The Boy from the Woods

The hipster pundit said, "This guy should be in prison, no questions asked."

On live television, Hester Crimstein was about to counterpunch when she spotted what looked like her grandson in her peripheral vision. It was hard to see through the studio lights, but it sure as hell looked like Matthew.

"Whoa, strong words," said the show's host, a once-cute prepster whose main debate technique was to freeze a baffled expression on his face, as though his guests were idiots no matter how much sense they made. "Any response, Hester?"

Matthew's appearance—it had to be him—had thrown her.

"Hester?"

Not a good time to let the mind wander, she reminded herself. Focus.

"You're gross," Hester said.

"Pardon?"

"You heard me." She aimed her notorious withering gaze at Hipster Pundit. "Gross."

Why is Matthew here?

Her grandson had never come to her work unannounced before—not to her office, not to a courtroom, and not to the studio.

"Care to elaborate?" Prepster Host asked.

"Sure," Hester said. The fiery glare stayed on Hipster Pundit. "You hate America."

"What?"

"Seriously," Hester continued, throwing her hands up in the air, "why should we have a court system at all? Who needs it? We have public opinion, don't we? No trial, no jury, no judge—let the Twitter mob decide."

Hipster Pundit sat up a little straighter. "That's not what I said."

"It's exactly what you said."

"There's evidence, Hester. A very clear video."

"Ooo, a video." She wiggled her fingers as though she were talking about a ghost. "So again: No need for a judge or jury. Let's just have you, as benevolent leader of the Twitter mob—"

"I'm not—"

"Hush, I'm talking. Oh, I'm sorry, I forget your name. I keep calling you Hipster Pundit in my head, so can I just call you Chad?" He opened his mouth, but Hester pushed on. "Great. Tell me, Chad, what's a fitting punishment for my client, do you think? I mean, since you're going to pronounce guilt or innocence, why not also do the sentencing for us?"

"My name"—he pushed his hipster glasses up his nose—"is Rick. And we all saw the video. Your client punched a man in the face."

"Thanks for that analysis. You know what would be helpful, Chad?"

"It's Rick."

"Rick, Chad, whatever. What would be helpful, super helpful really, would be if you and your mob just made all the decisions for us. Think of the time we'd save. We just post a video on social media and declare guilt or innocence from the replies. Thumbs-up or thumbs-down. There'd be no need for witnesses or testimony or evidence. Just Judge Rick Chad here."

Hipster Pundit's face was turning red. "We all saw what your rich client did to that poor man."

Prepster Host stepped in: "Before we continue, let's show the video again for those just tuning in."

Hester was about to protest, but they'd already shown the video countless times, would show it countless more times, and her voicing any opposition would be both ineffective and only make her client, a well-to-do financial consultant named Simon Greene, appear even more guilty.

More important, Hester could use the few seconds with the camera off her to check on Matthew.

The viral video—four million views and counting—had been recorded on a tourist's iPhone in Central Park. On the screen, Hester's client Simon Greene, wearing a perfectly tailored suit with a perfectly Windsored Hermès tie, cocked his fist and smashed it into the face of a threadbare, disheveled young man who, Hester knew, was a drug addict named Aaron Corval.

Blood gushed from Corval's nose.

The image was irresistibly Dickensian—Mr. Rich Privileged Guy, completely unprovoked, sucker-punches Poor Street Urchin.

Hester quickly craned her neck toward Matthew and tried, through the haze of the studio spotlights, to meet his eye. She was a frequent legal expert on cable news, and two nights a week, "famed defense attorney" Hester Crimstein had her own segment on this very network called Crimstein on Crime, though her name was not pronounced Crime-Rhymes-with-Prime-Stine, but rather Krim-Rhymes-with-Prim-Steen, but the alliteration was still considered "television friendly" and the title looked good on the bottom scroll, so the network ran with it.

Her grandson stood in the shadows. Hester could see that Matthew was wringing his hands, just like his father used to do, and she felt a pang so deep in her chest that for a moment she couldn't breathe. She considered quickly crossing the room and asking Matthew why he was here, but the punch video was already over and Hipster Rick Chad was foaming at the mouth.

"See?" Spittle flew out of his mouth and found a home in his beard. "It's clear as day. Your rich client attacked a homeless man for no reason."

"You don't know what went on before that tape rolled."

"It makes no difference."

"Sure it does. That's why we have a system of justice, so that vigilantes like you don't irresponsibly call for mob violence against an innocent man."

"Whoa, no one said anything about mob violence."

