It was supposed to be a light week at work with my judge on vacation as with most judges, so that there were more of us than were needed around the County. So I was surprised when my supervisor called me and floated me to Compton Court. I wasn’t happy about it, so on the drive I called Mr. W (who was at home waiting for installation guys to switch over our cable/internet/phone carrier and for his friend Chris to show up so they can hang out all day) for some soothing and sympathy. I got the exact opposite where he rushed off the phone and since I didn’t know what was going on, I was basically hung up on and when I texted him to ask why he hung up, I didn’t get a response and after some time I called him back and he was really irrate that I was calling again because he was working with the cable installer guy and I was interfering. AND it rained unexpectedly through the morning, so I drove to the city that rap artists earn their gang war wounds in, in the rain, found this unfamiliar courthouse, parked in the separate juror lot, walked a block through the rain with no umbrella or coat to the courthouse carrying my manual and file stamps since the handle of the bag I’d brought my materials in ripped off as I got out of the car, and walked into the middle of a murder and assault preliminary hearing. I emailed some coworkers during the hearing to ask if there’s anything special I need to do or note or code for a Prelim since I’d never done one before, and mid-email, sat through an earthquake. The 11th floor I was on swayed for a long time, and I looked around and briefly considered ducking under the desk, but no one else was budging except for a man in the audience who kept looking up and around at the creaking walls in confusion, and I didn’t want to create panic when I had one female bailiff who was watching a very fidgety inmate being held to answer on charges of beating up and trying to kill another inmate in a jail cell in order to help his criminal street gang. So I just sat there and dealt with the swaying. The judge never looked up at me through the entire hearing, and I thought he was upset it took me until 10:20 to get there. Things got better after that.
After the hearing, the judge introduced himself as he got off the bench and I handed him a Christmas card that someone had walked in for him. He looked at the attached document and said that this is from a family friend whom he gets UCLA game tickets from, and I said I’m a Bruin, and he said he was too, and the DA said she was too, and then it was all big happy family from that point on. Turned out the judge was very nice and was just very focused on the Prelim; he’d missed the fact that I’d come in, he’d missed another judge who stood in the courtroom next to the bench for a long time waiting to say hello to him, he’d missed the earthquake. When we tried to identify which judge had come by to visit him, all I could tell him was a physical description and that the visitor said this judge, Judge Herman, is his former boss. I learned Judge Herman is a retired judge just sitting in Compton for now on assignment to help out during the holidays, he was borrowing someone else’s dark courtroom to call these cases, and as we looked through a list of all the judges in the building so he could figure out who’d been by, I learned that half the bench officers in Compton were either his former employees when he was the head district attorney, or his former students when he was a professor at law school. As he got off the bench we got engaged in an hour-long conversation about the current UCLA football team and analysis on their development, coaching strategies, recruitment deficiencies, etc. I learned that the players with the highest IQs are the big boys in the front of the offensive line, contrary to what one might think, because of their need to remember all plays, change and recoordinate their positions and plays as defense changes, AND take a physical hit all at the same time. I learned he used to play college football until an injury took out his left knee and snapped apart every ligament there and that every 5 years, he goes back to an orthopedic surgeon hoping modern medicine has figured out a way to fix his knee, only to be told there is still nothing they can do except a full knee replacement when pain got intolerable. He still went to work out during lunch and came back in time to be on the bench at 1:30p waiting for three misdemeanor cases to come in. During that waiting time, he told me about the distribution of power in relationships (business or personal) being equated to a pie; power over various components are sliced up and designated to one or the other person, and conflicts arise when one person acts on something that’s considered within the other person’s slice of pie, because what’s on the slice is solely the other person’s turf. He said it was important to know to reslice the pie as things change and to allow dynamics to shift, such as when a baby is born, it needs the mother more so the father will do what he needs to assist the mother, keep her happy, but basically stay out of her hair on baby things if she’s got it covered, and as the child grows, it will eventually outgrow the immediate nurturing the mom had provided, and more power would have to shift to the father for leadership, discipline as the stronger hand, helping play sports or something, maybe. The mother would have to let go of that portion of her slice and allow the father to pick it up and that would then be his turf and she’d resign her control over those things (such as coaching the kid in a sport). I liked when he said that his wife told him, “I married you for life, not for lunch,” and they’re careful not to step on each others’ toes when they have their separated interests or activities. And after the hearings were done, he told me about a book he’d just finished reading called “Parallel Worlds,” and we got into quantum physics, religion, the current experiment under Switzerland, the theories of Creation and prophecies vs. mathematical astrophysicists’ projections of the End. As we left, he keyed me in the employee elevator to each floor I had to get off on to distribute orders and files and waited for me so that he could key me to the next floor (I didn’t have internal access to the building), and then was concerned that I had to walk in the rain back to the parking structure. I told him I didn’t think I could shrink any more than my current short size, and he laughed, and said he hopes I’d be back the next day. (I’m not, since I carpooled to work today so I can’t leave on my own.) I really liked him.
