The Devil and Brian Kinney

Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child

Setting: : The Devil's Courtroom where the white haired Mrs. Kinney has just puffed into view. With the exception of Melanie and Brian, everyone else in the courtroom appears to be impressed by this elegant witness, even the gay jurors and the demonic Adversary. Mrs. Kinney, although in her early sixties, was blessed with the same physical grace and beauty so evident in her son; also like her son, she seemed capable of indulging in her own particular addictions without that grace and beauty becoming markedly diminished. Like Brian, she appeared much younger than her age.

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"You really have to hand it to the old gal," Brian whispered to Mel while an apparently besotted bailiff was swearing in his mother, "she does hold her liquor well. Few lushes could drink as much as she has for so many years and look that good. I guess that is one thing I can thank her for, the ability to show up at work looking fabulous after a night of debauchery at the baths. Other than good bone structure, what good do you expect to get out of her?" Mel shushed him and stood up, preparing to confront the witness as soon as the bailiff was done.

There really was no justice, Mel thought ruefully, remembering the crow's feet that looked back at her in the mirror each morning, as she looked at the witness's smooth complexion. After all, she didn't smoke or drink to excess like the Kinneys did. Yet they remained youthfully beautiful years beyond what was fair, given their habits. Recalling her attention to the matter at hand, she noted with interest that the Judge clearly found Brian's mother to be to his taste. He even took it upon himself to explain the proceedings to Mrs. Kinney, rather than leaving it to the lawyers. Incorrigible as always, Brian passed a note to Mel.

"If he knew what a frigid bitch she was, he wouldn't be knocking himself out to impress her; shall we suggest he just offer her some scotch? That's the quickest way to Joanie's heart, assuming she has one."

Mel stifled a giggle and gave Brian a reproving frown. The last thing they needed was to alienate the judge at this stage. Stonewall was sitting as tall as he could on the bench and had removed his thick glasses. She was glad to see Brian was holding a hand in front of his smirking mouth, as she was not sure whether the judge was extremely near-sighted or far-sighted, or both. It was better to play it safe. Obviously, he could see enough of Mrs. Kinney to see that she was to his liking. Perhaps the Kinneys put off some type of pheromone, Mel wondered? Something must explain it. Visibility wasn't all that good in the baths and in steam rooms, after all, and yet Brian managed to score just as well. She shuddered to think what this would mean when Gus hit puberty.

"My dear lady, you have been called as a witness in this matter, a contract matter between the plaintiff, Mr. De'Ville, and the defendant, Brian Kinney. Now, since you share the same name, and bare a certain resemblance, may I venture to guess that you are related?"

"He is my son," Joan answered tersely, looking at Brian coldly. It gave Mel chills to see such a look directed from a mother to a son; Brian was used to it. He merely smiled back at her slightly. If only she knew how he had gotten into this mess, he thought; his mother would be amazed down to her hypocritical, well-pedicured little toes.

Stonewall was as yet oblivious to the tension of this mother and son reunion. He smiled genially, "yes, well, you have sworn to tell the truth and therefore regardless of any natural partiality for your son, you must answer all questions posed to you, by either party, fully and honestly, do you understand?" The judge looked at her expectantly while Mel waited patiently to begin her direct examination. Joan looked the small, elderly judge in the eye and said in her cold voice:

"I am a God fearing, Christian woman who would never lie, sir, regardless of the forum. My son is a sinner of the most depraved sort, and clearly this is a courtroom of the Devil, to which his sins, no doubt, have brought him. I have no idea why I have been brought here, but if the testimony of the righteous is needed to damn him, I shall testify as I see fit. The Lord knows I did my best to turn him to the paths of righteousness before it was too late." Joan sat back and folded her hands.

Stonewall blinked.

Mel felt nauseous. She wanted to slap the smug look from that bitch's face but if was more important now to keep focus. She took a deep breath, and then sneaked a peek at Brian. He had his head down, a hand shading his eyes from the jury's view. This was a good thing, she realized, as from Mel's vantage point she could see the telltale gleam of humor there. Brian found his mother funny! She looked down at the most recent scribbled note.

"Go get her, tiger, I just figured out where you are going with this 'hostile' witness!"

Mel walked boldly forward.

