Trapped

Jimmy stares at the scrap of paper cupped in his hand. It holds two words: ‘Guilty’ and ‘Not’ written in The Teacher’s firm script. The Lawyer is the one who came up with the idea. He said it was OK, if they wanted to avoid a hung jury, for every one to just vote anonymously. Jimmy thinks he is lying. The Lawyer obviously just wants to leave. Jimmy can’t blame him. The room is starting to smell.

It started to smell really bad in there cause…  cause Brandon, cause the body, it… well, he pooped himself when Tyler choked him.

The Teacher doesn’t like it, but everyone else, even The Grandma, who is totally happy to stay, said they should. Jimmy didn’t voice an opinion, but no one asked him anyway. They just ignore him. They probably call him The Kid in their own minds. He really is the most important one there, cause he’s the same age as Tyler, the defendant. The murderer?

Brandon was my best friend! Do you really think I would want to murder my best friend? Ashley was starving, we were both about to die! Brandon was brain dead… his skull was totally caved from the accident…

After this, Jimmy knows he’ll never feel trapped again. As soon as he gets out of this room, he’s gonna go straight to the community college and re-register for next semester. He’s gonna finish his education and then a real job with growth potential.

The car flipped twice, and then the avalanche covered it. We knew Brandon was hurt bad, but we didn’t know what to do. We started digging right away, me and Tyler, and we found the cave with the fire wood all stacked up and started a fire and we melted snow to drink, and we tried to help Brandon, we really did….

If Jimmy ever feels ‘trapped’ again in his life, all he has to do is think back to this crazy, messed up case. The idea of being stuck in a cave for thirty days with no food and your best friend almost dead and your best friend’s girlfriend being all helpless puts a different spin on the word ‘trapped.’

We took turns digging, we figured there had to be someone looking for us. Ashley’s parents at least. I didn’t know that she’d written that note, I didn’t think to ask. I can’t believe everyone just thought we’d turned our phones off. I can’t believe it took you people two whole weeks to start looking for us! If only you’d come sooner, if only…

Jimmy stares for a moment longer at the paper. The other jurors are starting to put their votes in the box. What would I have done? Jimmy wonders, seeing as Ashley is one seriously hot chick.

We thought we were going to die. We were exhausted, we couldn’t dig any more, we needed food. It was Tyler’s idea, but I went along with it. If it means anything, Brandon didn’t taste good at all.

Jimmy makes his decision. While The Lawyer and The Teacher count the votes, he wonders if he’ll make it home in time for dinner. Hopefully his mom isn’t cooking steak tonight.

Steaks on a grill (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Daily Prompt: Shipwrecked! - Read the story of Richard Parker and Tom Dudley. Is what Dudley did defensible? What would you have done?