The Good Counselor Flashcards
START
This is how we do it. I will be you
How can you be me
It’s pretend. Role-playing. Just listen to me being you
What’s the point?
To help us get a handle on each other
I get you, but you don’t get me
Oh yeah?
Yeah
Oh, I may not be as thick as all… well maybe I am a little think. You wouldn’t be the first to take note of that. So maybe this could help me.
How does it work
I have your statement to the police investigators . (hand page to mia) Do you want to read it?
(hands it back) No. I know what I said
I also brought some questions the prosecutors will ask and some statements made by some witnesses
(grabs paper) What the hell are people tryna say about me?
We will get to that in just a minute. Relax
…let me see the motherfuckin’ papers
I will in time, Evelyn, but not until you calm down
Okay
(breathes in deeply) Now, I am going to tell your story. I am just going to repeat the things you have said in this report and other things you have told me here in this room.
Yeah?
Then I am going to put you in the power seat
What?
You’ll be the prosecutor. You’ll listen to my story and try to figure out if it makes sense.
I think I could do that.
I think so too. And I want you to be tough on me Evelyn, poke holes in the story when you can.
So I am being tough on myself, huh?
Yeah, actually, yeah.
Nothing new.
(Handing her the sheet) I am going to give you a little cheat sheet to kind of get you started in your role as prosecutor
(Looking at the sheet) These are the things the other lawyer will ask me?
Right
Okay.
Ready? (wait for nod) So I’ve taken the stand, sworn to tell the truth etcetera, etcetera. Now you ask me the first question
Describe events as they occcured on the evening of March 16th
I cleaned up some decorations from Christina’s birthday party then I made dinner around 6:30. After we ate, I did the dishes while Christina watched David. Then I gave David a bath in the kitchen sink. Okay so far?
Okay. Keep going.
After the baby was bathed, I put him in his pajamas. I tried to feed him. First I tried, I tried to feed him using my breasts
No one says it that way!
OK OK. I nursed him.
Better
Thanks. But he wasn’t sucking. He hadn’t been sucking the last few days. I tried a few times then gave up and used a bottle. How do I sound?
I believe you.
Good. So then he fell asleep and I put him to bed.
Is it my turn? Where did you put David to sleep?
He slept on the bed. A single bed where all three of us slept. Now come on Evelyn, what would the prosecutor say to that?
I don’t know.
Look on the sheet
Why didn’t you put the baby..
I wanted to, but the one I got for Christina got ruined in the old house when it got flooded. And I didn’t want to put him in the drawer on the floor because we had mice.
…me not having money?
I think it’s an important part of your story, Evelyn.
I don’t want no one feeling sorry for me
Why is it so bad for people to feel sorry for you?
You don’t want..
No, I guess not
You better than me?
I had a different kind of life, thats all
I have a right t my privacy
You lost that right Evelyn!
Just like the facking cops
No.
I’m tired
But we got to push through this, Evelyn there are some important things we have to clear up.
What?
Read this. It’s a statement from the investigator.
…David Laverty’s body was discovered.
Finish reading the statement, Evelyn.
I can’t believe this shit
Read it!
Look, I want to stop this now!
No, we can’t, Evelyn. We are going to get through this. How can I answer this piece of evidence? What can I say?
…at the site where the baby’s body was found.
That sounds like bullshit!
Someone stole my shoes to take the baby to the bean field then afterwards put them behind the stove.
The footprints in question…
Finish it, Evelyn. We are going to hear it in court.
Don’t say anything.
Come on!
Don’t! Get the hell outta here, I want a new lawyer!
Evelyn!
You’re just like the rest of them!
Yeah, that could be. But just because I’m an asshole one of the hundreds of assholes that you have to deal with, doesn’t change the fact that you have got to speak up for yourself.
Nothing you say is going to matter!
So, what! So what! I’m going to try. I’m going to look for some words that are going to stand in for something real that has happened to me. I may not get it right, I might offend some people, some people might misunderstand me, twist my words but fuck it, I’m going to speak.
What are you going to say that’ll change anything?
I will tell them about my life with my children.
What difference?
And I will tell them about how I struggled.
No one cares.
And I will tell them about the bed.
What?
The bed where I rested with my babies.
It’s my life.
I never thought anything bad could come out of that bed.
No, I didn’t
It was warm in that bed
Not ever, no.
After the days I had, it was like crawling into paradise.
It was.
When I lifted the covers to join my children, the heat rising from their sleeping bodies…
Warm, so warm
The smell washed over me…
Before I fell asleep that night.
Before I fell asleep that night.
I said a prayer.
I said a prayer.
Bigger, better stronger…mother that my children deserved
And then?D
avid was between us.
And then?
…I had a dream.
Tell me about it.
…Thy’re waiting! And then…
Yes…
I woke up.
And?
…and the stone is David.
Gone?
Oh no! He’s gone!
Evelyn!
You can’t make me live through this!
There are things you don’t know! There are things beyond anyone’s control!
Not one thing right!
You have to listen, he was a sick baby, Evelyn.
No matter how hard I try.
We don’t know if he would have survived. Evelyn, I can help you.
My entire fucked up life!
He had a serious condition