"Your Honor, may I proceed?"

"Yes, Counselor." Stonewall still seemed dazed by his dream girl's last diatribe.

"Mrs. Kinney, I am Attorney Marcus. I am representing your son in this matter. I would like to ask you a few questions if I may?" Joan inclined her head regally and Mel continued. "Mrs. Kinney, has your son always been what would generally be considered a handsome man?"

"Yes, Brian has always been blessed with good looks, since he was a child. He takes after my side of the family, although he gets his height from his father's side, he is the image of my father in terms of his facial features and his coloring."

"Was Brian a successful student in school?"

"Yes, he was highly successful."

"Can you be more specific please? Did he get good grades; win scholarships? After all, every mother is proud of her children and such a things as doing well is relative."

"I am not every mother Miss Marcus." Joan directed her cold look at Mel and caused even a few jurors to shiver. Brian smiled openly as Mel just returned the look evenly. He would back the muncher to take on the Warden any day. He loved how his mother was now bragging about him, like she paid much attention to how he did in school. He was surprised she could even answer these questions; someone must have told her these answers, probably Debbie sometime, or maybe the ladies at Church, congratulating her on her handsome son's achievements.

"He did all that you suggested and more. He was a straight A student all through grade school and high school and won a scholarship to Penn State based on academics and athletic prowess; he was a star soccer player as well as a scholar. He was a National Merit Scholar, a member of the National Honor Society and a class President, as well as the winner of numerous other honors. He also served as an exemplary acolyte every week at Church. That of course was before he became homosexual and turned to his ungodly ways in college." Brian started to laugh at that but at a look from Mel turned it in to a cough. Fortunately, most of the jurors looked amused as well, at the idea that Brian "turned" homosexual in college; the others were too dumbfounded at the idea that he had been a stellar acolyte to even notice his reaction to his mother's testimony.

"Did he receive a degree from college?" Mel asked.

"Yes, he holds a Bachelors degree in business and marketing, duel major, from Penn State, as well as a Master's Degree in English Literature, from Carnegie Mellon, which many people don't know," his mother pronounced, with what almost sounded like pride. Brian was surprised, he didn't know his mother knew about the Master's Degree, he certainly never told her.

"Therefore, Mrs. Kinney, your son would not have made any deals with the Devil as recently as seven years ago, to trade his soul in exchange for success and good looks, would he?" Mel finished.

"Of course not. My son had no soul to trade," Joan stated with calm certainty.

The jurors gasped. Brian sat white faced, all trace of humor gone from his face. He had forgotten just how painful exposure to Joan still could be. Mel shot him a warning look to hold it together. This was what she expected, and truly, what she wanted from Joan. She just needed Brian to withstand it.

De'Ville frowned; he began tapping on the table in front of him in an agitated fashion. Brian noted it and calmed down.

"What do you mean by that, Mrs. Kinney?" Mel asked.

My son is a homosexual and he has been, he claims, since his teenage years. Therefore, he has been a God-less, soul-less, heathen, and will burn in all eternity, like all homosexuals. But for what it is worth, since he is well over thirty years old, that was more than seven years ago, so there would have been no need for the Devil to make any trade to get a soul that no longer existed and which, for all intents and purposes, was already hell bound." Joan stated all of this as though explaining the alphabet to a five year old, speaking clearly, concisely, and firmly, leaving no room for argument. Once more, she sat back and folded her hands as though to say she was finished.

Stonewall put his glasses back on to look more closely at this cold, beautiful example of modern womanhood, this mother of an admittedly accomplished, outstandingly successful son whom she had just heartlessly condemned to hell without a second thought. Perhaps he was seeing a vision of himself as he had been in life. He looked over at the defendant, the young man whose features were so similar to those of the witness, and yet whose features, over the course of this trial, had shown love, friendship, humor, fear, pain, sorrow. He wondered if this lovely woman seated next to him had ever known the depth of love and friendship that her homosexual son had experienced.

The judge held a hand up to Mel and indicated that he wished to ask a follow-up question.

"So, Mrs. Kinney, according to your testimony, your son could not have traded his soul to the plaintiff, because being a homosexual, he had no soul to trade?"

"Correct, sir." Stonewall ignored the fact that Joan ignored his honorarium.

