“How was jail?” one of the grandchildren piped up.

“I did not spend much time in jail, thankfully. It is not the way in Bravia for people to be imprisoned for long periods of time. Jail is a short-term thing, only until one’s trial takes place, and then one is either released to liberty, or faces some need of paying recompense to those people one has harmed,” the grandfather continued.

“So what happened next?” a ginger girl added.

“I am coming to that part, be patient, my dear child.” The old man smiled. “I did not spend many days in the prison in the port area. As my lawyer had told me, my case was a simple one and there were few witnesses. Before too long I was taken to the Hall of Justice, and in a large room–it must have been the main courtroom, used for the most important political cases, such as mine was–a serious looking judge sat while I stood before him with my advocate at my side. The courtroom was full of people, since court cases are great entertainment for our people.

“You do not want to try the teacher and the student together?” the judge asked.

“No, your honor,” the advocate responded. “I believe the facts of the two cases are different enough that it would be prejudicial for my client to be tried with the teacher.”

The judge thought for a moment. “Your client is prepared to take the stand and explain his actions?”

“He is, your honor.”

“I see no reason, then, why this trial cannot go on today. At this, the prosecutor stood up and began his argument.

“Your honor, good citizens of Bravia, what we have today is a very simple case. I will not bore you with complicated arguments or long and tedious questioning of witnesses. This young man here,” he said pointing at me,” brought incendiary materials urging revolution against our government. We have no reason to believe he had read or understood what he brought and have good reason to believe that the opposite in fact is true. The defense has generously offered to have him speak in his own defense so you can hear his own account, even if he does not understand the enormity of the crime that he was involved in, however unwittingly. As much as we sympathize with a young man caught up in affairs too big for him to understand, no one denies that he brought the documents into the country. His was not a plan or a design of evil, but he was used for evil nonetheless, an evil that was fortunately dealt with before being put into action. We are all aware of the political violence that Marxists bring to areas like ours, in the destruction of property, in violence to people, all done with a self-righteous belief that they are in the right and that nothing that people have or are makes them immune from violence designed to make all poor and miserable. Indeed, we would not even argue that the young man here is even a Marxist himself. But while we certainly sympathize with him, his actions did endanger the well-being and peace of our realm. For that, a penalty must be paid, even if we do not seek for the maximum penalty because of the obvious extenuating circumstances of youth and naivete and comparative innocence. In this case, I will bring as my witnesses the cops who found the Marxist documents and discuss with them the scene they found when they brought the defendant into custody, and that is all I need to do in order to demonstrate the guilt, however unintentional, of the defendant.” With that he sat down.

“Do you have anything to say?” the judge asked my advocate.

“I do wish to make brief remarks,” he began. “The defense agrees with the prosecution that there is no question that my client brought Marxist documents into Bravia. He will explain the circumstances which led to his being here, and we will leave the determination of the penalty to the mercy of the judge, with the understanding everyone shares that there was no plan or intention of evil by my client.”

“Will this testimony be recorded so that it may be used as state’s evidence in the upcoming trial of the teacher?” the judge asked. The prosecutor looked at the advocate, who nodded. “Very well then, let us continue. The prosecution will begin direct examination, and if there is any need to cross-examine the defense may ask questions, and we will see if there is any need to redirect, though I doubt that will be necessary in this case.

“I call as my first witness Customs Agent #546,” the prosecutor says as the tax agent, wearing a nice suit, stands before the bar for questioning. “Do you remember what happened when the defendant here arrived at Port Bravia?”

“I remember it very well,” the agent replied.

“Could you take us step by step through what happened?” the prosecutor continued.

“Certainly. We had noticed that the defendant was on a ship that had come from __________, a nation we have long held under suspicion on account of its government policies and especially for its interest in sending teachers to schools in the Free Port of Bravia. Given our suspicion of the behavior of teachers and of that nation in particular, we are on the lookout for students being used, sometimes without their knowledge, as mules. When the defendant disembarked from the ship, we asked to look through his belongings and received his permission, and when we did we found a box of materials that contained political writings of a nature designed to provide encouragement as well as instruction in how teachers could indoctrinate students in Marxist ideology and also seek to subvert our laws and ways. It was clear, at least to us, that the box had not been previously opened and that the young man had not read the material, and in our discussions with him he did not indicate either knowledge of or sympathy with Marxist causes. Nevertheless, because the documents were of such an incendiary nature, he was brought into custody anyway.”