"Sure you did. Own it already. You want my client, a father of three with no record, in prison right now. No trial, nothing. Come on, Rick Chad, let your inner fascist out." Hester banged the desk, startling Prepster Host, and began to chant: "Lock him up, lock him up."

"Cut that out!"

"Lock him up!"

The chant was getting to him, his face turning scarlet. "That's not what I meant at all. You're intentionally exaggerating."

"Lock him up!"

"Stop that. No one is saying that."

Hester had something of a gift for mimicry. She often used it in the courtroom to subtly if not immaturely undermine a prosecutor. Doing her best impression of Rick Chad, she repeated his earlier words verbatim: "This guy should be in prison, no questions asked."

"That will be up to a court of law," Hipster Rick Chad said, "but maybe if a man acts like this, if he punches people in the face in broad daylight, he deserves to be canceled and lose his job."

"Why? Because you and Deplorable-Dental-Hygienist and Nail-Da-Ladies-69 on Twitter say so? You don't know the situation. You don't even know if the tape is real."

Prepster Host arched an eyebrow over that one. "Are you saying the video is fake?"

"Could be, sure. Look, I had another client. Someone photoshopped her smiling face next to a dead giraffe and said she was the hunter who killed it. An ex-husband did that for revenge. Can you imagine the hate and bullying she received?"

The story wasn't true—Hester had made it up—but it could be true, and sometimes that was enough.

"Where is your client Simon Greene right now?" Hipster Rick Chad asked.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"He's home, right? Out on bail?"

"He's an innocent man, a fine man, a caring man—"

"And a rich man."

"Now you want to get rid of our bail system?"

"A rich white man."

"Listen, Rick Chad, I know you're all 'woke' and stuff, what with the cool beard and the hipster beanie—is that a Kangol?—but your use of race and your easy answers are as bad as the other side's use of race and easy answers."

"Wow, deflecting using 'both sides.'"

"No, sonny, that's not both sides, so listen up. What you don't see is, you and those you hate? You are quickly becoming one and the same."

"Reverse this around," Rick Chad said. "If Simon Greene was poor and black and Aaron Corval was rich and white—"

"They're both white. Don't make this about race."

"It's always about race, but fine. If the guy in rags hit the rich white man in a suit, he wouldn't have Hester Crimstein defending him. He'd be in jail right now."

Hmm, Hester thought. She had to admit Rick Chad had a pretty good point there.

Prepster Host said, "Hester?"

Time was running out in the segment, so Hester threw up her hands and said, "If Rick Chad is arguing I'm a great attorney, who am I to disagree?"

That drew laughs.

"And that's all the time we have for now. Coming up next, the latest controversy surrounding upstart presidential candidate Rusty Eggers. Is Rusty pragmatic or cruel? Is he really the most dangerous man in America? Stay with us."

Hester pulled out the earpiece and unclipped the microphone. They were already headed to commercial break when she rose and crossed the room toward Matthew. He was so tall now, again like his father, and another pang struck hard.

Hester said, "Your mother…?"

"She's fine," Matthew said. "Everyone is okay."

Hester couldn't help it. She threw her arms around the probably embarrassed teen, wrapping him in a bear hug, though she was barely five two and he had almost a foot on her. More and more she saw the echoes of the father in the son. Matthew hadn't looked much like David when he was little, when his father was still alive, but now he did—the posture, the walk, the hand wringing, the crinkle of the forehead—and it all broke her heart anew. It shouldn't, of course. It should, in fact, offer some measure of comfort for Hester, seeing her dead son's echo in his boy, like some small part of David survived the crash and still lives on. But instead, these ghostly glimmers rip at her, tear the wounds wide open, even after all these years, and Hester wondered whether the pain was worth it, whether it was better to feel this pain than feel nothing. The question was a rhetorical one, of course. She had no choice and would want it no other way—feeling nothing or someday being "over it" would be the worst betrayal of all.

So she held her grandson and squeezed her eyes shut. The teen patted her back, almost as though he were humoring her.

"Nana?"

That was what he called her. Nana. "You're really okay?"

"I'm fine."

Matthew's skin was browner than his father's. His mother, Laila, was black, which made Matthew black too or a person of color or biracial or whatever. Age was no excuse, but Hester, who was in her seventies but told everyone she stopped counting at sixty-nine—go ahead, make a joke, she'd heard them all—found it hard to keep track of the evolving terminology.

"Where's your mother?" Hester asked.

"At work, I guess."

"What's the matter?" Hester asked.

"There's this girl in school," Matthew said.

"What about her?"

"She's missing, Nana. I want you to help."