"Objection, Your Honor!" De'Ville stood up. Stonewall simply looked at him above his glasses.

"You are objecting to my question, Counselor?"

"Uh, no, I spoke out of turn, Your Honor." De'Ville sat back down, frowning more deeply.

"That is what I thought," Stonewall grimaced, then nodded to Mel to proceed.

"Mrs. Kinney, did you teach, raise your son to believe that homosexuals had no souls?" she asked.

"Yes, of course, over and over, but he wouldn't change his ways."

"Now I object, Your Honor, and move to strike the answer!" De'Ville tried again, standing tall, and looking Stonewall in the eye.

"And the basis, sir?" Stonewall asked, gently.

"Your Honor, the witness is being asked to give legal conclusions in this entire line of questions, and what she taught the defendant about whether he had a soul as a homosexual as no legal standing, as she is not the arbiter of that legal question, you are." De'Ville was sweating, which droplets were turning to steam and rising up in smoke tendrils from his body. Brian watched, fascinated.

"Attorney Marcus, your response?" Stonewall looked to Mel.

"Your Honor, this woman raised the defendant; this evidence is probative of his state of mind. If she raised him to believe that he had no soul because he was a homosexual, then at best, he could not knowingly have entered into a binding contract to sell something he did not know he possessed! At worst, the plaintiff took unfair advantage of him in any trade since the plaintiff was well aware than the defendant, homosexual did have a soul and one that was of value to him, a purveyor of souls. In this Commonwealth, such a non-meeting of minds in a contract for goods is sufficient basis to void the contract.

This is especially true where the Devil plays a part in perpetrating the misleading information. For example, Your Honor, if I think my Picasso is a five year old's drawing because the devil's handmaiden tells me it is, and the devil comes along and offers me a dollar for it, is that a binding contract? The judge and the jury will have to decide but I should have the opportunity to offer the evidence of what the devil's handmaiden had to say on the matter to the plaintiff!"

Mel smiled as Joan began to sputter.

"Who do you think you are calling the Devil's handmaiden, you hussy? Parading around in your man's clothing! Don't think I don't know about you and that that other woman! You're just as bad as my son and that boy! To think that the likes of you are raising my grandson!" Joan's eyes were shooting darts at Mel, who remained calm as she returned the look.

"Silence!" Stonewall banged his gavel. He looked sternly at Joan. "You will show respect to this Court and to Counsel, and you will speak only to respond to questions, is that understood?"

Joan sniffed. "I do not recognize the authority of anyone other than my Lord."

"Your Lord approves of this proceeding and is assuring the fairness of it," he advised her stiffly. He added, "At this moment, Madam, your actions are jeopardizing the fairness of this proceeding. While you may not care about your son, you may care that I am authorized by Your Lord to do all that is necessary to ensure that you do not put your son's soul, which I do assure you does exist, at any more risk than it already is. Do you understand?" Stonewall's gaze pinned Joan to her chair. She returned the look angrily, then capitulated.

"Yes, Your Honor."

"Fine." Stonewall turned to De'Ville, saying tersely, "objection overruled, Counselor, proceed."

"Mrs. Kinney, you already testified that you took Brian to Church with you when he was growing up, that was the Roman Catholic Church, correct?"

"Yes, every Sunday. He also attended CCD classes during the week, which was his Christian education training and as I mentioned, he served as an acolyte, and he also was in the choir, he has a lovely singing voice. At least, he did, I haven't heard him sing for years."

"Did you tell Brian that homosexuality was a sin when he was just a young boy?"

"Yes."

"How young?"

"At least by the age of ten or eleven, before he reached puberty."

"And why would you even think to mention such a thing to such a young boy?"

Mrs. Kinney grew red in the face. She looked down to her lap, where she now was twisting her hands. Mel pressed for an answer.

"Why, Mrs. Kinney? Surely that was very young to be talking to your son about sex, much less homosexual sex?" Still no answer. De'Ville looked really nervous at this point.