“Thank you,” the prosecutor replied. “That is all.”

“Do you have any questions,” the judge asked the advocate.

“I do, your honor,” the advocate began. “You mentioned that you had some information that led you to be suspicious of the particular nation that my client went to as a guest to a conference, and that you were particularly concerned about the influence of Marxism through teachers, is that so?”

“Yes, that is so.”

“Yet was there any attempt to warn people visiting that country as students to be wary of that nation and its behavior?”

“Not to my knowledge.”

“Was there any effort made to educate a student traveling to a conference on the sort of language that is used by Marxists, language which may seem innocent and blameless to a young person who is not aware of their technical sense when used by an indoctrinated Marxist?”

“Not to my knowledge.”

“Do you believe such knowledge could have helped my client, and others who may find themselves in the same position, to be on their guard and more wary about their interactions with Marxists while traveling internationally?”

“I believe that to be the case. It is my understanding that the documents that the young man brought are being read and will be used for anti-Marxist educational material in the future.”

“That is very commendable,” the advocate continued. “Is not such a use too late to help my client avoid punishment, though, for a crime he committed without knowledge and without any sort of warning?”

“That is not for me to decide.”

“That is all,” the advocate stated.

“Do you wish to redirect your witness at all?” the judge asked the prosecutor.

“I do not,” the prosector said.

“You may leave,” the judge said, as the customs agent left the bar and returned to his seat.

“For my next witness, I would like to call Customs Agent #707,” the prosecutor continued. With that, the second customs agent left his seat and stood at the bar. “Can you verify that the account given of the arrest of the defendant was accurate?”

“It was accurate,” the agent replied.

“Do you have any details you would like to add to what has already been said?”

“I am a fairly new agent, so unlike my colleague, I did not have a great deal of expertise or experience in dealing with the political matters of this case. I was brought in as a trainee agent and this was viewed as a learning experience for me. Given my unfamiliarity with this sort of procedure, I could see in the young man the same sort of innocent and uncertain behavior that I recognize in myself. He did not show any awareness of having done anything wrong and was entirely open to our investigation of his belongings, since he did not see himself as possessing anything that we might view in a negative fashion.”

“Are you involved at all in the efforts to interpret the documents that the young man brought from _______?”

“I am not.”

“How long have you been working for the customs agency?”

“This is only my fourth week right now, and I had just gotten out of initial training when I was assigned to partner with agent #546.”

“That is all,” the prosecutor stated.

“Do you have any questions for the witness?” the judge asked the advocate.

“I have no questions, your honor,” the advocate stated.

“With that, the case in main for the prosecution is done. You may present your case,” the judge continued.

“I would like to call Henry Olivander to stand before the bar,” the advocate stated. And with that, I went to stand before the judge and look out into the crowd.

“What was it that led you to go to ___________?”

“One of my teachers, __________, told me that he had selected me to go to a conference in ________ that would help me to better my future as a scholar.”

“That is what you desired to be, before you found yourself in this position?”

“Yes, I have always had a thirst for knowledge, and I was eager to travel, to see the world, and to better my understanding of the outside world.”

“When were you first aware that something might be wrong with the conference you attended?”

“There were parts of the conferences presentations that I did not really understand. The speakers appeared to be using words that I knew, but in a difference way than I had learned them.”

“Can you give some examples of this language that you heard that confused you?”

“Many of the speakers used words like equity and justice, but they did not appear to mean them in ways that applied to everyone. They sought equity for certain people, and thought of justice as something that was not provided to all, but was something that certain people demanded from others.”

“Had you ever been taught any sort of technical or special sense of these words before?”

“No, I had not.”

“When you received the box of materials, what were you told about it?”

“I was told that this box was for my teacher.”

“Did you feel suspicious at all about it?”

