A Carnivore on Trial, Brian Hesse [year 2 reading books .txt] 📗

Edward Sikes barely noticed the sharp sting of the splintered wood slicing through his calloused palm, as he slid his hand mindlessly across the rotting wood of the holding pen. His mind felt too clouded with a heavy mist of worry, and the pressing weight of a deepening depression. The low guttural moans of the two hundred half-starved Corriente Cattle did nothing to help slow his acceleration toward a dreaded but, in his tired mind, inevitable end. He felt a powerful wave of shame strike mightily against his very soul. A wave of guilt with origins traced to the very depths of his Great Grand Fathers forgotten neglected grave.

In 1922, Mr. Grady Sikes, Edward’s Great Grand Father, emigrated to America from Scotland, with the empty pockets typical of the dreamy eyed immigrant. Through the usual hard work, characteristic of that tough generation, and a tough extra layer of skin forged through the hardships of hard work and sacrifice, he bought his own business. On just fifteen acres of land, he built the necessary facilities for small scale beef slaughtering operations, with just enough room for expansion, in case God heard his prayers for prosperity. Within twenty years, the Sikes Meat Processing Company, just outside the unusual location of Jacksonville Florida, became one of the most profitable operations in America. Despite later calls for more humane, and sanitary conditions, the plant prospered through the roaring twenties, the Great Depression, World War One, The Korean Conflict, Vietnam and the vegetarian hippy movement of the sixties, and all the way up to the current time of two thousand and seventeen.

Edward Sikes, considered the wonderful history of the plant, and its subsequent decline shortly after taking ownership with the death of his Father just five years back.

“I have no one to blame but myself,” he stated sleepily to the two hundred hungry cattle staring at him with hunger, and reproach. “I am a gambler, a drunk, and twice divorced through my own failure to grow up.”

He silently wiped flowing tears from his eyes as he considered the amount of money spent on vices; Money that should have been spent on transforming his Great Grand Fathers plant into a modern sanitized and humane bastion of respectability. Instead, he lamented, “the FDA shut me down. I am finished.”

In his grief, he walked away from the pen of starving cattle toward the thick wood line, just a few yards away. His only decision was how he would finally end his life. Finding a large smooth boulder to rest upon, he wept again thinking of the life he wasted, the people he hurt, and the method he would employ to end his wasted life.

Having decided on using a gun to end his existence, being the quickest method, he guessed, he lifted himself up on the shaky legs of a tired cowardly middle-aged man, far too old inside for his actual age. He felt something smooth brush against the back of his hand, making him pause in his quest for nonexistence. He looked to his side and laid bloodshot eyes upon a large golden colored mushroom with multi colored warts on the crown that hypnotized any individual lucky enough to gaze upon. The color of each bump looked as though individually rainbowed, and glistened brightly, even in the sunless shade of the deep forest. His horror at the thought of all that blood associated with gun suicide, quickly evaporated like a fine mist meeting a slight afternoon breeze, when he remembered the stories he had heard all his life about the dreaded rainbow mushroom. All children growing up in this neck of the woods heard about the rainbow mushroom, he thought, with a smile of peace across his sun withered face. The dreaded rainbow mushroom caused instant death upon ingestion. He slipped the tasteless mushroom into his mouth and drifted off into a dark oblivion of peace.

A Courtroom Full of Animals

 Edward’s vision slowly came into focus in unrecognizable stages of colors, sights, and then sounds. As he cautiously opened his eyes, expecting the real possibility of staring hell in the fiendish face, blacks, browns, reds, yellows, and greens, of various shades swirled aimlessly together, like a psychedelic kaleidoscope. His sense of position in space and time was completely off the tracks, not knowing if he was still lying, and dying, in the Florida woods, or sitting in the great afterlife, he never really believed in anyway.

   Just as the colors began to take some semblance of the world that he once knew-Edward quickly closed his eyes again, unsure of what he was seeing.

   “Please don’t tell me I just saw animals in a courtroom.” “Please, please, wake up Ed.” He repeated these phrases over and over, his voice echoing in his head like a voice from the bottom of a dusty tomb because his ears were curiously blocked.

    “Hoo, hoo, hoo, came the distinctive sound of an owl from a distance he could still not judge.

    “Hoo, hoo, hoo, the sound came closer until, too his horror, it sounded like the call of an owl, perhaps six feet tall, he considered.

    Resigned to the fact that the noise would never end unless he opened his eyes, Edward forced his fear cemented lids wide open toward the awful sound.

    The room began to spin, and Edward was forced to muster all his will power to keep from fainting. He still did not notice the other equally surreal surroundings of, what was now obvious, an ordinary looking court room. He remembered his brief encounter with a Baton Rouge court, back in the 80’s, a lifetime ago, he considered, to answer a drunk driving charge. There it all was now, the large solid oak judge’s mantel, the witness box with the polished swinging gate, the two-large dark cherry wood desks for the prosecution and defense, the gallery for the jury of his peers, and finally, plenty of benches for the nosey crowd to his rear. However, in Baton Rouge, these reserved places of honor were occupied by people, not animals.