"Answer the question, Mrs. Kinney," Stonewall directed her. The jurors were leaning forward avidly. Brian looked over at Mel, intent as well. He had often wondered why his mother had harped on about and on about homosexuality for as long as he could remember; long before he actively was aware of being gay, he knew it was supposed to be evil. By the time it became an issue in his life, however, it was just one more way he was conscious of failing his parents. At least by then he had Mikey in his life, so it wasn't so bad. His mother's answer to Mel came as a total shock, although on some level, he supposed he must have known. He had just blocked it out because he couldn't do anything about it. He was just a little kid.

"Brian was always a very attractive boy; when he was very young one would even call him pretty. Where we used to live, there were one or two instances where older boys in the parish would spend time with him, offer to take him to the movies, or to the roller rink. I didn't think anything of it. In fact, I was rather relieved. His father, Jack, was not very interested in Brian, to tell you the truth, he hadn't been very happy when I had a second child and made no secret of the fact. He, well he used to say things in front of Brian that made Brian sad.

Later, I learned these boys were, you know, queer. They were boyfriends. So I sent Jack to take care of them, make sure they stayed away from Brian. Brian cried to be with them, said he liked them, that they made him feel good. He wouldn't tell me what he meant by that, but I could guess." Joan shook her head sorrowfully.

"You bitch!" Brian yelled, jumping to his feet. "I meant that they paid me attention, they talked to me and showed me affection! They never did a damn thing wrong! Not every gay is a pedophile! But you had Jack put them in the hospital, didn't you, you practically had those poor kids killed for feeling sorry for a lonely little boy, you're the ones who had no souls!" Stonewall sent the bailiff over to restrain Brian but it was unnecessary, Mel was over to him in a flash and had him back in his seat, with her arm around him. His shoulders were shaking with the strain of holding back his tears. He felt sick to his stomach.

"Recess, Your Honor?" she called out, desperately.

"Two minutes, get your client under control or I shall remove him from the courtroom, Counselor," Stonewall said; he spoke harshly as the jurors and witness disappeared but his eyes looked kindly upon Brian.

"Your Honor, I believe that the defendant's last outburst should be wiped from the jury's memory," De'Ville stated hopefully.

"Well I don't. Look on the bright side, or should that be the dark side, maybe it will help you, De'Ville. You never know," Stonewall smiled grimly at his own joke. "You picked this jury, you have to live with their likes and dislikes it seems to me. Now some juries, ones filled with people like this witness, you would have won them with that last bit of testimony, it is all a matter of where things stand when the scale is weighed at the end. You were clever in presenting your case; Attorney Marcus is turning your tricks against you. I think they call that beating the devil at his own game, don't they?" He looked innocently at De'Ville and stretched his thin lips out in a smile. "I will, however, give them the instruction that they are not to give any weight to anything not said by someone who is not a witness, would that be satisfactory?"

"That will help, I suppose." De'Ville said begrudgingly.

Stonewall smiled, an almost gleeful smile. "Of course, Attorney Marcus, I am sure you will feel free then to follow up on this area with the witness to elicit the same information that has already been revealed by your client. Oh how I love it when non-lawyers insist on representing themselves," he cackled. Mel hid a smile while De'Ville glowered.

"Is your client feeling more composed, now?" Stonewall asked.

"Yes, Your Honor, thank you." Mel stood up to proceed with her questioning.

While Stonewall had kept Old Scratch distracted, Mel had been talking quietly with Brian. He felt sick to his stomach. She made him put his head down until the nausea passed. He remembered the day clearly now. He had been with Steve and Russell; he could remember their names now. They had been playing at the park when Jack had shown up with a bat, damn it, it had been a baseball bat, just as with Justin, and his father had beaten the two boys bloody. They were only sixteen and seventeen years old, in love with each other. Steve was the older, stronger boy; he managed to fight Jack off by grabbing the bat away from the bigger man, who was drunk as usual. It had been Steve who had taught Brian how to play soccer; it was a wonder Brian hadn't been afraid to ever play it again. Brian saw Steve once more, before the boy went away to college. He sneaked into Brian's yard to check on him. He made Brian promise to be brave, to stay strong and to always believe in himself. Brian remembered clinging to the handsome redheaded boy, whose arm was still in a cast from where his father had hit it with the bat. He now remembered begging Steve to take him with him, and the older boy's tears as he told he that he wished he could, but that he had to stay with his parents. The boy didn't even try to lie and claim that Brian's parents loved him, he just said that he and Russell weren't allowed to take him, but he wished that they were, but to remember always that they loved him and wished they could give him a home. Brian wished he had remembered that and that he had been loved.

