where they believe in God and the Bible.” Big Ben looked off in the distance for a moment. “Well, I grewup in a home like that ... for a while, anyway. My mother and daddy was married and went to churchevery Sunday. Trouble was, every Friday night Daddy went out and got drunk as a skunk, then comehome and beat the hell outta Mama and me. She finally got a bellyful of his meanness and run him offwith a shotgun.”
Lily thought of the shotgun in the back window of Granny McGilly’s pickup. She had had afeeling the old woman wouldn’t hesitate to use it, with cause.
“After Mama run Daddy off,” Big Ben continued, “we was even poorer than we’d been before.
But every day of my life was happier than when Daddy had been in the house. So what I’m saying, Mr.
Hamilton, is I started out in a family that looked the way you think families is supposed to look. But I wasa whole lot happier when I ended up in one of them single-mother families your kind is always railingabout.”
“I don’t see how that relates to my question, Mr. McGilly.”
“All I’m saying is that your way ain’t always the best way, Mr. Hamilton. Just ’cause somethin’
looks good from the outside, that don’t mean there ain’t somethin’ bad wrong on the inside. And youmight not like the way homosexuals are on the outside, but that don’t mean some of them ain’t goodpeople on the inside.”
“This is, of course, just your opinion, Mr. McGilly?”
“Of course it’s just my opinion! And everything you’ve said today is just your opinion. Everybodyhere’s got an opinion — that’s what we need a judge for!”
Lily and Ben were both subdued on the stand. They answered Buzz’s gentle questions asrehearsed, and when the time for cross-examination came, they each followed Buzz’s instructions: “Nomatter how much that sonuvabitch tries to provoke you, don’t say anything but that you both love Mimiand that you plan to raise her in a healthy, supportive environment.”
When all the testimony had been given, it was nearly four o’clock. Judge Sanders took off hisglasses and rubbed his eyes. With his glasses back in place, he said, “We’ve heard some very persuasiveevidence from both sides today,” he began, “but it seems to me that there is one factor that has beenoverlooked —or intentionally ignored— by both Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Dobson, the claim that Mr. BennyJack McGilly is Mimi Maycomb’s biological father. If Mr. McGilly is indeed the child’s father, it is onlyfitting that I give custody to Mr. McGilly, and, of course, his wife.”
Judge Sanders sucked in his breath, then exhaled. “however, Mr. McGilly’s claim to paternity is