Have You Seen Luis Velez?

Raymond prepares to take Millie to the courthouse. He sees the slip of paper with the name and number of Sofia and Luis. He leaves them a voicemail, explaining what has happened in the six months since they met. They meet Isabel in the hallway, and she shows them the way to the proper courtroom. Raymond is dismayed that so few people are present for the trial. Opening his laptop, Raymond takes copious notes through jury selection and the attorney’s opening remarks.

Isabel jumps up during the defense attorney’s opening remarks and loudly corrects him. When the judge tells her to sit down, she continues to stand, saying: “My water just broke” (190). Leaving Millie in the courtroom, Raymond takes Isabel to the hospital. As Raymond waits, Isabel tells him to go back to the courthouse and watch over Millie, saying the labor process might take days. She tells him Luis came to her in a dream and asked her to name their son after Raymond. Together they settle on Ramon, the Hispanic version of the name.

Back at the courthouse, Raymond finds the courtroom locked up with Millie gone. He goes to the first-floor cafeteria, where Millie has been sitting with the son and daughter of Ms. Hatfield, the defendant in the trial. He expresses surprise that Millie sat with them and chatted during lunch. Millie reminds him that they are not guilty of any wrong committed by their mother.

Back in the courtroom after lunch, the prosecution calls Mr. Adler, a witness who testifies elaborately about the shooting. The prosecutor tries to include as much of the witness’s personal feelings about the shooting as possible while the defense attorney works to limit his testimony simply to the facts. Hyde makes it clear to the reader that Ms. Hatfield was a fearful person who kept a six-shot pistol in her purse. She lowered her purse to grab the pistol because a large, Hispanic man, Luis, was close behind her. Reaching for the pistol caused her billfold to fall out of her purse, something Luis saw and she did not. Ms. Hatfield is deaf and turns off her hearing aids when on the street to mute the cacophony of urban noises. Thus, she could not hear Luis calling out to her.

Though the day has already been arduous for her, Millie asks Raymond to take her to the hospital to see Isabel. Millie’s difficulty in climbing the subway steps worries Raymond, who realizes they have a seven block walk to the hospital. A man gets out of the cab in front of them and holds the door open for Millie and Raymond. He slips money to Raymond to pay for the cab.

At the hospital, they discover that Isabel has given birth to a baby boy, whom she named Ramon. The three discuss the process of the trial. A policewoman, who gave Isabel and Raymond a ride to the hospital that morning, comes into the room to see the new baby. She says that she is two months pregnant. Raymond asks if she will give them a ride to the subway station. Instead, she drives them to their apartment house.

The next morning, Millie tells Raymond that she cannot handle the testimony with all of its references to Luis’s death. She asks him to go and report to her at the end of the day. Raymond asks her why her expression changed the previous day when she saw Isabel’s baby. Millie replies:

At first I was just so taken by him […] and how perfect and innocent and vulnerable he is. […] And then I started to worry about the world into which he’s just been born. What will it do to him? How much will it take from him? Look how much it’s taken from him already. (215)

The chapter focuses primarily on the prosecutor’s cross examination of Ms. Hatfield. After three hours, the trial breaks for lunch and Raymond finds himself sitting in the cafeteria at the same table with Ms. Hatfield’s son and daughter. They debate the legitimacy of her testimony and her actions as Raymond listens. The prosecutor continues to question Ms. Hatfield in the afternoon. He points out that, before she turned to face Luis, the defendant had already started firing the gun.

Raymond shares his notes on the trial with Millie that evening. Since prosecution and defense have both rested their cases, Raymond predicts the case will go to the jury the next day. Millie indicates she will attend. Millie tells Raymond that Sofia called her and asked if Raymond would bring her to their home for chocolate cake.

The next morning, Raymond, Millie, Isabel, and Ramon are in the courtroom listening to closing arguments. Raymond notes that the defense attorney seems to be playing to the jury’s emotions. He writes: “Defense seems to be suggesting there is a ‘kind’ of person who belongs in jail and another ‘kind’ who doesn’t” (233). Isabel, Millie, and Raymond take the prosecutor’s advice to go to the cafeteria rather than wait in the courtroom. Raymond expresses the anticlimactic feeling he has now that the trial is over. The three are surprised at how quickly the verdict is returned after less than an hour of deliberation. The next surprise is when Ms. Hatfield is found innocent.

After everyone else leaves, Raymond, Millie, and Isabel sit silently in the courtroom. Raymond approaches the prosecutor and asks what went wrong. The prosecutor admits that he incorporated Luis’s race into his arguments to the jury. The jury, he says, therefore decided that Ms. Hatfield was one of “their tribe” who simply made a mistake in trying to defend herself and they forgave her.

Raymond turns in his report on the trial to his social studies teacher, who gives him a C-minus for second-guessing the jury’s wisdom. Raymond reprints the paper and asks his English teacher to read it. The teacher applauds Raymond’s work, giving him an A-plus for his insights.

Alone in his room, Raymond throws things. His mother comes in, with the toddler Clarissa on her hip. His mother says: “I’ve been meaning to ask you how the trial went. Now I guess there’s no need” (247).