.MTM5OA.MTIwODgz

and Anzia's cousin jumped up and scuttled to the front of the room. I followed and placed myself beside him. The judge looked at me not impolitely and turned to one of the bailiffs. "Whose that?" "Don't know, your honor." Somebody rattled off a page or two of charges and the judge said "Guilty or not guilty?" Anzia's cousin beat the air and showered it with thick protests of innocence. I asked permission to correct the defendant's response. "I think he doesn't understand that he shouldn't be denying his non-support but explaining it. There are several other children and he simply doesn't make enough money to go around." The judge signed several ^extraneous papers and said a few words to the bailiffs who brought them; then he turned back to us. "Can you get blood from a stone?" he demanded. "This man has no money. Case dismissed!"

   The sudden dissolving of resistance

stunned me for a moment, after which I turned to interpret the judges allusion to