"You have to find them, Mel. Steve and Russell, two gay Irish men, eleven and twelve years older than me. They lived in Erie, Pa, in 1976, it's important, if I don't make it through this, you have to find them or whomever they have left behind and take care of them, you understand? Make it up to them for what happened, explain that I blocked it out all these years…." Brian looked up at her, tears in his eyes.

"You will make it through and do it yourself, you got that?" she said fiercely.

"But if I don't, I need to know that it will be done." The hazel eyes met brown ones.

"It will, you know that. Now, no more freaking out on me, okay?" He smiled and touched his forehead to hers. It was at that point that the judge interrupted them.

The jury was brought back and Mrs. Kinney resumed the stand.

"Mrs. Kinney, before the recess, you had explained why you felt it was so important to educate Brian particularly about homosexuality, and you told the jury about his early friendship with two young gay teens. But you had no reason to believe that Brian had engaged in homosexual acts with these teenagers when he was a young boy, did you?"

"Well, he wouldn't admit to anything having been done, even after Jack, that was my husband, disciplined him and the boys in question, so we had to let it drop and all we could do was educate him as to the evils of this sin and keep a watch out for any signs of it." Joan looked relaxed and smug again.

"When you say disciplined, what do you mean?" Me asked.

Brian's hands clenched the table; he had not expected Mel to go down this road. He calmed himself with the thought that no one would retain any memory of this trial once it was over. He did not want these tricks knowing his private horrors. Still, he kept his gaze averted from the jury.

"Well, Jack went to those boys and administered a beating. They were together with Brian at the park. He caught them hugging, even kissing each other in front of our young son, that was all the evidence he, we, needed. The one boy had the nerve to take the bat Jack had with him and use it back against him, fortunately, he wasn't able to do much damage, but it just goes to show the type of depravity you are dealing with in such people."

"I don't like to interrupt you Mrs. Kinney, but are you saying this young boy, he was what, seventeen at the time, was depraved because he tried defending himself and his boyfriend from a grown man with a baseball bat?"

"Well, it sounds different when you put it like that but yes."

"Mrs. Kinney, weren't those two boys put in the hospital as a result of Mr. Kinney's attack, with multiple broken bones, including fractured arms and ribs?"

"I do not know all of the details but I believe they were in the hospital for a period of time, yes, their families moved shortly thereafter due to the scandal so I don't know how long they were treated." Joan didn't look Mel in the eye when answering; she sucked her lips in, very much in the manner of her son but with a much less attractive result.

"What did your husband do to discipline your five year old son, the one he did not want? Did he get the baseball bat too?" Mel asked innocently.

"Not that time," Joan answered reflexively, without thinking, then flushed as she heard some of the jurors gasp. "I mean, no, he just got spanked."

"Spanked?" Mel simply raised her eyebrows. "Did this spanking include any objects beyond your husband's hand?"

"Yes." Joan answered in a low voice.

"And would you please tell us or shall we play twenty questions?" Mel asked wryly.

"Counselor!" The judge said warningly. "I can understand your frustration but watch it."

"Sorry, Your Honor," Mel said. "Mrs. Kinney, what object did your husband, who as I recall was well over six feet tall, and a burly man of at least two hundred, two hundred twenty pounds, feel necessary to use to assist him in disciplining his five year old son for playing with faggots?"

Damn, she is good, Brian thought. De'Ville was leaning back in his chair, scowling.

"A leather strap. He administered forty lashes to Brian when he refused to tell us what the boys did to him. All he would say was that they had played soccer and things of that nature."

"Did it occur to you that the child was telling you the truth and that he only told you that because that was all that happened?" Mel looked at her coldly.

"No, it did not. They were gay and admitted to be gay and everyone knows that gays molest children. Why else would they have wanted to spend so much time with Brian?"

"Maybe for the very reason you thought they wanted to when you first gave permission, because they felt sorry for him for having you for parents?" Mel could not resist suggesting. "Moving on, were there other times that Brian was disciplined with respect to his homosexual education?"

