The case of two headaches
It was a peaceful evening, with the Judge sitting in a courtroom with his clerk standing behind him. The Judge was meditating peacefully with a little smile, imagining a beautiful dinner with his wife and daughter in a famous restaurant of the city.
Then suddenly, SLAM!
A sound reached his ears, enough to grab his attention in the direction of the sound. He opened his eyes to see what or who had slammed the doors, and he saw two tall figures pushing each other and fighting at the door.
"I'll go first," Sara said with aggression in her voice.
"No, I'll go first," Harry said while struggling to get inside.
"Oh, you dare to go first? Move," Sara said while pulling Harry behind.
"Dare accepted. You move," Harry said and entered first, then started teasing her.
"I won the dare, Miss Big Brain."
Sara's fist tightened, and she started walking toward Harry, but before her fist could reach Harry, her assistant Sasha came between them. She closed her eyes tightly out of fear and almost got punched by Sara, then slowly opened them as she still didn't get punched and saw Harry's assistant Joy grabbing Sara's fist.
Sasha exhaled her breath and slowly wiped her face, which was covered with sweat, and said,
"SARA, you almost gave him a chance to sue you!"
"U-uh, you know, ah, he pushed me... OK, fine, I'm sorry," Sara said and glared at Harry.
"Uh-oh, I really missed the chance, and that's the reason you are still not famous even with that big useless brain, Miss Big Brain," Harry said while teasing her.
Before he could say more, a sharp voice passed his ears.
"Sir, I'm not paid for protecting you from Sara. This time I won't stop her, and if you really wanna get punched, then continue provoking her with that stupid face," Joy said with the straightest face possible.
"Oh lord, no... no, no. I know I'm not a good person, b-but why are you punishing me with them?" poor Judge said, and then grabbed his stress ball and started squishing it while praying.
"God, give me strength."
And then said,
"W-why are you both here? Where is Miss Jennifer and Mr. John? Weren't they fighting this case? Whyyyy are both of you here?"
Everyone went silent, and then a polite voice spread down in the courtroom.
"Your Honor, they both got stuck in an emergency situation, so instead of them, me and... ugh, Mr. Harry came in their place. I'm sorry for this inconvenience, Your Honor," Sara said.
Then a whispering sound reached Joy's ear.
"How fake. I bet she's just trying to increase her points in front of the judge with that while hiding her demonic face. Only if I didn't admire her parents, I would have filed sexual harassment against her," Harry said, not so loudly but loud enough.
"Ahm, ahm... she can hear you, sir," Joy said.
Harry looked toward Sara and immediately looked toward the Judge when he saw Sara glaring at him.
"Pfftt, harassment," Sasha laughed without knowing.
Sara opened her mouth to say something to Harry, but before she could react to Harry's whispers, a quiet and almost crying voice reached her ears.
"But... why both of you? Even if I forgot new attorneys were coming, I-I wasn't expecting both of you TOGETHER," the Judge said with wet eyes.
"Whatever... I accepted my fate. Now start the case."
"God....please again give me strength," he prayed.
"Yes, Your Honor," Harry and Sara said together.
Sara turned to reach her papers. Without knowing, out of habit, she looked beside her to check on her assistant, Sasha, but she saw Harry's smirk reaching up to his eyes. He gave a wink to Sara, which almost made her explode, but she somehow managed to calm herself down and mumbled,
“Just wait and watch, you flabbergasted bird.”
Harry looked at his assistant, Joy, confidently while resting on the table with the support of his right hand and whispered into Joy's ear,
“See, this is called gaslighting. Haha, you should be glad that you are learning from me.”
Joy didn't react as if it was waste of his time and peace to even say anything on this topic.
Then Harry corrected his posture and prepared himself to fight the case for PECIFIC Company, which was being sued by five farmers who claimed that the company had snatched their land, while Sara was representing those five farmers against the company.
Harry slowly stepped forward, his head lowered as he walked toward the center of the courtroom. He stopped before the judge and then tilted his head up, his expression becoming calm and firm, changing from his chaotic teasing face as he prepared to defend PECIFIC against the allegations.
“Your Honor,” he began with a calm and composed voice.
“The central question before this court is not whether these farmers are unhappy with the transaction today. The question is whether PECIFIC unlawfully obtained their land.
“We have written agreements bearing their signatures. These agreements were signed by individuals who are now alleging that they never voluntarily consented.
There was no immediate complaint from the majority of landowners in the area. Why have only five approached the court?”
Then Harry moved a little step forward toward Sara, slowly joining his hands together while moving toward her. He passed a little smirk that was visible enough to piss Sara off, and then attacked Sara's case.
“My opposing counsel alleges that an entire community was subjected to coercion. Where are those people?
“Why have only five opposed the transaction? And why should this court disregard written agreements merely because the signatories now dispute the circumstances in which they signed them?”
Harry looked at Sara and gave her a peaceful smile and mumbled,
“Let's see how you will win this, opposing counsel.”
Harry's murmur was loud enough to reach Sara, but this time it didn't affect Sara. Her eyes narrowed with as bright and peaceful a smile as Harry's.
Meanwhile, Joy was fixing his glasses and gave a sarcastic smile, making sure that Sasha saw it, and whispered to himself,
“That's the only reason I'm your assistant, sir.”
Then Sara slowly stepped forward toward the center of the courtroom with a calm and calculated expression, and she said in a steady voice,
“Your Honor, the existence of their signatures is not the end of the inquiry. The real question is whether the signatures represented free consent.”
Then she continued in the same calm and steady voice,
“My opposing counsel has placed a document before this court and asked the court to treat the signatures upon it as the conclusion of the matter. I submit that it is only the beginning.
“These farmers did sign. They do not deny that. What they deny is that they signed freely.”
Sasha had seen Joy's sarcastic smile before, but decided to pretend she hadn't seen it. Now, her left hand slowly moved toward her glasses, and she adjusted them with her middle finger while keeping her face toward the judge, but her eyes focused only on Joy.
Joy saw that and immediately turned his face toward the judge, pretending not to see or understand anything.
Harry gave a look of appreciation to Sara and then immediately responded,
“Your Honor, allegations of threats are easy to make after the fact. Where is the evidence of these alleged threats?”
The judge looked toward Sara while still squishing the stress ball in one hand and said,
“Ms. Sara, do you have evidence supporting the allegation of coercion?”
Sara nodded and said,
“Yes, Your Honor.
More than the court has yet heard.”
