After Before and After

Phase 4: Chapter 63

For a total of eleven business days, Dana Barnes presented every relevant character witness she had against Luke Armstrong, including the now fourteen-year-old's parents and little sister. The most gut-wrenching part of the trial thus far was watching the ten-year-old girl be forced to speak ill of her big brother, who she clearly loved and respected. She stumbled over her words, tripped up on the stand more than a few times, and was nearly brought to tears. Dana Barnes knew better than to grill a sympathetic witness like little Amy Armstrong to the point of actual tears, so she held back more than she obviously wanted to. The girl was smiling by the time Reynolds finished cross-examining her, and the pep was back in her step when she returned to the gallery and the comfort of her mother's embrace. Amy was followed by several more witnesses who knew her brother well, including extended family, friends, coaches, and even distant acquaintances who had something relevant to say, according to Barnes' standards.

On February 12th 1993, Barnes questioned her final witness on the list of witnesses for Luke. By the end of his time in the spotlight, Luke was looking about as bad as Larry was, or at least Ralph thought so. The two boys seemed to have similar track records, though Larry's contained more lashing out physically while Luke was simply set up to be perceived as defiant and disrespectful given that he had no notable incidents of physical violence in any of his records. After court that Friday afternoon, Zoey informed Ralph and his parents that Barnes would be moving onto the next boy on the roster. Or in this case, the next boys. Numbers two and three on the roster were none other than Sam and Eric Brooks. Because their character witness lists were essentially identical, Barnes planned on questioning witnesses about both of them at once. It would speed things up a bit, Zoey noted, but not all that much given that there were two of them whose behavior would be scrutinized.

Given that Sam and Eric were friends of Ralph's before the island, and even more so afterwards, the latter was feeling especially anxious about listening to the testimony Barnes had prepared for them. It was easier with Larry and Luke, given that ninety percent of what Ralph knew of them came from the island. But it was different with Sam and Eric, his close friends who slept over at his house handfuls of times, who he went to the summer festival with, who frequently called him for help with their homework, and who looked out for him at the end on the island. Ralph knew he would have a hard time sitting quietly while Barnes defamed the twins' characters, but luckily Zoey was able to coach and advise him on it beforehand. The Langleys disclosed the nature of their friendship with the Brooks family to Zoey before the trial began, so the attorney was aware that it would be hard for him to listen to the relevant testimony. So over the last week Barnes spent questioning the people of Luke's inner circle, the Langley family was spending most mornings and recesses with Zoey as she coached Ralph through the process of what was to come when Sam and Eric's innocence came into question.

Sometime in the first week of February, Ralph and his parents ran into the whole Brooks family in the hotel parking lot. Ralph hadn't seen them at all outside the courtroom over the first two months of the trial, and he was happy to hear the twins' voices again. Laurie made plans with Kelly Brooks to go for coffee somewhere outside Savannah, something Ralph thought was an utterly ridiculous thing they had to do, but the two parents weren't willing to take chances being in the public eye of Savannah.

Laurie and Jeffery brought Ralph to room 502 on the afternoon of Saturday, February 6th while the four adults drove out of town to grab lunch. The Brooks' family's hotel room was identical to the Langleys with the bunk bed by the window and the king bed by the door across from the kitchenette. The boys studied and watched TV for most of the afternoon while their parents sat in a restaurant down in Fort McAllister and discussed the ups and downs of the trial. The boys ventured into that topic a little too, although it was a surprisingly heavy discussion for a few thirteen and fourteen-year-olds.