My Father Mocked Me for Coming to Court Without a Lawyer, But the Judge Opened My File and the Whole Room Went Silent

I had not come to be thanked.

I had come because I had to.

Two weeks earlier I had been in my backyard trying to fix a broken fence panel Knox had pushed through. He was an old shepherd, mostly gray around the muzzle now, slower than he used to be, but still prone to occasional bursts of conviction over squirrels and shadows and things only he could continue reading …