After work, I drove to childhood friend Sandy’s house a few neighborhoods over. I arrived starving, since I skipped breakfast as usual (except for my hot mug o’ chia seeds) and skipped lunch knowing that if I left the secured courtroom, I wouldn’t have keys to go back into it after lunch. She made me a big batch of potstickers and we chatted around her dining table while I ate and she watched me, and we drank hot oolong tea with honey. Her cats came by one by one to greet me, and soon I was surrounded by five furry faces. We then retired upstairs to her TV room/loft so I could look for Molly, Mr. W’s favorite cat. I soon sent him this picture by text message to make him jealous:
He wanted me to steal Molly but of course Sandy wouldn’t allow it. Soon her boyfriend Steve came home and we chatted for a long time about Asian parents, psychotic ex-wives, and the little mischievous ghost that’s haunting their house. We ordered pizzas and laughed a lot. I made two white cats (“this one and that one!” I’d say, pointing to each white cat in turn with the laser dot they were chasing. “They have NAMES, ya know!” Steve said in mock offended tone, knowing I can’t tell them apart, so all night it was This One and That One for Lacey and Daisy) chase a red laser light dot in circles, at each other, up a wall, and then made the dot chase the cats as they freaked out and walked backwards and sideways on their toes with their hairs standing up on their spines, which Sandy said she and Steve had never thought to do as they laughed at the cats’ reactions to the role reversal. They may have SEEMED freaked out, but they liked it, because when my arm would get tired and I’d turn off the dot, both white cats would whip around and stare at me with their alien almond eyes until I started with the laser pointer again. Sandy said if I ignored them after the stares, they’d start knocking things off the table to get you to play with them, and they’d go so far as to bat the actual laser pointer at you to force you to pick it up so they can chase the dot. Around the time I was planning to go home, around 10 p.m., her pizza delivery guy showed up and said he had trouble getting to her house because the streets were blockaded by police. We looked out and sure enough, police helicopters were flying overhead shining floodlights around her neighborhood. Great. So I had this text exchange with Mr. W:
me: i cant leave cuz the streets are closed & quarantined & police copters are flying overhead.
Mr. W: What the…..
me: i dunno. we’re watching the news to see what’s going on. all the copter searchlights are on & they’re going around her roof & neighborhood.
Mr. W: That sucks. How often does that happen there? Twice a day or more?
me: sandy says she’s hurt & offended.
Mr. W: What are you gonna do?
me: sit here. steve’s here so we feel safe-ish.
Mr. W: That might be the safest time to leave. When the cops are watching.
me: & get carjacked by a desperate refugee? no thanks!
Mr. W: Are you coming home tonight?
me: there are FIVE cats here!
Eventually the helicopters went away around midnight, which was when I left cuz I figured, they must’ve caught the guy, right? When I went home Mr. W was staying up waiting for me, which is unusual cuz it was so far past his bedtime. He said he wanted to make sure I got home from that area okay. I told him about the helicopters going away. He said that doesn’t mean they caught the guy, it just means they gave up. Great. But I still had a great evening.
