So It Begins

Twenty Years and a Car Seat on the Table

What am I doing here? I'm looking up at a judge, beet red in his face. He is so enraged, I can’t understand his words. I know why he is mad. My client did not show up for his trial this morning.

I'm in Prestonsburg, Kentucky, for my first trial as the new director of the Public Defender’s office. They hired me a couple of months ago and sent me to the Criminal Defense College in Macon, Georgia, for intensive training.

They didn’t cover this situation…a raging judge, an absent client.

Watercolors by Marie

Contents

1 Twenty Years and a Car Seat on the Table

2 Justice Weighed by the Pound

3 The Leap of Faith .

4 Handshake on the Tug River Bridge

5 A Foot in Heaven; A Foot in Hell

6 Take Me Out to the Ballgame

7 Mama Tried; Mama Cried

8 Be Not Afraid

9 Kentucky Boy

10 Excavating Truth

11 Thanksgiving without Thanks or Giving

12 I Wish I Could Remember

13 Everything Changes for a Reason

14 Never Work on a Saturday Morning

15 Give it to Mikey

16 A Call to the Mountains

17 Bo and the Congressman

18 Stormy Years and a Cloudy Day

19 In the Shadow of a Newborn’s Joy

20 The Tree

21 The River Squall

22 The Easter Mouse

23 Death Row

24 Rutabaga or Studebaker