Opening Statements
Night court in Zeitville.
Nemo’s being ushered up marble steps by his lawyer. His friends down at the Patchwork Bar have advised turning himself in, rather than continue to let him dwell in fugitive status.
On the way up the steps, he sees Casey in the flesh for the first time since she returned to school in August. She’s planning to testify in the trial—for or against him, he doesn’t really know, especially from the ambiguous look she gives him.
One eye catches the light, the other is obscured in shadow. Two perspectives, like the scales of justice.
She doesn’t say a word but he can feel muscle memory move his lips into a mumbled “Casey.”
Everyone takes their seats in the court room. The plaintiff is—who else?—OriginalSyn.
Their lawyer, Seth Dryden, is a firebrand who Nemo guesses is a Sagittarius Sun. The man knows nothing of pithy phrases. He’s a walking semi-colon. Every other sentence in his opening statement descends into some clause, to which he attaches another clause.
He outlines the scenario that occurred at Klout Casino at the Scorpio New Moon, where Nemo, seeking to escape a backroom deal, knocked over a bodyguard who suffered a fatal head injury.
“Thus, judge and jury, I plan to outline for you a murder. . .yes, a murder done in cold blood, on the heels of stealing intellectual property no less, which I will. . .”
“Objection, your honor,” says Nemo’s lawyer, Rich Frey.
“Sustained,” the judge says in a cool dry tone. “Mr. Dryden, please do get to the point here. We’ve been waiting patiently.”
“That’s all, your honor,” Dryden says with a trace of condescension.
Frey buttons his blazer and stands up.
“My client, Nemo Allman, will testify to being at Klout Casino on November 4 of this year, it’s true. What he will also testify to is that he was subject to extortion. Furthermore, I will be questioning one of the plaintiff’s witnesses, Cassandra Banks, also known as Casey, to prove this claim of extortion. I will show that Ms. Banks has been blackmailed by the plaintiff.”
Gainzstrodamus, the lead plaintiff and head of OriginalSyn, whispers furiously in Dryden’s ear. There seems to be an ambient buzz in the courtroom’s air.
Nemo looks over to Casey—she shoots him a sideways glance, then stands up:
“Your honor, with respect to any evidence that may be presented with my image on it. . .”
“Excuse me, Ms. Banks,” the judge says coolly but sternly. “You do know these are the opening statements. There will be time to speak when you are called to the stand. This is out of order, please sit. . .”
“But. . .”
“Ms. Banks—”
She defiantly lingers for a moment longer and looks over to Nemo again, then sits.
And that’s when Nemo knew: this entire autumn, as he was swimming in suspicion and jealousy, she still cared for him.
He had let doubt eat at him, spurring him into rage and revenge.
But how do they come to an understanding, after all of this—even now, as the stakes are so high? And didn’t she still technically betray him anyways, despite these feelings he’s suddenly and instantaneously detected?
On his way out the courtroom, Nemo looks over at Dryden handing Ziplocked evidence back over to an officer.
In one of the bags is the heart pendant necklace that he dropped in the field upon escaping from Klout Casino—the same necklace that he won for Casey over Bold and Gold summer, when he finally realized he was an artist at heart.
It was always a memento of how she woke something up in him, which is why she had him keep it, when she returned to school.
And while it seems so disillusioning to see it wrapped in a bag titled “Evidence,” Nemo realizes that some things are never truly lost—they go lost and die so they can be reborn, and take new shape.
“Perhaps that bag is the cocoon,” he thinks to himself. “Soon. . .the butterfly will emerge.”