"Yes, many times."

"Was he ever disciplined to the extent that medical attention was required?"

"Yes. On occasion Jack got a little carried away, but on the whole, I thought it was more important that his immortal soul be saved, even if it meant that a few broken bones or scars resulted." At this cold pronouncement, more than a few jurors looked nauseous.

"We've already established your husband's size. What was Jack Kinney's profession?"

"He was a roofer."

"Is it accurate to say he was a muscular man? In other words, Brian does not share your husband's physique, does he?"

"Not at all, I believe I said already, while Brian has my husband's height, about 6'3", Brian is much finer boned, Jack was a burly man, very broad. I don't know what you are getting at, Ms. Marcus." Joan looked annoyed.

"I'll tell you, then, Mrs. Kinney. Until Brian got old enough to have some chance of defending himself, Mrs. Kinney, how many times at your behest, did your husband break his finer bones trying to beat the homosexuality out of him?" Mel looked at the elegant woman with outrage on her face. Take that, you bitch, she thought.

Joan stared back at her.

"Not enough times, obviously, Ms. Marcus, not enough."

"Well, let's take the time he was fourteen years old, just for one time. Brian was hospitalized with suspicions of parental abuse. Was that done because you suspected him of being gay, Mrs. Kinney?"

"We saw him with that Novotny boy, hugging him in a way that two boys should not be hugging, yes," Joan answered defiantly.

"What were his injuries, on the occasion of that punishment for being gay?" Mel asked.

"I don't recall."

"Let me refresh your recollection, then, based on the Allegheny Hospital chart, for your teenage son, whose soul you were trying to save, at the cost of his physical body. The cost was two bones in his right arm, which was his dominant arm incidentally, three ribs, his collarbone, and his jaw. By the way, Brian weighed one hundred and three pounds and was five foot five at that point, hadn't hit his growth spurt I would guess and a tad on the skinny side, wouldn't you say." One of the jurors was retching and another quick recess had to be called.

Mel sat down next to Brian. They looked at each other.

"Well?" she asked him, seeing him stare at her.

"And to think you and Linds wonder why I won't invite her to Gus's birthday parties." He laughed mirthlessly. "Mother of the year."

"Never again, believe me," she vowed. "Henceforth, she is on the permanent do not call list. I am so sorry, Brian, there is so much I never understood before this trial. You know, you and I, we will remember it, that was part of the arrangement. Are you okay with that?" She knew how much he valued his privacy.

"Yeah, I think I can live with that." He gave his quirky grin. "I certainly wouldn't have any chance of living without you, so I am in no position to complain about the terms now, am I?"

She grinned back at him. "Hope you still feel the same way when you see my bill." He pretended to slap his head in dismay and she giggled. De'Ville looked over, annoyed to see them so light-hearted. He narrowed his eyes and began plotting.

Court resumed.

"So, essentially, with these repeated painful lessons, reinforced with weekly Church education, you raised your son to believe that if he were homosexual, he had no hope of ever getting into heaven, that he was destined to eternal damnation no matter what else he did in life, is that correct?"

"It was nothing less than the truth, God's truth," Joan stated firmly.

"So, assuming Brian did not ever forsake homosexuality, there was no reason for the Devil to offer anything to Brian to obtain his soul, was there?"

"No, if ever there was a man marked as the Devil's own, I am ashamed to say, it is my son. Even when he had cancer, and I begged him to forsake his Godless ways, he refused."

"Let me make sure I have this clear, when you learned your son had cancer, your response as a mother was to go to him to criticize his lifestyle as a homosexual and threaten him with eternal damnation?"

"I was trying to save him from the fires of hell, but he rejected my efforts, as he has his entire life."

Mel stole a glance at the jury. Some of them, the older ones, were looking down, faces set. Perhaps they had Joans of their own in family trees, mothers or fathers whose rejections were total and longstanding. They still caused pain, but it was an old pain. A few, the young ones mainly, including Ethan Gold, looked distressed by these revelations; hopefully they could admire any man who could survive such a mother. The businessman, Marvin, the closet homosexual, was pale. Perhaps he was remembering how important it had been to Brian, this proud gay man who bones had been broken repeatedly by his own parents, that he be a good father to his own little girl and leave his tricking to go comfort her when she was in the hospital with a broken bone. Mel hoped understanding shaded his feelings now, and not resentment for Brian's rejection.