“No. There were papers being printed and shared throughout the whole conference, most of them being larger discussions of matters that the various presenters were given. I had read some of these papers provided at the conference and it was hard to understand why the authors assumed that everyone understood the language being used, as many of the words were not defined at all, and certainly did not have any scriptural citations as to where they may be found and in what sense they were being meant.”

“Do the scriptures matter to you?”

“Very much, sir. I was raised from a little tyke to read and live according to everything that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

“How did you feel when you were told that the box you were bringing to your teacher contained revolutionary and prohibited documents and found yourself taken into custody?”

“I was shocked. I didn’t know what to say or what to think. I’ve never been in this kind of trouble before.”

“What do you hope will be the result of your experience?”

“I hope no one has to go through something like this again.”

“That is all,” the advocate said.

“Do you have any questions for a cross-examination?” the judge asked the prosector.

“I do,” the prosecutor responded.

“Do you wish to serve your people?”

“I do, though I do not know how that would happen at this point.”

“Do you think that your life is over?”

“It may be. I have been told that what I did, even unknowingly, carries the death penalty.”

“Do you think that you deserve mercy?”

“Does anyone deserve mercy? I hope for it, but I do not think that one can expect it.”

“That is all.”

“Do you have any questions for redirect?” the judge asked the advocate.

“None, your honor.”

“Do either of you wish to make closing statements?” the judge asked the two barristers present.

“I think the case is an open and shut one,” the prosecutor said. “I think you know enough to decide the matter.”

“I agree with my colleague,” the advocate said.

“I agree with the two barristers,” the judge agreed. “This is indeed an open and shut case. Given the nature of this case, it is rare for such a straightforward situation to be provided. This court understands both the gravity of the offense for which this young man, who we understand is a generally upstanding and blameless young man, a scholarship student and one who had a bright future ahead as a scholar, has been brought before the court. There is no dispute about the facts in question. The young man received a box of documents in _______, and was told to bring them to his teacher, who appears to be the real ringleader here, having arranged for the whole situation to begin with. Before these documents could be passed to the teacher, they were intercepted by customs agents, whose accounts are in harmony with each other as well as with the defendant as to what happened. Since there is no dispute in matter of fact, we now turn to the matter of law. The law of Bravia does not permit a great deal of leeway in terms of punishment for the sort of treason that has been committed here. Death is required for those who seek to, even unknowingly, overthrow our system of government and the laws and ways by which this nation and its people live. We agree that the young man had no desire to support or participate in this overthrow, but death is still required. That said, it does not have to be a bodily death, by which this young man’s life and his usefulness to our people would be put at an end. Nor does it have to be a spiritual death, by which the young man is removed from fellowship with other believers, because again there is no consciousness of sin nor any rebellion against the laws and ways of this land. Instead, the punishment given to this young man will be the living death.”

With this there is a pause in the courtroom, as some of the people in the crowd look at each other a bit confused.

“We are aware that the living death is a rare punishment in this sort of case. Therefore we the court find it necessary to explain to the audience, as well as to the convicted, what this involves. Once the documents the convicted brought are properly interpreted and our own educational efforts to deal with the plague of Marxism are helped thereby, the offending documents will be consigned to the fire, to burn with an everlasting fire until they are completely consumed. Meanwhile, in a time to be scheduled by the court, but soon, there will be a ceremony of the living death, where an open empty casket will be set aside in a public funeral home and where a priest will discuss the death of the convicted with regards to political rights as well as personal property and inheritance. From this moment onward, the convict before me will be alive for the rest of his natural existence but will be counted as dead in being unable to vote and unable to own personal property, though he may continue to use property held in trust in order to maintain his life, such as food, clothing, and shelter. After the ceremony of living death is conducted, the convicted will report to Point Pleasant Work Camp to begin his service to his country. The nature of that service will be detailed at that time.”

With that he turned to look particularly at the young man before him. “You may be dead to the world, but your service to your nation and to your people has just begun. May God grant you a long and rewarding life, and may this dark day not be the end of your hopes for being of use to others or being recognized and rewarded for your intellect, but rather a beginning of the acquisition of adult wisdom and the providing of other opportunities for your talents to be recognized and developed.”

And with that, I was brought into a room to talk with my grandmother, in a confused mood but with the praise and satisfaction, it seemed, of the people around me.