Those Children Are Ours

by David Burnett

  “The children and I went into the kitchen to have cookies and milk, sort of a consolation prize, I guess. I had forgotten to lock the door when my former husband left, and a few minutes later, I heard it open. When I turned around, he was in the kitchen doorway, a tire iron in his hand. He told me that if I was going to keep his children from him, he would kill them while I watched. Then, he said, it would be my turn. He grabbed my arm and flung me across the room. Tasha and Amy were huddled on the floor in another corner. Amy was crying. He moved slowly across the kitchen, almost in slow motion, toward them.”

  Jennie sat, transfixed by the story.

  “My purse was on the counter next to me. I had purchased a pistol the week before and I was enrolled in a class on how to use it safely. The first session was to be that afternoon, while the girls were supposed to be with their father. My pistol was beside my purse. He was standing over my daughters, staring at them, paying me no attention. I reached for the gun, put a bullet in the chamber. Tasha and Amy were both screaming by this time. He turned to me, said, ‘Watch this,’ and he raised the tire iron above his head,” she swallowed hard, “and I shot him.”

  Jennie’s entire family gasped.

  “I called nine-one-one.” She looked away. “He…he was dead when the EMTs arrived.”

  Alice cleared her throat. “Your husband passed away because you shot…”

  “Your Honor, an inquest determined that Ms. Coleman acted in accordance with state law to defend herself and her children.” Kimi held out a folder.

  “I recall the incident,” Judge Sullivan said as she took the file.

  Emma ignored Kimi and the judge. Her voice was suddenly loud and strong. “Ms. Green, I protected my children, and I will defend them, all of my children, against any threat to their safety. And let me make this clear to everyone,” she looked at Jennie, then at Jennie’s father, then back at Alice, “Alexis Lindsay and Christa Lindsay—those children are mine.”

  Alice asked a couple of questions concerning Emma’s daughters, but Jennie was paying no attention. In her mind, she was sitting in her high school English class. The teacher was introducing a unit on Greek and Roman mythology. As the teacher talked, Jennie flipped through her textbook, stopping as she spied an image of Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, the goddess of war. Clad in helmet and armor, she stood, holding a flaming sword above her head, ready to strike at the enemy, who scattered at the sight of her.

  She looked back at Emma. This goddess was more than a pretty face.

  She heard Judge Sullivan’s voice. “We’ll take a short break. Ms. Carson, you may re-call Ms. Bateman when we return.”

  ***

  When court reconvened, Kimi called Jennie to return to the stand.

  “Ms. Bateman, at some point yesterday, we heard the name Jeff Ingram. Will you refresh our memories, please? Who is he?”

  “I moved in with Jeff when I left Thomas. He had a room in his apartment, and he allowed me to live there.”

  “You slept with him?”

  Jennie took a deep breath. “Yes.”

  Kimi nodded. “And with other men?”

  “I suppose that today one might say we were not exclusive.”

  “Even though you were still married. You testified that you lived with him for about two years before you began to mend your ways. What happened to Mr. Ingram when you moved out? Was he upset? Did he care? Did he pursue you?”

  “Jeff was unhappy when I decided to leave. We had become rather close.”

  “I can imagine. But he let you leave.”

  “He did not physically stand in my way.”

  “Do you still see him?”

  “Jeff has had problems. He does not have a steady job, and he travels quite a bit. When he is near Whitesburg, he might drop by.”

  “For a cocktail or a glass of wine?”

  “For a place to stay, a place to crash for the night.”

  Kimi shook her head. “So the relationship didn’t end. You simply found another place to live.”

  “No, the relationship ended. I haven’t slept with Jeff, or any other man, in years.”

  “Well, where does he sleep when he stays with you?”

  “In the guest room. That’s the rule.”

  “The guest room where your children will stay if they visit.”

  Jennie nodded.

  “So he calls you up and says, can I spend the night and you let him in. Do you feed him dinner?”

  “Often he just shows up and knocks on the door. If I’m not home, or if it is really late, he lets himself in and…”

  “He has a key to your house? This man with whom you have not slept in years? Let me see if I understand. You do not know he is coming, but he lets himself into your house, stretches out in the guest room, and you find him in the morning?”