"Nothing further, Your Honor." Mel sat down.

De'Ville paused. He looked at Joan Kinney considering her with a smile, then stood up. He was obviously going to try to turn her animosity towards her son to his favor.

"Mrs. Kinney, you raised your son to be a God Fearing man?"

"I tried, sir."

"And am I correct in assuming that part and parcel with that would include trying to instill a healthy fear of the Devil and of Hell?" De'Ville smiled at her charmingly.

"Yes, of course," Joan answered, shortly.

"Yet, your son, despite all of your efforts, and his much vaunted intelligence, has never evidenced any fear of God or the Devil, has he?" De'Ville smiled again and Joan returned the smile, tossing her head a bit.

"As far as I can tell, my son thinks he is better than everyone, and blasphemous as it may be to say, he fears no one, and that includes God and the devil," Joan replied with a smirk very reminiscent of her son's.

Fuck, Mel thought.

"So your son would not hesitate to renege on a contract with the Devil, would he?"

"Objection, Your Honor!" Mel stood up.

"Basis?" Stonewall snapped. He was long past patience with Mrs. Kinney but he was adamant that he would call the case properly and he could not see the basis for t his objection.

"My adversary is seeking opinion testimony on a matter on which he has failed to establish a foundation; there is nothing in the record to indicate that this witness has any familiarity with her son's business reputation. Indeed, as an adult, Mr. Kinney has had essentially no dealings with the witness, which should come as no surprise given her testimony of her treatment of him during his childhood." Mel waited.

"Counselor De'Ville, any response?"

"The defendant's character has been addressed by multiple witnesses. This is just one more. As his mother, I think that hardly any more of a foundation need be laid, she is clearly familiar with his character. Moreover, this contract, while handled in a business-like manner by yours truly, is of a most personal nature. Thus, testimony from the defendant's mother as to his personal character is most certainly of value."

Stonewall held up his hand to forestall any further argument from Mel.

"I'll allow it. However, I caution the jury, as with any opinion testimony, to consider the source, and to keep in mind the witnesses' personal bias and prejudices." He looked balefully at Joan as he said this and she flushed.

Wow, if this case goes on much longer we may actually convert the Great Castrator himself. Let's hope the jury got his message.

De'Ville's eyes gleamed as his gaze met Joan Kinney's. There appeared to be an answering fire in her eyes, which darkened to a deep green. Mel shivered. Brian reached his hand out under the table and took hers.

"My son would not hesitate to dance with the devil and then think that he could avoid paying the piper. But he will learn that sooner or later, everyone pays, even Brian Aidan Kinney." Her voice seemed eerily prophetic and a cold wind seemed to move through the courtroom as she spoke. Stonewall narrowed his eyes at De'Ville suspiciously, but said nothing. Mel looked at the jury, to a man, they were looking down at their laps, none seemed willing to look at the witness, or any of the participants in the proceedings. Something odd had just happened, but she was not sure what it was. She suspected Stonewall did not know either or he would have called De'Ville on it. The fact that De'Ville could pull such a trick and seemingly not get caught suddenly made her much more nervous about the case than she had been feeling. He looked at her and smiled.

"Thank you, Mrs. Kinney, no further questions."

"No redirect, Your Honor." Mel and Brian did not need to counter that last bit of nonsense, she decided, and no one needed any more of her venom.

"Any more witnesses, Attorney Marcus?" Stonewall asked, looking weary.

"Just one, Your Honor."

"Very well, we'll complete testimony today then and have closing arguments tomorrow, with the jury given instructions immediately following, then deliberations and a verdict. Please proceed with your final witness."

Mel smiled. De'Ville was sitting at his table, expecting her to call Brian to the stand.

"Defendant calls plaintiff Lucifer De'Ville to the stand."

"What the Hell!" Satan shouted, jumping up.

Stonewall burst out laughing. "Attorney Marcus, you have been a continual delight, bailiff, remove the jury, one more recess please."

Mel looked at the Devil.

"Guess you are going to have to tell them what those three wishes were after all, aren't you?"

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