{This is a response to What Pegman Saw. This week the 150 word prompt based on Google Maps takes us to Manhattan, but as a twist, my story has Manhattan coming to me, or at least to a town in Northern Florida. Please enjoy my courtroom drama, and thank you, as always, for the prompt and for coming by to read. I couldn’t find a good Manhattan photo, so above is a Florida scene you might witness after a rain, when resurrection ferns reappear on the branches of grand old live oaks. Such trees are known to grow in the vicinity of courthouses in the South! }
Cedric Elsworth, Esquire rushed in, slapped down his briefcase, and spoke.
“Your Honor. In-house-counsel for Clarencia.”
Opposite Elsworth lounged Jeremiah Quiggly, Sr. Doodling on his canary pad, as usual.
Languorously, he turned, to discern the source of that harsh accent.
Elsworth preened. I-talian suit and eel-skin boots. “My Emergency Motion.”
The judge skimmed.
Quiggly’s phone confirmed, that peacock never did call him. “What emergency?” he huffed.
“Terrible accident in the Bahamas, Your Honor. First-degree burns. Incontrovertibly, the trial must be delayed!”
Quiggly sniggered. “We’re talking burns here, Judge. Not murder.”
The judge squinted hard at Elsworth’s boarding pass, on the table.
“Where’re you from?” the judge asked, with a twang.
“Manhattan, Sir.” Perspiration dotted Elsworth’s brow.
“Don’t know, ‘bout Manhattan…” The judge paused.
Quiggly writhed with delight.
“But, roun’ here, we don’t cancel, for no sun-burn. Motion de-nied! You get your client here, or I’ll give you the third degree!”
Your story amused me, Andi. Sounds like some real, sure-’nuff Southern justice goin’ on there!
As an aside, I loved the phrase “Quiggly sniggered”!
It was very tempting to put in wriggled as well but enough is enough!
I didn’t even think of that. I want to say (spoiler alert) that Vinnie (the NYC lawyer?)was successful in the end. Not so sure this Wall Street type will be so lucky. ?
Now I can’t help think of “My Cousin Vinny”… maybe because I watched it just a couple of weeks ago 😉
By the way, big John Grisham fan here. ?
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What a colorful cast of characters! Every delicious word choice makes it even better.
Thank you karen. Some of the word choices (incontrovertibly)are not ones I,personall, would choose. But they seemed like ones the character might.
I was playing with the idea, that burns are categorized as first, second and third degree, rising in seriousness with each step.
We use the same terminology with murder, but first degree is the worst type of murder, with intent and preplanning usually, while second degree, is less culpable.
This reversal of the ordinal number’s meaning could conceivably be used to befuddle a judge, who is more familiar with murder cases than with burn injuries. That is why Quiggly calls BS.
Of course I do not mean to say that first degree burns aren’t serious: only that this lawyer may be trying to pull a fast one on the judge, when all his (presumably Yankee)client is suffering from is a bad sunburn.
Giving someone the third degree seems to be rated on the same scale as burns: third being very bad. It usually involves very deep and uncomfortable questioning about things you dont want to talk about. Google tells me it was originally a term meaning torture, or extreme interrogation. One lone definition in the urban dictionary suggested, it might derive from Masonic ritual, where a third degree Mason is the highest level attainable, and can only be reached after long and thorough questioning.
Oh totally. I thought your word choices worked, deepening the characterizations. Ha, I never thought about the burn vs murder thing before.
Really enjoyed the contrasts of characters here, and how they each played their roles so differently.
Thanks Joy. Perhaps a tad stereotyped, but it was fun to write. ?
Sometimes it’s fun to play with more extreme accents and characters. 🙂