  Jennie looked at Alice, wanting help, but Alice shrugged.

  “Yes,” Jennie whispered.

  “Well, what are you planning to tell Alexis? If a strange man climbs into bed with you in the middle of the night, just move over and give him space?”

  “No…I…”

  “And she claims to be responsible enough to care for her children.” Kimi threw her hands in the air, turned, and returned to her table. She paused for several moments, looking though Thomas’s journal.

  Jennie looked at Kimi, then Alice, then Judge Sullivan. “I…I won’t let him stay with me if the girls are there.”

  No one spoke. Kimi looked up, as if seeking help from heaven.

  “Ms. Bateman,” Judge Sullivan said gently, “if you don’t know that he is coming and he has a door key, how would you prevent Mr. Ingram from entering your house if the girls were to visit?”

  Jennie bit her lower lip. “I…I’ll change the locks.”

  “Brilliant,” Kimie mumbled sarcastically. She looked up at Jennie. “Yesterday, Dr. Lindsay read from a journal that he’d kept for several months as you were deciding to abandon him and your children. Were you aware that he was keeping the journal?”

  “I knew that he had a black notebook. I saw him writing in it a few times. I teased him once about his ‘little black book.’” She smiled. When no one laughed, she continued. “You know, a place to record your girlfriends’ telephone numbers…It was a joke.”

  “In his journal, Dr. Lindsay recorded what occurred the day you left your family.” She held the book out to Jennie, opened to the last page. “Would you read the entry for us?”

  Jennie’s hands shook as she reached for the book, and she pulled them back just before they reached it. “Must I?” She looked at Judge Sullivan. “I’d rather not.”

  “Your Honor…”

  “That’s all right, Ms. Bateman. I’ll read the entry. You might recall that Dr. Lindsay read the previous entry yesterday. It described Alexis’s account of a visit from ‘Uncle Jeff’ and the manner in which you entertained him. At one point, you threatened Alexis if she did not leave the two of you alone.”

  Jennie nodded, and Kimi began to read.

  “Jennie slept late this morning, stumbling into the kitchen around ten o’clock. She was wearing a man’s long-sleeved shirt, not one of mine. As she drank a cup of coffee I tried to talk with her about what had taken place the previous afternoon.

  “As I described what Alexis had told me, Jennie’s face became red. She placed her hands on her hips and screamed ‘The little bitch is a liar.’”

  Jennie reached into a pocket for a handkerchief.

  “She yanked a drawer open and grabbed a slotted, metal cooking spoon. ‘I’ll teach her to tell lies,’ she shouted as she dashed toward the porch where Alexis and Christa were playing. She grabbed Alexis by the arm, lifting her into the air. ‘I’ll show you what it means for someone to beat your tail, you little liar,’ she said. Alexis screamed. I shouted to Jennie, telling her to stop and I snatched the spoon from her hand before she could strike Alexis a third time. Jennie looked at me as if she hated what she saw.”

  Kimi turned to the
judge. “I’ll be using a few euphemisms here, Your Honor.” She looked back at the journal. “She pushed against my chest and she tried to hit me with her fists, but I caught her hands. She jerked away from me and growled like a wild animal. Then she screamed, ‘You take your flipping school and your flipping dissertation, and your flipping job, and your flipping children straight to flipping hell and you flip yourself.’”

  Jennie began to sob.

  “He then writes that you stormed into your bedroom, packed a few clothes, stomped down the steps to your car and drove away, tires squealing as you went…Ms. Bateman, do you remember any of this?”

  “Maybe…no…” Jennie could barely speak.

  “Your Honor, may we have a short break?”

  Jennie gulped, finally gaining control. She ignored Alice. “It sounds like the kind of thing I might have said at that time.” She looked at Thomas. “If you say that I said it, I must have, but I honestly don’t remember.”

  Kimi walked slowly back to her table.

