“These actions, along with my deep conviction, after witnessing the healings of the children, that Demiel ben Yusef is not an ordinary human being, have been deemed by those who sit with me in this tribunal to be a breach of ethics and protocol. And they are correct.
“I therefore bow to their wisdom and remove myself from the position of chief judge of this tribunal and beg the pardon of everyone who has worked so tirelessly to see that justice is done in this case. I wash my hands of these proceedings and retire to contemplate my misconduct in solitude.”
“Wow,” I said, turning to Maureen. “She didn’t just say she washes her hands of the whole thing, did she?”
“Yes, she most certainly did.”
Just then the world came back to order—or make that chaos—and the stuck motorists, instead of returning to their vehicles, ran to hug and confer with one another outside of their cars. We heard another explosion in the distance.
The cops were trying without success to get the traffic moving again when the BBC announcer brought on the usual suspect talking heads.
“Do you believe that the extraordinary removal of Judge Fatoumata Bagayoko from the United Nations Special International Criminal Court proceedings could potentially lead to a mistrial?” the reporter asked.
A jurist from some country or other answered, “Yes, Carter, I do believe that we are looking at exactly such a possibility. The chief judge just said in no uncertain terms that after seeing the children she was no longer impartial. She even said that the defendant is ‘no ordinary human being’! Shocking, really.”
Said another panelist, “It’s practically a guarantee that this is going to be declared a mistrial.…”
“Or a mistribunal, in this case,” someone else quipped.
At that point Maureen got out of the car herself and decided to be proactive. A real Yusef move, I thought.
She was speaking in Italian to one of the frustrated cops, and I could see her pointing and gesturing like mad, as I sat there in my new role as a black Catholic nun. The cop came with her to the car and looked in. He asked for my credentials in Italian, and I just sat there paralyzed as to what the right thing to do was.
“She’s from Guatemala,” Maureen said in Italian. And then she said something to me in some language or other, which I assumed meant, “Pretend to reach for your documentation.” I opened her black purse and fished around until the cop grew impatient, what with hundreds of cars backed up behind us. Instead, he mumbled something, Maureen got back in the car, and he let us and the five cars ahead of us go through the roadblock, stopping the car immediately behind us for an inspection.
“Nice work,” I said, trying to high-five her but immediately realizing this wasn’t exactly what two nuns would do. My hand stayed in the air and I pretended to adjust the veil.
We drove up the mountains, glued to the news on BBC. Dona came on to report that the Reverend Smythe had taken the platform in Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza to address the crowds, which, if possible, had only grown bigger and more unruly than they had been on day one.
“I wonder what the old bastard has to say,” I said aloud.
Is that a look of disgust that passed over Maureen’s face? Wow. She must really hate the guy.
“Now we take you directly to Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza and Reverend Smythe,” Dona reported.
To the roar of what sounded like hundreds of thousands of people, the reverend began: “Today, the devil himself rose from the depths of hell and began the process of destroying the living Christ within you.
“When Judge Bagayoko declared that Demiel ben Yusef, who is the personification of evil on earth, was a healer and not a destroyer, she revealed herself to be the devil’s own concubine.
“Do not rest believing that the devil failed because the other fair-minded jurists saw fit to throw this whore of Babylon off the throne. They too are just as likely to become possessed by the human Satan, Demiel ben Yusef.
“Do you believe those children—his legless, blind, and burned victims—were really healed? No! Those were media tricks by the infidels. No one believing in the Christ Almighty was fooled by their chicanery. No one in their right mind would believe those fools, magicians, liars, and murderers.
“Those poor children were whisked away and killed by Demiel ben Yusef’s minions who do his bidding. The mainstream media is playing a vicious game with you—one in which other children were flown in to replace them. I know this. Do not, I repeat, do not let Demiel ben Yusef, the devil incarnate, walk away free to destroy the world. Because, my fellow believers in Christ, that is what ben Yusef, Bagayoko, and all those who hate Jesus are doing.