Custody Read Free Page B

know, as no one can know, that Kelly MacLeod would have the pure, dogged persistence to make it through the yards of reviews, the miles of legal texts, the mountains of difficult casework, past the traps of vanity and pretension, the siren lure of wealth, and especially the abyss of cynicism and downright exhausted despair to this day.
    “But here she is. My pride in her is boundless. My hopes for her are infinite. And this is what I want to say here to her now:
    “The Massachusetts court system is the envy of the world. People come from every other country on this planet to study our courts, because in spite of all its faults, and there are many, it comes as close as humanly possible to rendering justice on this earth. What we do here effects not only the parties directly involved in each legal case. Its reverberations extend throughout the Commonwealth, the nation, and the world. The responsibilities of judges are awesome. The consequences are illimitable.
    “Those who must come to court do so in the darkest hours of their lives. They cannot see their futures, and their pasts have been shattered like broken mirrors. There is light in their future, but it is the black robe of the judge which, like the expanse of night sky, makes the stars of hope visible. Take away that robe, and the light disappears. Take away that robe, and there is no way to see the dawn of the new day.”
    Professor Hammond cleared his throat. He took a sip of water. Then he continued.
    “I thank you all for bearing with me as I waxed poetic. I have done so in the hope that Kelly MacLeod will carry with her, into her future, the thought of the night sky, and its vastness, which is like the vastness of the responsibilities of the mantle she is about to don.”
    The crowd applauded slowly, steadily, and then, one by one and in groups, they rose to give the man a standing ovation.
    He was probably the most revered man in this room, Kelly thought, and he knew everything about Kelly: everything . If anyone could judge her now, as she stood before her peers, it would be Professor Hammond. He had judged her, and he approved. He understood, more than any other person alive, what she had sacrificed to her passion for the law.
    Judge Steinberg was continuing. “I now am honored,” she said, “to introduce to you the Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Richard Hamilton.”
    Blood drummed so loudly in Kelly’s ears that she couldn’t really hear what the Governorwas saying. Then he turned to her and smiled.
    So she rose and stepped forward, suddenly and serenely triumphant, and raising her right hand, she began to take her oath of office.

Two
August 6, 2000
    S UNDAY MORNING K ELLY SAT CROSS - LEGGED next to her mother’s grave. Because the days and nights just after her ceremony passed in a blur of celebration and a scattered attempt at organizing her desk, her calendar, and her life, Kelly appreciated even more than usual the tranquillity of the cemetery today, when the summer air lay lush and heavy against her skin and the traffic of the surrounding city was muted. Only the occasional singing bird broke the silence.
    Just when she was wondering whether or not the man would come, as he had every Sunday she’d been here, she saw him walking up the paved lane, a sheaf of lilies in his hand.
    Kelly had noticed the man before, and liked the look of him, although she chastised herself for having such thoughts in a cemetery—especially since she was engaged.
    But she couldn’t help observing that he was there when she arrived each Sunday morning, or appeared soon after, walking up Magnolia Path, carrying fresh flowers—pale yellow roses, white lilies, and once, tulips of a breathtaking coral—in his hands. She admired him for bringing perishable flowers rather than a more durable plant—for wasn’t that why we grieve, because what had once been living and beautiful had vanished from the earth forever? She wondered if the grave was his