  “Now, Ms. Bateman, I asked you yesterday why you decided to seek visitation now. To summarize your testimony, you said that you saw Dr. Lindsay with his children. You thought, that’s my family. I’d like to have a family again. So you came to court to get what you wanted on the spur of that moment.”

  “Not exactly…”

  “Because your shrink told you to do it.”

  “She knew what I wanted. She encouraged me…”

  “What’s the plan now, Ms. Bateman? Suppose Judge Sullivan grants you some visitation. What will happen next? Everyone will smile and be happy? You, Alexis, and Christa will throw your arms around each other for a big group hug? You’ll build a campfire out in the woods and everyone—you and the flipping children—will roast marshmallows, sing ‘Kum Bah Yah’ and live happily ever after?”

  Jennie opened her mouth, but no words came.

  “What would you do if your petition were to be granted in whole, and Alexis and Christa were to arrive at your door on June fifth?”

  “I…I hadn’t thought…”

  “Want to know what they’ll do if your petition is denied?” She paused briefly to allow Jennie to respond, but she didn’t. “I’ll tell you, Ms. Bateman. Alexis will spend three weeks in June at soccer camp, followed by three weeks at the Governor’s School for the Arts, hopefully completing her first novel. Christa has riding school in June, followed by a theater workshop for two weeks in July. On August first their father is to be married and they plan to attend his wedding. The next day, along with their father, stepmother, and new sisters, they are planning a cruise of the Greek islands. Give it some thought, Ms. Bateman. You claim to want the best for your daughters.” She turned away from Jennie. “I have no more questions, Your Honor.”

  ***

  “You can’t let her talk to you like that.” Jennie’s father lectured her as they left the courthouse. “You do want your daughters back, don’t you? Stand up to her. If I were on the stand, I…”

  Jennie already felt like crying, and her lip began to quiver.

  “You weren’t on the stand, Dad, and we all hope you won’t be.” Si stepped between him and Jennie. “Let me take you and Mom back to the hotel for lunch. We’ll give Jennie a chance to relax.”

  “All I’m saying is that…”

  “We understand what you’re saying.” Si placed his hand on his father’s shoulder and gently turned him away. “You two come on with me.”

  “I wanted to hit that woman.” Her father’s voice carried over the noise of the traffic as they walked away.

  While Si steered her parents back to the hotel, Jennie and Sarah walked down the street, looking for a place to eat lunch. They found a small café and sat at a table in the back. Jennie leaned across the table.

  “Am I doing the right thing, Sarah?”

  “By trying to be a part of your daughters’ lives? No question.”

  “But this summer…you heard what Ms. Carson said. The plans Alexis and Christa have for the summer. I can’t compete with those.”

  “You’re not competing.”

  “You know what I mean. Alexis likes soccer. She likes to write. Christa loves horses and acting. How can I drag them out to Whitesburg and deny them the opportunity to do the things they want to do? Isn’t that just being selfish?”

  “Wait now. A person can ride horses, play soccer, and write in places other than Charleston. There is a man, Smyth, Walter Smyth, he grew up near Whitesburg. He opened a stable off of the Douglasville Road last year. Christa can ride there, I’ll bet. Check the University in Carrolton. See about a soccer camp, writing classes. Don’t give up before you start.”

  Jennie idly scanned the menu. “I don’t know. It hadn’t occurred to me that I might interfere with their lives. They certainly need to be at home for their dad’s wedding.” She tossed the menu on the table. “They don’t like me now. They’ll hate me if I spoil their plans.”

  Sarah took her hand. “They don’t know you now. When they do, they’ll love you.”

  “Will they? When I listened to what Thomas and his attorney said about me in court, I didn’t even like me.”

  “You had a really rough period.” Sarah nodded. “We were so worried about you, and about Thomas and the girls. All of you came through it, though. You are not the same person you were, not the same at all.”

  “You’re biased.”

  “Of course I am, but it’s all true.” Sarah smiled. “Everything will be fine. You’ll see.”

  ***

  “This hearing has been concerned with Jennifer Bateman’s request for court-ordered visitation with her daughters, Alexis Lindsay and Christa Lindsay.” Judge Sullivan paused and looked at Jennie and then at Thomas. “This has been a particularly difficult situation for me.” She looked down at her notes.

