The oversized courtroom was heavy with heat despite its spacious circulation of air. Many bodies were packed in from miles around, to see what would become of a most unusual situation.
Two boys sat at the witness stand—two boys no older than eighteen—and possessed of no more than a single body. Both boys were flushed with anger, although they knew better than to display it too openly in this venue if they were to get what they wanted.
“Your parents named you Cain and Abel,” the defense attorney orated. “I wonder if it’s because they knew, deep in your heart, that one day the two of you would be unable to bear each other. That one day, one brother would betray the other. Do you think the name Cain helped bring you to this crossroads?”
Cain hesitated before speaking. He looked to his father for some kind of hint as to whether or not there was any merit to this attorney’s claim. His father, however, was displeased with Cain’s decision and remained impassive. When the attorney saw that he was having trouble, he added, “It’s not all bad, son. Cain walks the Earth, he isn’t in Hell. His fate represents his most powerful virtue: That he was the one who took action. His brother was inert—that means inactive, son. Still. His brother did not have the gumption to make a change in the world, to move...but Cain did. Have you found yourself identifying with the biblical Cain, even if by accident?”
The young attorney’s relaxed posture and speech helped Cain, but he knew this man’s purpose was not to help him win. Still...
“I guess so. But--”
“So you think perhaps you and the eldest son of Adam, cursed by God to walk the Earth for time immemorial are birds of a feather?”
“No!”
“Well you have to make your mind up about this, son. To choose the answer best suited to your purpose won’t do at all. The defense rests.”
As he returned to his seat, the prosecution announced a desire to cross-examine.
“You may proceed.”
The prosecutor was a stuffy older gentleman with a stiff gait and jowls. He ambled close to them and spoke.
“My boy, I’m certain that the assemblage would be interested in your reason for desiring this separation. Would you please explain to the court why you wish to be removed from your brother?”
Now, Cain felt truly at ease to speak up. He was sure that a few simple points of logic would convince the entire room that there was no reason not to allow him to proceed with the operation. There was iron confidence in his young voice.
“Sir, I have had Abel attached to me since I was born. While the whole body is my own, he only thinks and talks and shifts my weight the wrong way. I can only sleep on my back, can’t eat or drink without letting him have some, and, sir, he brings nothing good to the table. I don’t feel as though I have a brother who’s a whole person, but rather a vicious parasite stuck to my neck and shoulder. A man needs to be able to live, and work, and sleep next to his wife in bed. Abel won’t ever do any of those things. It’ll always be me. And I can scarcely see any woman agreeing to marry the both of us.”
The prosecutor nodded, encouraged by Cain’s forthright pronouncement of the facts. “And what say you to allegations that between the both of you, you are a Mutation?”
This sent a murmur of speculation through the courtroom which was quickly silenced by the judge’s gavel.
Cain pointed. “I say that he’s the Mutation. He and I are two separate people, and I refuse to be judged as though we’re the same.”
“Very well. Thank you, young sir. You may sit down.”
The whole court waited as Cain and Abel made their way across the room to their seat between the two attorneys, but when the defense called Abel to the stand, they turned right around.
“Now, son, I understand that this must be hard for you. One second you’re not a whole person, the next you’re your own separate person. Or are you a thing?”
“Objection!”
“Sustained. Do try to remain within the purview of the court’s procedure’s Gabe.”
Gabe nodded respectfully. “I apologize, your honor. Son, do you believe that you are a human being, with a right to live as any other?”
“I do, sir.”
“Why, when you have no body and no control, would you believe that?”
The boy laughed nervously. “Well, sir, for starters, I’ve seen only eighteen summers on this here planet Earth. Reckon I’m just as scared to die as the next man.”
“But what is it makes you a man, son?”
“Like my beloved brother Cain explained, sir, I can think and talk my own two cents. No matter what happens to a man’s body, it’s his brain that makes him himself. I can be happy, sad, angry, the whole run, and scared to boot.”
“That’s very sensible, Abel. What of your brother’s claim to the right of a free life?”
“Well, sir, I can’t begrudge him that, as each of us is called to bear a burden at one time or another. Each man has the choice of what to do—take it or leave it—and my brother has every right to live as free as he wants. But he has no right whatever to have me murdered. If that’s what it takes, then I’m sorry. I do not consent.”
“Thank you, son.” Gabe turned to the prosecutor. “Your witness.”
Abel was frightened of the old man who was working to see him killed. He saw genuine apathy and ruthlessness in the man’s face and posture, and was utterly helpless to defend himself from anything at all.
The old man addressed him with a show of extraordinary condescension. “Cain, I’m going to speak to your...the growth attached to you. Is that alright?” He chuckled. “I don’t mean to ignore you.”
“Objection!” Gabe cried.
“Sustained. J.R., the defendant is a human being, a citizen, and furthermore innocent until proven otherwise. Understood?”
J.R. grinned with pity at the judge. “Understood, your honor.” He spoke very slowly to the witness. “Do you know what ‘murder’ is, son?”
