The Strange Trial of Michelle Elly

Someone must have been telling tales about Michelle Kelly, for one morning, without having done anything wrong, she was arrested. She arrived at work a little late because of a dream she had last night which left her feeling sour and abused in the morning. Her assistant Anna, who brought her coffee at around 9:30 every day, did not appear either. That had never happened before. For a while Ms. Kelly waited. Outside the frosted glass of her office she heard some commotion; but then, both perplexed and thirsty, she rang.

Immediately there was a knock at the door and a man she had never seen before came in. He was wearing a dark uniform with a belt that seemed capable of equipping a variety of tools, though none was there right now. He acted like his presence there had simply to be accepted, and merely said, "you rang?"

"Anna's to bring me my coffee," said Ms. Kelly, looking up from her laptop. She was confounded and tried to work out who the man was as he turned to say to someone who was obviously standing not far from the door, "She wants Anna to bring her coffee." Brief laughter ensued outside and the stranger now said to Kelly, as if reporting someone else's words, "It's not possible."

"That's strange," Michelle quickly rose from her chair and straightened her dress. "I want to see who you were speaking with and what explanation you have for this disturbance." As she was speaking this a second guard came in (for they had to be some sort of guards). Together they advanced towards Ms. Kelly who was still finishing typing an email and grabbed her by the arms.

"Let go of me! What do you want from me?" Ms. Kelly cried, making a movement as if to tear herself free from the two men, which was of course in vain, as they brought her out of the room. Outside many buffed heads had risen from their cubicles to get a better view of what was happening; a few spectators drifted away from their desks but were soon told to return and not make trouble. Michelle saw her general manager, Mr. Grubach, being spoken to sheepishly.

"She is under arrest." "That's what it looks like," said the manager. "May I ask why?" "It is not our place to tell you that. The proceedings have been set in motion and everything will be disclosed at an appropriate time." Mr. Grubach was seen nodding and reassuring the guards that no disruption was made whatsoever to the company's functioning, that Ms. Kelly's work will be covered for a time by her subordinates while the company goes about hiring a new worker.

"Save your breath. This is well meant," said one of the guards as they dragged Michelle on the carpet, the latter screaming and kicking and in the process had lost one of her heels in the long corridor. "Let me go! Stop this madness!" As Michelle yelled at the top of her lungs she saw her assistant Anna standing by the exit, hold the lost heel, trying not to look at her as if she was already a convict.

***

Michelle was put in a car's backseat where she sat sandwiched between the two guards who carried out her arrest. Along the way she felt their silent scrutiny and stopped sobbing. One of the guards felt Ms. Kelly's stockings on her knees and said that from now on she would have to wear much poorer-quality ones, but that they would look after her hosieries together with the rest of her clothes and, if her case should turn out favorably, would give them back to her.

"In fact," he said, "it's better if you hand over your things to us now, rather than in the depot. Things are often misappropriated there and, anyway, they sell everything off after a certain time, whether the case in question has been concluded or not. It's true that you would eventually receive the proceeds of the sale from the depot, but in the first place the proceeds are small, and in the second place it's well known that such proceeds get smaller as they are passed down from hand to hand."

Ms. Kelly saw no reason to argue and started taking off her clothings piece by piece. When it was done the guards appeared pleased. "She seems to be being sensible," she heard one of them say to the other. "If you continue to behave as you have, you can face the future with confidence." The seat's rough leather rubbed against Michelle's naked bottoms. "You will come to realize how true all this is," said the other guard as he reached to fondle her dangling white tits.

***

After having had their fun with her the guards stopped at a drive-through to get some coffee for themselves. Before noon they had reached the courthouse.

It was an unremarkable building situated in a slum. The court itself was a maze of dilapidated hallways and shut doors that obviously led to somewhere further. As Michelle was still distressed over what happened earlier in the office and in the car, she did not find any of this peculiar. Having fitted her with something to cover her private areas the guards took Michelle to her trial.

Michelle had the impression she was entering a meeting. The medium-sized room with two windows was filled by a jostling throng of all sorts of people, who did not notice her when she went in. Just below the ceiling was a gallery running round the room which was also crammed full with people in ragged clothes, who had to stand bent over, their heads and backs touching the ceiling. Amongst them but clearly distinguished on his own was a pensive elder wearing a dirty whig and wielding a fancy-looking pen; this must be the judge. Someone from the jury pointed at Ms. Kelly to the judge and he took notice.

"She should have been an hour and five minutes ago." He took out a silver pocket watch and was showing it to them. He was clearly displeased. "Perhaps we have arrived a little late, but now she's here," The guards' reply was met by a dismaying boo from the jury, who too had been waiting impatiently.

