The judge’s eyes held darts of scorn, but Mrs. Krinkel probably didn’t see it. As for the others watching this court of renderings, the excitement of the day was almost over, but I feared that the deep resentment emanating from them over the words and his judgement would remain, and probably even multiply. It wouldn’t be Judge Muffett who would suffer for the verdict. It would be me who might soon find herself without a single job to pay for hay for Frey and food for myself.
In the days that followed, I was right to be anxious about the people’s reception of it, nor did I receive a single payment from Mr. Henderson. Once Judge Muffett left, I guess the village decided that his decisions were more or less rendered invalid. Only the contempt charge was made to stand, and that was only because the judge himself walked Mr. Barner to the village cell and ordered his incarceration.
I wished that my analysis had not been so correct about the villagers. It was little more than a week later that Mr. Barner, freshly released from his contempt jailing, attacked Frey outside my lean-to dwelling. He was drunk and I handled him — in the end with the frying pan in my hand. I didn’t kill the man, but I’m sure I left him with a really bad headache.
Then a few days later, the mayor, probably realizing that no one would defend me, cornered me as I stepped out of the grain and feed store. I twisted away from the arms that seized me, but that was not the end of it. Perhaps the mayor believed that I’d fallen so low that I’d have to bow down to his offer.
I screamed and threatened, but he, like the Mr. Barner, didn’t listen. When he tried to drag me away in the direction of his house, I had to kick him in the area that Old Mother had taught me. Then I punched him in the eye.
The chain of events, that kind-hearted Judge Muffett set in motion, sped to that moment in the village park, the same place I’d supposedly been found wrapped in a banana leaf. There the mayor launched his pseudo witches’ trial, followed by the villagers’ flying rocks.
My mind seemed to enjoy unraveling my sanity, pushing me back to the life I’d once lived. I was still clinging to Frey, my eyes streaming over from something I I’d tried to shut away. What had the officer said to cause my flight back into horror?