Grace Wilkinson: Angie makes friends

"I've never seen him at the Marlowe's house."

"Anyone else seen him there?" Klein asked. The boys mumbled that they hadn't.

Brad insisted. "But he was the one who showed me how!"

"How about it, Miss Marlowe," Mr. Klein asked her. "Did this Doug Fleming do as Brad accuses?"

Angie looked at the lawyer; she swung her eyes over to Brad. He was brooding unhappily. Just like that day we had to go to the principal's office, flashed through her mind. She recalled how vindictive he'd been then. Fighting Doug unfairly. Then making up those lies to tell Mr. Bailey. Angie looked back at Mr. Klein. "No," Angie said softly.

"Are you denying Doug ever came to your house?" Mr. Klein asked.

"Yes," she said stoically.

Brad broke in indignantly. "She's lying." He looked hard at Angie. "Why are you doing this?"

Angie's eyes met his. Her eyes were inscrutable.

"It's not fair," Brad kept insisting, "Doug started it. He should have to pay too."

"You're sure now?" Mr. Klein questioned Angie. "Tell the truth. It has to stand up in the witness box."

Angie looked at him without changing her expression.

"All right, then," Mr. Klein went on. "No one else saw Doug there except you," he told Brad. "It's your word against his."

"But he did!" Brad was beside himself.

Mr. Klein looked at Angie. He could see she was lost in thought. The tense expression had relaxed to an enigmatic smile. Brad's probably right, he thought. That Fleming kid probably did start the orgies. But evidently, after that first time with Brad, he didn't go back. And she intends to protect him.

The courtroom was crowded. Every kid in town was there except for the ones who were forcibly detained at home by their parents. Doug was there, growing more uneasy by the minute. Did he belong on the stand with the others? Or did he belong here in the audience? He didn't know. Yet he felt guilty.

The prosecutor was questioning Brad.

"Were you the instigator of these — ah — games?"

"No, sir."

"Who was?"

Brad kept his eyes glued to the prosecutor. "Douglas Fleming."

A wave of emotion swept through the audience. Several people turned around to stare at Doug. Others exclaimed or giggled.

Doug sat perfectly upright in his chair and looked straight forward. He managed to conceal his emotions but he was a cauldron of indecision inside.

"How do you know this?" the prosecutor asked Brad.

"The first night I was at Angie's house, he was there. He showed me how. He did it first."

"You would say the person responsible for starting the games was Douglas Fleming?" the prosecutor asked.

"Yes, sir," Brad said. He stared straight at the prosecutor, unable to meet Doug's eyes, even across the courtroom.

"Thank you, Mr. Harker. You may step down."

Brad bounced out of the chair as if it were a hot seat.

"I am told that this boy, Douglas Fleming, is now present in the court," the prosecutor announced. "I ask that a special deposition be made out to call him to the stand."

Before the judge could reply, the defense attorney jumped to his feet. "Your honor, before another witness is called, my client, Angelica Marlowe, would like to speak."

"Permission granted," the judge said.

Angie rose from her chair and walked to the witness box for the second time.

"Angelica Marlowe, you have already sworn to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. You understand that?" Mr. Klein asked.

"Yes, sir," Angie said quietly.

"Now, regarding the statements made by Bradford Harker, will you tell us if Douglas Fleming was the ringleader of the games?"

"Yes, sir," Angie said quietly.

"Now, regarding the statements made by Brad Harker. Will you tell us if Douglas Fleming was the ringleader of the games?"

Angie's glance swung to Doug, sitting in the audience.

At the mention of his name, Doug had risen from his seat and stood conspicuously in the seated audience, staring fixedly at Angie.

Poor Doug, Angie thought. He looks so wretched. Of all the boys, he was the only one who didn't use me heartlessly.

Angie's voice rang out clearly. "No, he was not."

"He did not come to your house and participate in your games?"

Angie looked straight at Doug. "He did not," she replied clearly.

The judge looked at Angie seated on the stand, then he looked at Doug standing guiltily in the audience. There was a connection, he thought. Brad is probably partly right. She is lying. I wonder why she's protecting him. He looks like a fine boy. It would be a shame to implicate him in this sorry business.

In the end, Doug was never called to the stand. He sat in the audience sweating. Never had he felt so miserable in his life. From now on he intended to restrict his experiments to things that he knew about.

The judge was ending his summation of the case. "We have here a girl who experimented with sex. Why did she? She says because she wanted to find out about sex. Her mother didn't allow her to go to the sexual education classes at her school. Her father, in spite of the fact that he was a doctor, neglected his responsibility of telling her. Her mother told her lies and fiction. There comes a time in a person's life, when they feel they are ready for knowledge. If this knowledge isn't available formally to the person when he asks for it, then he will seek it in informal ways. Angelica Marlowe wanted to satisfy her curiosity about sex. The only avenue left open to her to do so was experiment. Her action was a sad indictment of her parents' prejudiced attitude about a natural act. Nevertheless this girl and these boys have broken the law. They have engaged in lewd and immoral conduct."

Angie sat as if in a dream. In the background she heard the judge sentence her to several years in reform school as a morally depraved youth. The boys got similar sentences. All because I was curious about sex, she thought wistfully, and who was really acting immorally.