I sat in court listening to my lawyer go on. Not how I wanted to spend part of the summer when I was twenty-two but I didn't have a choice really. She described the injury I sustained to my hip a few months ago and why it was the fault of the bike manufacturer. The whole thing was supposed to wrap up easily. She sat down and the lawyer for the bike people stood up and started talking.
He mentioned my injury and that it might not be as bad as I claimed. We'd expected this, no worry. But then he said "So let's watch the examination video."
I nudged my lawyer. "You said they were going to just refer to a summery and not show any video."
"That was my understanding," she told me as she stood up and asked to speak to the judge.
The judge waved both lawyers over and the three of them conferred at the bench a while, each of them turning at points to look over at me. I nervously looked at the assembled jury and then at the other folks, including a few work friends, who sat in the public seating.
"Given the nature of the video, I will be asked the public to leave and close this courtroom," the judge said after some thought. It wasn't great, I didn't want the jury, or hell, my lawyer, to see the video either, but at least it wasn't as bad as it could be.
My lawyer came back and sat next to me.
"Bruce," she said quietly, "I'm sorry."
I just nodded.
They wheeled in a big TV and I wilted inside. The video started.
In it I was in a hospital gown, sitting on an exam table, and my doctor talked to me. I'd never seen the video, though I knew it was being recorded, so I hadn't been sure what angle it would have.
A perfect one, it turned out. Me, center framed, a slight angle so my doctor could be seen as well.
"Ok, Bruce," my doctor said in the video, "vital signs are normal, now I need to inspect the hip itself."
In the video I nodded.
"Please raise your gown for me."
Oh God.
I did, of course, raise my gown, in the video. I looked at the jury as the large screen TV suddenly showed my bruised hip as well as my fully exposed dick and balls for all to see. Most of them sat stone faced, but one woman, probably around my age, cute brown hair hiding part of her face, smiled a bit.
I turned bright red and looked at my lawyer instead. She was watching the video and didn't notice me looking at her.
They all watched as the doctor touched and examined my hip, heard me cry out in pain a little once or twice, and I hoped the video would end there. That was all they needed. But I knew, in my heart, it would keep running.
And it did.
"Have you been able to perform, sexually, since the accident?" my doctor asked.
"No ma'am," I replied in the video. "The hip hurts too much."
"Have you achieved an erection, since the accident?" she asked.
"I tried," I said in the video, "to masturbate once but the hip hurt too much, and distracted me, and nothing, uhhh, nothing happened."