I slapped my thigh, pretending it had only just come back to me.
"Officer, I remember now. My brother said yesterday he was going to stay over at a friend's place. He wasn't home last night at all!"
The color drained from Katherine's face in an instant.
"That's impossible. Last night he crept into my room and he... he..."
"Katie, it was pitch dark. How could you be so sure it was Homer who crept into your room? What if it was someone else, someone up to no good?"
I glanced at Roland.
"And when you went to sleep last night, why didn't you bolt your door?"
"I, I forgot."
Roland spoke as if he held the moral high ground. "Even if Katie's door was wide open, that's no excuse for Homer to assault her!"
I turned to Roland, my eyes cold enough to frighten anyone.
"My brother wasn't home last night. How could he have assaulted her? More likely she staged the whole thing herself, so she could force her way into marrying my brother. Or someone else did it and pinned it on him."
"And you're the obvious suspect. You've got your own home, but you insisted on staying at ours. Was that to make the crime easier?"
"That's slander!"
"Even if your brother wasn't home yesterday, he could have sneaked back at night and slipped out again!"
Just then my brother came back with his friend.
"Sis, why are there so many people in the courtyard? And why are the police here?"
An officer stepped forward. "You're Homer Swanson. Right now a woman is accusing you of forcing yourself on her."
My brother looked at the officer, then at Katherine, sobbing and half-dressed, and he understood everything at once.
"Officer, I haven't done anything against the law. I went out yesterday right after dark, when everyone was still awake."
"Where did you go?"
"I went to my friend Darrell Fox's place."
Darrell was standing right at my brother's side.
The officer turned to Darrell. "Were you with him the whole night?"
Katherine called out to Darrell. "Darrell."
"This is serious. Tell it straight."
Darrell exchanged a look with Katherine before he spoke.
"Homer did come find me yesterday, that's true, but he only sat for a while and then went out. He didn't come back the whole night. I only ran into him again this morning when I was heading out."
"He looked flustered, so I even asked if something had happened."
"He wouldn't say, just kept walking straight ahead, so I followed him over here."
Roland flew into a rage on the spot and lunged forward to hit my brother.
"Homer Swanson, you animal!"
The officer held him back.
"Calm down, sir."
Katherine started sobbing again. "I'm not lying. Homer, if you liked me you could have just told me. Why would you do this to me?"
My brother's girlfriend, Ivy White, was standing at the edge of the crowd.
"Homer, did you really do it?"
Everyone turned to look at once.
Ivy's face held pain, confusion, and above all disbelief.
My brother walked toward her. "Ivy, believe me. I didn't do it."
Katherine suddenly screamed. "Homer Swanson!"
"You did this to me. Who's going to want to marry me now? You have to take responsibility!"
"Marry me right now and I'll drop it. Otherwise you can wait to go to prison!"
Roland was frantic. "Katie, you can't marry him. You'll never be happy with him for the rest of your life!"
"You don't have to worry about your reputation. I'll marry you!"
Katherine shoved Roland away, disgust all over her face. "What does any of this have to do with you?"
"Homer, all I want is one promise from you. Say something."
The people around us started egging it on too.
"Homer, I say you just marry the girl. Or do you really want to go to prison?"
"A girl this fresh and pretty, you're not losing anything by marrying her."
"You did a thing like this and she's still willing to give you a chance. You'd better treat her right."
...
In my past life, buckling under every kind of pressure, I talked my brother into giving in and taking Katherine into the family, and that was where all the tragedy began.
This time, I spoke to the officer.
"Officer, I believe my brother is innocent. Please investigate this thoroughly and clear his name!"
"And if you have no witness, I'd advise you to accept the accuser's offer to settle."
My brother, who had said nothing for so long, finally spoke.
"Who says I have no witness?"
At that moment more than a dozen people suddenly poured into the courtyard.
"We can all vouch for Homer Swanson!"
"That's right, we're all witnesses!"
