Schifflebein's Folly

CHAPTER 17: THE JUDGMENT

"You see, Mr. Schifflebein, I know you're not crazy," Judge Witherspoon said as she poured tea into a china cup on her credenza. "But I do believe you are a fool – as big a fool as Dr. Frankel, who alienates himself from his own family because he's ashamed of a biological defect over which he had no control. Sound familiar?"

Lloyd turned his back. He crossed to a window and looked down into the street, fifty feet below.

"Can you see them?" asked the judge.

"Pardon?"

Just then a knock sounded at the judge's chamber door. Immediately Hepzibah's face appeared around the door's edge. "They didn't come in here?"

Remmy pushed Hepzibah into the room and entered behind her. "Oh, cheez, where'd they do?" Remmy said, scanning all corners of the room.

Lloyd and Judge Witherspoon were as calm as Hepzibah and Remmy were agitated.

The judge said, "I imagine they are exactly where Mr. Schifflebein sent them. What did you tell the children, Mr. Schifflebein?"

"You heard me. The bathroom and a drink of water."

"Do I look like I just fell off a turnip truck?" the judge said, raising an eyebrow. "What did you tell the boy?"

Lloyd held up one hand a repeated the signs he had made into Rudy's palm minutes before. The three ladies responded with blank looks.

"He said, 'Stop Charley,'" Mona's teapot interpreted.

Hepzibah looked at the judge. "You've got one, too? Where can I get one of those?"

"Never mind that now," Remmy said. "Where's dem kids?"

The judge answered. "I believe Mr. Schifflebein just observed them entering the Annex building across the street. Correct?"

Still standing by the window, Lloyd merely nodded.

The judge turned back to her credenza and began arranging more cups and saucers.

"Mrs. Stoner and Mrs. Jackson, please join me for a cup of tea." Her tone was much more demanding when she said, "Mr. Schifflebein, your obvious talents notwithstanding, those children deserve a mother. I shall expect you back in my courtroom at two-thirty on the dot with your family – your entire family – in tow. Don't be late. My ruling depends on it."

Lloyd was across the room and out the door before one could say, "orange pekoe."

Lloyd raced down five flights of stairs, across four lanes of vehicles, and up six flights of stairs. He did not wait for elevators, slow pedestrians, or traffic signals, but wove down, out, around, between, through, in, and up with no regard for courtesy or danger. He pirouetted and leapt among the cars and trucks, vaulting over the hood of a taxi, even swinging from the side mirror of a city bus. Only divine intervention could explain his survival. The three ladies in Judge Witherspoon's chambers watched from a window, sipped tea, and shook their heads.

Charley Bates and Dan Perlman stood facing one another, holding hands, when Lloyd burst into the room on the Courthouse Annex's sixth floor. Several feet beyond the couple, a Clerk/Notary stood, holding an open book.

Lloyd entered at a run and skidded to a stop just as Charley lifted herself onto her tiptoes and kissed Dan lightly on the lips.

"Stop!"

Charley and Dan, still holding hands, turned their faces toward Lloyd. Dan frowned. Charley smiled.

"Don't you dare say anything, Schuckelstein," Dan growled.