It's Still Life

Episode 9 Liturgy for the Lawyer’s Quiet
(for the facts that sit in silence)

I. The Office That Holds Its Breath
Fenella steps into the lawyer’s office,
a room that smells of old paper,
dust settled into the bindings
of books no one has opened
in decades.

The man himself is elderly,
his hands marked with the slow work
of documents,
his eyes the kind that have seen
too much to be surprised.

He knows secrets.
He keeps them.
He knows discrepancies.
He hides them.

II. The Pen That Points
He does not offer explanations.
He does not offer comfort.
He offers one fact:
a date, a number,
a line on a document
where something does not fit.

He does not say more
than what his pen points out.

This is the way of lawyers:
they do not interpret,
they present.
The weight of the truth
is left to the one who holds the paper.

III. The Silence Between the Words

“Probate was very quickly concluded.”

That is all he says.
The speed of it.
The lack of questions asked.

Fenella sits with the silence
and feels it press against her ribs.

Why was it so quick?
Who stood to gain?
What were they trying to avoid?

The lawyer does not answer.
He does not need to.
He has already given her the question
that will keep her awake tonight.

IV. The Keeper of Discrepancies
He knows more than he says.
She can see it in his stillness,
in the way he does not meet her eye
when she leans forward.

He has carried this discrepancy
for years.
He has stored it in the same room
as the dust and the bindings
and the dry air that snaps.

Now he has handed it to her.

Without confession,
without warning.
With a pen.

V. For the One Who Must Go Deeper
Know the office and its settled dust.
Understand the lawyer and his careful hand.
Question the probate that was too quick,
the questions not asked,
the truth tucked away
before anyone could look.

See the pen that pointed,
but did not explain.

And to Fenella,
who carries the question,

may she have the courage
to ask what the lawyer
has not yet answered.

Some silences are not empty.
They are full of secrets.