"Normally I am no longer obliged to question her. Exceptionally, however, I will do so today. But such a late arrival must not occur again." The judge cleared his throat with a terrible sound and, to Michelle's horror, spat out on the ground before him. "And now the accused shall step forward." This is probably just happening inside my head, an uncommonly vivid nightmare, thought Michelle.

"Your name and age, miss?" "Michelle Kelly, and I am thirty two, your honor." There was laughing among the audience as she said the last two words which puzzled her somewhat. "Married? Children?" "No, your honor." She was puzzled as to why that was relevant, but then she had never been to a trial before. The judge was just now noticing her scant clothing. "What is your occupation? Are you a prostitute? A pole dancer?" At this Michelle felt offended but tried to keep calm. "No, your honor, I am a senior consultant at a major international company." This answer was again met with raucous laughter from the crowd, so hearty and infectious that even she felt compelled to join in.

"Silence! This is the court!" The judge raised his hummer without actually hitting it, but at this sight the jury immediately quieted down, as if afraid of some unforeseen consequence.

"Now, Miss Michelle Kelly, as to your present case..." The judge picked up a little notebook, the only object on his table. It was like a school kid's dictionary, yellow and falling to pieces from having been perused too often. He started reading from it and was seen conversing with the several clean-shaven young men sitting beside him, who looked to be his assistants; they spoke to each other while placing their hands before their mouths, so that Michelle could not see their lips moving. From time to time they would look at her with expressions that were wholly indecipherable.

What happened next was not quite within grasp of Michelle's memory. She recalled the judge making a summary of her case in a voice so low that only such fragments as "gross public display" and "serious offense against morality" were heard. Then when he was explaining the reasoning behind his judgement there was a distracting noise coming from behind, as several young washerwomen with yellow gloves came in and started cleaning trashes throughout the room with their pickup sticks, and Michelle hardly heard a thing over all the plastic water bottles being squeezed tight and collected to be sold off later at two cents a piece. Whatever the conviction was, the jury heard it and was overwhelmingly in favor, for they had found Michelle guilty.

"But what am I guilty of?" Said Michelle in a frantic voice. "Having you not paying attention to your own trial? Miss Kelly, I am finding this genuinely concerning," said the judge. "I couldn't hear a thing! There were these women making a racket in there and.. and what about my statement? I am allowed to defend myself in a trial, am I not? And where is the accusation, the witness? What sort of court are you running here? This is an utter joke! A circus!" Michelle was surprised at her sudden eloquence and her choice of words. The judge seemed immediately struck by what she had said. He put down a cigar which he was about to light up and looked sternly at Michelle.

"And here I was convinced that you are a reasonable person," his voice sounded suddenly dreadful to her ears. "You must be very proud of your little speech, Miss Kelly. Tell me, where did you learn all those terms about the court? Please tell me it is not Hollywood or some silly crime novels you have stumbled upon. Tell me you did not 'hear' it in the news from your TV which you put up as a background noise at your dinner. Because what you just said was total none-sense. A twelve-years old with mediocre grades across the board would speak more sense than you did." He broke off to catch a breath.

"Tell me, Miss Kelly, are you familiar with the law codes and all the past cases in the last fifty years concerning public misdemeanor? Do you even understand on what philosophy this court runs? Can you answer these questions with any confidence?"

The people in the front row were looking at Michelle, with such expectant expressions on their faces that she had to avoid making eye contact with them. Her silence was deafening. The judge looked pleased.

"Then let me tell you something, Miss Kelly, since you appear so ignorant of such basics. The court does not seek out guilt in the population but, as it says in the law, is attracted by guilt. We did not look for you; it was you who found us. You are guilty without yourself knowing. But that is the law. Are you saying that there is an error in the law?"

"But it can't be, I'm innocent!"

"My people, this woman just admitted she doesn't know the law and yet at the same time claims she's innocent. Miss Kelly, you are worse than a child! What do you want? Do you think you can bring this trial to a rapid conclusion by arguing with me about legality of the court? To tell you the truth, Ms. Kelly, the decision concerning your case was already made before this trial even commenced. I am as powerless as you in the matter. I am, after all, just a minor character who hardly know what your situation is about, and wants nothing to do with your case apart from that I am paid a salary and therefore must perform my duty." Many were nodding at the judge.

"Look, Miss Kelly, why can't you just accept the situation instead of pointlessly insisting on trying to annoy us?" Michelle heard the guard yelling and wielding his fist at her, as if ready to beat her into submission in a most savage manner. A wave of cajoling roar rose from the spectating crowd, "Go get her! Rough her up!"