   “Hoo, hoo, hoo,” came the loud, disturbing call of the owl judge.

    Edward laughed aloud as his surroundings took on the atmosphere of a bad Disney dream, rather than the fiery settings of the hell he anticipated. He could not help to laugh, looking at the six-foot, seven-inch owl wearing a long black judges robe, staring at him with large round blue eyes.

    The owl judge ceased his owl call, as an expression came over his face that Edward could only describe as understanding. No, he thought, deep wisdom is in this owl’s eyes.

      The great owl faced his court bailiff, who just so happened to be a gorilla, as Edward guessed, at least seven foot tall.

    Edward gasped and closed his eyes tightly as the gorilla bailiff quickly walked toward him with a speed, he thought, even a primate known for agility, should not be able to walk. Edward felt his world of sound muffled once again by two soft cushions placed on each ear. He quickly recognized the feeling as cushioned headphones, he always thought of the kind you would buy in the 1980’s. Everything was bulky, and tacky, in the eighties, he thought with some humor. He opened his eyes once again and focused his attention on the judge, promising himself that he would never force his eyes shut again in an act of cowardice.

    “Mr. Sikes, I sincerely wish that you take these proceedings a bit more serious. I would hate to hold you in contempt of this court.”

    Edward was beyond the powers that shock could produce on the human brain. How quickly our minds adapt to the unimaginable, he thought, as he made a conscious decision to accept, what he once believed, the unacceptable.

     So, he answered as formally as his voice would allow, “yes your honor. I am aware of the gravity of my situation.”

   “Good, shall we proceed. Has your client had a chance to review the charges leveled against him, and prepared to proceed with the proceedings?” asked the Judge Owl, looking to Edward’s right.

  Edward slowly turned to his right after mustering enough bravery to address, what he knew, was to be another strange site. His assumption was confirmed as he came eye to eye with a large white stallion, sitting on an equally large hard wooden chair. Edward was tempted to ask how he had the required dexterity to sit like a man, but thought better of it as he scanned the other occupants of the room. The jury box was filled with five other animals, also sitting in the erect posture, once thought to be reserved for that animal known as homo sapiens. Edward barely flinched when he observed a dog, a fox, a pig, a sheep, and a wolf, all sitting together as peacefully as a family of blue jays perching merrily on the branch of a great maple tree. Again, his outer countenance showed no observable change as he turned his gaze toward the prosecution table. There, sat a feline, beautifully stripped with grey and black against solid white underfur, unblemished and neatly groomed. What would strike the casual observer as unusual, but not Edward, was the immense size, and now common, human like dexterity of the beast. This cat stood at least five-foot-tall and sat with legs crossed in a position one could only describe as confident, pompous, and maybe just a little bored.

The Trial Begins

  “I hereby call this court into order,” stated Judge Owl. “I may also add that I will not tolerate any behavior considered irregular.” Judge Owl looked directly at defense lawyer Horse, without uttering another word. The courtroom was as silent as a tomb, as lawyer Horse stubbornly sat at the defense table looking at Edward.

  “Well, aren’t you going to say anything,” asked Edward, in a low whisper and an expression of deep concern wrinkling the skin of his high forehead.

   “When I am ready sir,” he replied. “I will not be rushed, Edward. You of all people should know that speed, as well as driving drunk, kills.”

  Edward felt another wave of nausea assault his stomach. He barely remembered the drunk driving incident on that dark, rainy night, so many years ago.

   “Mr. Horse, you will call your first witness, or you will forfeit your privileges of being the first to examine said witness,” stated Judge Owl.”

  “Oh, very well,” he replied with a voice filled with annoyance, like a man rudely snapped back to reality from a pleasant dream. “I call the unfortunate, Mr. Deer to the stand.”

  The entire courtroom, including Edward, turned their attention to the large double wooden doors at the back of the courtroom. In walked Mr. Deer, strolling limpidly along the isle, standing upright just as the other animals in this strange courtroom world. As he passed the defense table, Edward could see large patches of his skin missing from his left rib cage. He felt sick as he observed, what his mind at first failed to perceive as, smooth ivory ribs sticking out of his side. Edward turned his gaze to Mr. Deer’s left leg and noticed that it was slightly bent to the rear, making slight cracking noises with each awkward step. Edward felt a wave of pity fill his heart-A heart he thought died a long time ago.

 Lawyer Horse walked lazily to within just a few inches of the witness bench, and opened his wide bucked tooth mouth to ask a question. He was interrupted by Judge Owl…

  “Wait Mr. Horse. The witness needs to sworn in.” Judge Owl looked to Mr. Deer with an expression of the eyes that Edward could only describe