“I do, sir.”
“That’s good. I don’t know if you’ll be able to follow what I say next, but if you do, I want truthful answers. You are aware of the proposed procedure for taking you off of your brother. I mean, you understand how the doctor said he can do it, correct?”
“I do, sir.”
“You are furthermore aware that murder constitutes a malicious act—an act of deadly harm—to another human being?”
“I am.”
“Now, son, is the proposed operation not one that will be performed on your brother? A beneficial surgery intended to promote his health and welfare?”
“But he can’t operate on Cain without operating on me!”
J.R. smiled patiently. “I’ll rephrase the question, as perhaps you didn’t understand it. Your brother asked for the operation, is that not so?”
“He did, but--”
“Tut-tut! No buts, now! This operation, then. It would directly affect and benefit your brother Cain, is that not so?”
“That is so.” Abel wanted to speak out, to plead to the court to sympathize with him, but all he could do was stare up with fright at the man looming over him.
“So in effect, he is not going to murder you in cold blood. His intention is to remove a detriment to Cain’s health from his body.”
“And I’ll die!”
“That remains to be seen.” J.R. replied, stiffening when Abel spoke out of turn. “It’s a delicate procedure, after all. How can you possibly know--”
“I won’t have any blood, any organs, I’ll just be a head! No man’s ever lived when all he had was his head! How can there be any question if I’ll live or die?”
The prosecutor was taken aback by Abel’s tenacity. The judge almost endeavored to quiet him down until he wound down on his own. J.R. took a moment to collect himself, and then a wolfish grin spread across his features. He leaned in close.
“Suppose the surgery doesn’t happen and you’re allowed to live. What do you wish to live for? What, in truth, awaits you in exchange for your brother’s continued disability? Justify yourself to the court, boy!”
“I have a desire to live, or else I would not be here. But if that is not enough, I will tell you that I have taken pleasure in many of the simpler beauties in life. A butterfly. The summer rain. A slice of apple pie and the musical laughter of a young lady. Sir, there is a world out there I wish to see, and the means by which to do so are not of concern to me. Furthermore, sir--”
“Yes, that answers my question.”
“Furthermore, sir,” Abel repeated more firmly, buoyed by his obvious momentum, “my father loves me, even though my brother obviously does not.” Cain’s shocked look gave a lot away in that moment. “As long as I am wanted and needed by someone in this world, I will fight tooth and nail to stay by their side, as that love will always flow both ways.”
Flabbergasted, J.R. dismissed him and sat back down.
The defense called the father to the stand.
“Mister Deon, you love both your sons equally, is that correct?”
“That’s right, though I wish I wasn’t so much mad at my boy Cain right now.”
“How do you feel whenever someone called them Mutations?”
“That’s stupid town gossip, the kind that stirred up trouble in Salem back two hundred years ago. Like people ain’t heard of joined twins before. How about that Chinee circus act came through a while ago? Them two never got no heat, and they was able to get along like two brothers should.”
“Do you believe that both your boys deserve a chance to pursue life, liberty and happiness on their own terms?”
“I do, but I believe even more strongly that a family oughta make sacrifices to help one another, and when one brother can’t stand on his own, the other oughta be there for him. Just because they look different don’t mean it’s not the same dag thing. I want my boys happy together—not apart. I’ve half a mind to beat sense into Cain, except for that Abel’d feel it too.” He glared at Cain.
“That’s all I need from you, sir. Your witness, J.R.
J.R. got up uncertainly, knowing the day was lost unless he pulled a rabbit out of his hat.
“You’ve alleged that you love your boys equally. But surely you can see that your boys are not equal?”
“They’re equal in the eyes of the Almighty, and that’s all that matters to me.”
“Surely you don’t believe the Almighty cares for Mutations, do you?”
“If you’re callin’ my boys Mutations, in the street I’d pop you one. In the courtroom, I say they ain’t Mutations, not any more than any other pair of twins. We got a thin line as to what makes a man a Mutation, and this fear we all got has gone too far.”
When J.R. saw that he would get nowhere with the father, he ended with him and prepared to deliver his closing statement.
“Gentlemen of the jury,” he began, “I submit to you that if this boy is not permitted to do with his body as he pleases, it will set a dangerous precedent for the administration of law all across our nation. He will be told, in no uncertain terms, that his body is not his to do with as he pleases. And why? Because something else, a parasitic organism which is completely dependent upon him to survive, demands to be recognized as a sovereign human being.
“Friends, this is an issue of personal freedom. That freedom we sought to attain when we loosed the shackles of the British Crown and took our independence from them. We were strong, and we survived, and that is how nature selects those who are meant to live. Let God do what he will with those who do not.
“This case will affect the unwed mother prior to labor, if she should decide she cannot raise her child. This will affect people with any strange tumorous growth they wish to have removed. If you find that hard to digest, wait and see. These things have a habit of piling on each other like rungs on a ladder. Once it is started, it will not stop.