"Silence! Silence! Thou shalt not speak until being spoken to!" The judge's little hummer pounded violently the wooden table and the sound reverberated across the room heavy like thunder. The room was quiet again but restless. The jury resorted to murmuring among themselves, and collectively they sounded like a single fly constantly shifting back and fro somewhere in the courtroom, never staying in a spot for long.

"Now, my people, allow me to detail the exact form of the punishment Miss Kelly will receive for her apparent crime..."

"I protest! This trial is illegal, from beginning to the end! Even before coming here I was treated with an unreasonable amount of physical force in my own office, and while being transported here I was assaulted by the guards, who took advantage of my distress in a most cowardly manner!" Seeing Michelle was trying to do the judge brought his hammer down at an incredible rate, but it could not stop her from speaking. "I will not submit to this tyrannical injustice! This is all wrong! Whoever your supervisors are, wait until they hear about this, I promise you all that your destruction is guaranteed!"

"Silence! Not an another word!" The judge's face turned purple with rage and had foams in the corners of his mouth. "You ignorant woman, you dare to accuse my professionalism, and you dare to blackmail the entire court? Look, people, you are all being accused here, of being dishonest, of being unjust! In her mouth we have become tyrants. Tyrannical! Here is a woman asking for the mob justice she deserves, and we all know she has wanted it all along!" The crowd was visually agitated at these words and Michelle felt any minute these animals would come up and tear off what little she had on her.

"But I cannot allow that to happen, not today, not in my court. In fact, I am willing to give credit to her accusation, if only to discredit her debaucheries and lies. Guards, step forward! You all heard what Miss Kelly just said. Was that what happened? Did you commit something immoral to the accused?"

One of the two guards answered with confidence, "no, your honor, but quite the contrary: this woman was being a whore all from the start and now she's trying to play the honorable maiden, what a neat trick! What happened was this. This morning when we were going to arrest this woman, in her office she tried to bribe each of us with a blowjob! Each of us! What a promiscuous woman. Of course we refused and she put up such a show that we had to embarrass ourselves to get to her forcefully, but she was wielding a deadly weapon--Franz, what was she carrying?--Right, she was swinging her laptop at us like a maniac, and we could've got seriously hurt had we not been lucky, for it was a very heavy laptop and one of the screws at the bottom was running loose, imagine that! The entire thing could have come apart and splinter into deadly shards, and it would be no different from a shotgun--"

"Please try staying on the topic, officer, we have little time for your anecdotes!" The judge interrupted the guard's testament with a knock of his hammer.

"Sorry. Anyway, we got her and were taking her to the court. And there was, right in the middle of the ride this woman tried her hands on the bribery again. She was making some vague remarks about how much she wished to see out manhoods, and even to feel them with her hands--she was sitting in the middle between us and would use both her hands to 'please' us--and of course we ignored this as best as we could. Seeing that her plan foiled, she began playing the maniac again, screaming and kicking like a wildcat and was tearing her clothes all to shreds! We tried to intervene but it was all a confusion, and before we knew she was entirely naked! Had we not found something for her to put on she would be stranding here for the trial like a newborn baby! And yet again she's planting this on us and accusing us of mistreating her--"

"I believe we have heard enough." The judge broke off the guard again and turned to the jury. "The truth cannot be mistaken! This woman is a shameless fraud and strumpet! In broad daylight she was caught red-handed trying to seduce our guards, who meant her nothing but good will! And if that is her nature, then this court is ready to give her what she wants! Guards! Take off her clothes! Let us see what kind of a creature she truly is!"

Michelle's only clothing, a dirty oversized men's shirt, was immediately stripped off her body by the guards, who then carried her onto their shoulders and each took an ankle of her feet. They opened her closed thighs for all to see, and under the yellow light of the courtroom her dense golden grove glistened. Michelle's cheeks started to burn being held like this. She couldn't believe the sound of moaning coming out of her own mouth. She raised her head to see what was happening. "Whore!", "What a slut!" and like accusations floated in the room. She suddenly remembered a dream she had last night and found the scene before her eerily similar. Later someone would get his hands on the judge's hammer and try to ram the haft down her butthole.

"Well, the people have spoken. Miss Michelle Kelly, you are found guilty of gross public misdemeanor and of attempting to bribe law enforcement, for which you are sentenced to three years of unpaid volunteer work at one of the city's social relief programs for the disadvantaged citizens. You may not appeal this decision within a year. This court is adjourned!" Upon this the hungry crowd rushed onstage towards Michelle, and before the judge left the courtroom, the poor relief program featuring the lovely Ms. Kelly was well underway.