal son of Jake and Carla. The final matter was an order locking up the file and keeping it away from the public records.
Thirty minutes later, they posed for photos and said goodbye.
For the ride home, Hanna insisted that Carla ride in the rear seat with her and her brother. She had already assumed possession of the child and wanted to give him a bottle. Then she wanted to change his diaper, something Jake heartily endorsed. She could change all of them she wanted.
The drive to Clanton was a joyous moment, something Jake and Carla would relive for years. At home, lunch was waiting, along with Jake’s parents and Carla’s, who had flown into Memphis early that morning. Harry Rex and Lucien arrived for the homecoming. When Jake announced the child’s name, Harry Rex feigned irritation and asked indignantly why Lucien was chosen. Jake explained that one Harry Rex in the world was more than sufficient.
The grandmothers took turns squeezing the boy, all under the watchful eyes of his big sister.
The friends and family would go to great lengths to bury as many of the details as possible. People would talk, though, and the town would eventually know.
Jake didn’t care.
Author’s Note
I began writing A Time to Kill in 1984 and published it in 1989. A long time passed before Jake returned in 2013, in Sycamore Row. In between, other books set in the same fictional place were published—The Chamber, The Last Juror, The Summons, and my only collection of short stories, Ford County. Now, with the addition of this novel, a lot has been written about Clanton and many of its characters: Jake and Carla, Harry Rex, Lucien, Judge Noose, Judge Atlee, Sheriff Ozzie Walls, Carl Lee, and so on. Indeed, I’ve written so much about Ford County that I can’t remember all of it.
The point of all this is to apologize for any mistakes. I’m just too lazy to go back and read the earlier books.
Thanks to some old lawyer pals in Hernando who helped me remember details from an earlier career: James Franks, William Ballard, Chancellor Percy Lynchard. They explained the laws correctly. If I modified them to fit the story, then so be it. It’s my error, not theirs.
The same is true for any number of statutes and procedural rules in my home state. As a young attorney so many years ago I was bound to follow them to the letter of the law. Now, as a writer of fiction, I feel no such bondage. Here, as before, I have changed laws, twisted them, even fabricated them, all in an effort to drive the narrative.
And a big special thanks to Judy Jacoby for the title.
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