  “Your Honor,” Kimi rose to her feet, “we too have several concerns about the proposed visitation, in addition to those we have expressed concerning the manner in which Ms. Bateman’s petition will completely disrupt Alexis’s and Christa’s lives.” She paused.

  “Go ahead, Ms. Carson.”

  “To begin, we are quite disturbed by the behavior of Ms. Bateman’s father, what he has said, what he has done, both in the past and in the present. We would be quite concerned if Alexis and Christa were to be placed in any situation in which he might have any opportunity to harm them.”

  Jennie’s father snorted and started to stand, but Si grasped his arm and pulled him back into his chair. Jennie glared at him. She felt herself becoming angry. She took a deep breath and tensed the muscles in her arms, slowly allowing them to relax.

  “We are concerned about Ms. Bateman’s continued relationship with Mr. Jeff Ingram and the possibility that her daughters might find themselves in a rather uncomfortable, unsavory, and potentially dangerous situation should he appear at Ms. Bateman’s house unexpectedly.

  “Finally, Ms. Green supplied us with various documents that we requested, including Ms. Bateman’s psychiatric evaluation. She chose to hand them to me as we went into session yesterday rather than to send them as I requested. As a result, we have not been able to review them as we would like.”

  “I apologize for sending them so late, Your Honor.”

  “I am sure.”

  “Your Honor, I have glanced through the psychiatric evaluation. It was prepared by a Dr. Wilson, who has been Ms. Bateman’s therapist for a number of years.”

  “Your Honor, Dr. Wilson knows Ms. Bateman—”

  “Quite well, Your Honor,” Kimi interrupted. “Ms. Bateman described Dr. Wilson as a close friend. She stated that petitioning for visitation was Dr. Wilson’s idea, that Dr. Wilson encouraged her to pursue visitation since, in her words, it would empower her. Your Honor, it is inconceivable that Dr. Wilson would provide an evaluation that would imperil Ms. Bateman’s chances of success. Before any visitation order is issued, we would ask the court to order an independent evaluation of Ms. Bateman’s current condition.”
>
  “Your Honor.” Alice Green rose to her feet.

  “Ms. Green.”

  “Ms. Bateman will agree to have an evaluation by an independent psychiatrist.”

  “What?” Jennie looked up, startled, but Alice motioned for her to be quiet.

  “She will have the locks on the doors of her house re-keyed this week and Mr. Ingram will not have access to her house without her knowledge and consent. Furthermore, she will not object if the court’s order provides that the children may not be left alone with her father.”

  “Just a minute, now.” Jennie’s father stood and took a step forward, limping. “Those are my granddaughters. You can’t stop me—”

  “Mr. Bateman, be quiet and sit down. I certainly can do what Ms. Green is suggesting.”

  Judge Sullivan checked her notes again. “I am still concerned about Ms. Bateman’s behavior at the time she abandoned her children. I am quite aware that symptoms of disorders such as hers can reappear when an individual is under stress, and I well recall that caring for teenaged girls is not a stress-free situation. Further, I am concerned about the lack of contact between Ms. Bateman and her children for such an extended period of time and the disruption that the proposed visitation will have on their lives.”

  No one spoke and Jennie could hear cars passing on the street, three stories below.

  “I share Ms. Carson’s reservations, and I certainly want an independent psychiatric evaluation.” She looked down at her desk. Jennie could sense the indecision in her voice. “However, assuming a good report, I’ll likely have to issue a visitation order in spite of my misgivings.”

  “Your Honor.” Kimi Carson sprang to her feet.

  “Ms. Carson.”

  “We have a proposal that may help.”

  “Well, speak up.” Judge Sullivan smiled as if she would be grateful for help from any quarter.

  “Assuming that Ms. Bateman’s second evaluation and the material provided by Ms. Green at such a late date are satisfactory, we suggest that, prior to issuing a final order, you order three trial visits, one each month for the next three months. We can provide a list of dates that will not interfere with any of the girls’ current plans.” She held up a sheet of paper.