9September2010 "Trial"

"Be at the police station at 9 o'clock in the morning and then you go to court."  It was 11:30 at night yet two police officers and a couple neighbors were standing on our front steps.  Was I dreaming?  Just minutes before I had been dead asleep but the doorbell ringing over and over and over again roused me from my slumber.  They needed D and I to come down to testify about her recent incident.  I agreed and they left taking with them any chance of me falling back asleep.
The next morning, after D dropped the boys off at school and the two little ones off at Aunt R's, we headed to the police station where we sat waiting for two hours, not exactly sure why.  Waiting and confusion as it turned out would be the themes for the day.
Around 11 an officer informed us we were heading to another station.   He wanted to know, one, if we had a car ("Yes.") and, two, if we did could the prisoner ride in it with us ("No!"). We went to the other station where we sat waiting for a couple hours, still not exactly sure why.  
1 o'clock rolled around and our friendly policeman told us rather apologetically that we needed to relocate again.  We drove downtown to the courthouse and sat in the lobby for a while.  A little after 2 we were ushered back to an office, I believe it was a magistrate, and asked to wait in the hallway.  A couple minutes later the magistrate came out and told the officer she was done for the day.  We would have to come back tomorrow.....to a different office. 
As we were walked back to the car I did my best to convince  D that this experience counted as a "date night."  She didn't buy it! 

Note:  One surprising thing that happened was on the way from one station to the other we stopped at a supermarket, the driver ran it and returned with a bag of food.  We couldn't figure this out since it was Ramadan and the city was fasting.  Come to find out the man had been in jail for 6 days and 5 nights and had only been given water to drink.  The driver in kindness stopped and bought him something to eat.