“Cain wishes to have his freedom like any American. The procedure to give him that freedom could prove fatal to what he affectionately refers to as his brother. But it is Cain’s body to do with as he wishes, and if he wishes to have a procedure, and no harm will be done to him, that is his right. Let no man dictate to him what he can or cannot do with his own flesh and blood.”
“Distinguished gentlemen,” Gabe began, “our society has a peculiar way about it. That is, we all first learn to see the world in terms of what it is.” He held up one empty hand for emphasis, as though it contained something, followed as he spoke the next sentence by the other. “This fruit is smooth, red and sweet, while this one is orange, bumpy and sour. We know the innate differences between them, so that the next time we see them, we may judge them accordingly. Except, before long we are taught that this one is an ‘apple’ and this one an ‘orange’. Are these names important? Perhaps, if I want to say to you ‘go and fetch me an apple’. But these two items were not created with their names, they were given these names out of a human desire to catalogue, to define. What, then, happens if you prefer the sweet taste of apples, and I discover a place with oranges of remarkable sweetness? I urge you to try one, but you insist that you prefer apples, because they are sweet. I insist in kind that these oranges are sweet, and you refuse to believe me. You say ‘No, no. Are these not oranges? Orange means sour.’
“So it is with other words, other labels, once we have determined what we would like them to mean. Human. Individual. Alive. Mutation. But who do we look to to tackle these very complicated things? Who can possibly know how to analyze these things and tell us without a single doubt what they are? For this, we often turn to a doctor, a priest, or perhaps a court of law. And I ask you, what in my education as a lawyer, or even this gentleman’s education as a judge, has given us the divine knowledge to decide what is alive and what is not? When we assign a label, is it the only one which fits? Or can something be both man...and Mutation? Man and twin? Man and parasite? Even all four? Yes, this case will establish a new precedent, as indeed it should. For the divine right of lawyers and judges and even juries to define words which do not belong to their field of study should be eradicated! Or else, my friends, it may be only a matter or time before, for convenience’s sake, a court determines that you are not alive, not human, but merely a breathing, speaking bag of flesh, in order to pass whatever sentence it deems appropriate.”
Three hours and some very intense deliberation later, the jury reached the verdict. They granted Abel the right to live, and determined that Cain was not, in fact, within his rights to remove Abel from his person. He stormed from the courtroom that day, not even allowing Abel to speak to their father, and that was when Abel knew his trouble had just begun.
Two boys sat at the witness stand—two boys no older than eighteen—and possessed of no more than a single body. Both boys were flushed with anger, although they knew better than to display it too openly in this venue if they were to get what they wanted.
“Your parents named you Cain and Abel,” the defense attorney orated. “I wonder if it’s because they knew, deep in your heart, that one day the two of you would be unable to bear each other. That one day, one brother would betray the other. Do you think the name Cain helped bring you to this crossroads?”
Cain hesitated before speaking. He looked to his father for some kind of hint as to whether or not there was any merit to this attorney’s claim. His father, however, was displeased with Cain’s decision and remained impassive. When the attorney saw that he was having trouble, he added, “It’s not all bad, son. Cain walks the Earth, he isn’t in Hell. His fate represents his most powerful virtue: That he was the one who took action. His brother was inert—that means inactive, son. Still. His brother did not have the gumption to make a change in the world, to move...but Cain did. Have you found yourself identifying with the biblical Cain, even if by accident?”
The young attorney’s relaxed posture and speech helped Cain, but he knew this man’s purpose was not to help him win. Still...
“I guess so. But--”
“So you think perhaps you and the eldest son of Adam, cursed by God to walk the Earth for time immemorial are birds of a feather?”
“No!”
“Well you have to make your mind up about this, son. To choose the answer best suited to your purpose won’t do at all. The defense rests.”
As he returned to his seat, the prosecution announced a desire to cross-examine.
“You may proceed.”
The prosecutor was a stuffy older gentleman with a stiff gait and jowls. He ambled close to them and spoke.
“My boy, I’m certain that the assemblage would be interested in your reason for desiring this separation. Would you please explain to the court why you wish to be removed from your brother?”
Now, Cain felt truly at ease to speak up. He was sure that a few simple points of logic would convince the entire room that there was no reason not to allow him to proceed with the operation. There was iron confidence in his young voice.
“Sir, I have had Abel attached to me since I was born. While the whole body is my own, he only thinks and talks and shifts my weight the wrong way. I can only sleep on my back, can’t eat or drink without letting him have some, and, sir, he brings nothing good to the table. I don’t feel as though I have a brother who’s a whole person, but rather a vicious parasite stuck to my neck and shoulder. A man needs to be able to live, and work, and sleep next to his wife in bed. Abel won’t ever do any of those things. It’ll always be me. And I can scarcely see any woman agreeing to marry the both of us.”
The prosecutor nodded, encouraged by Cain’s forthright pronouncement of the facts. “And what say you to allegations that between the both of you, you are a Mutation?”
This sent a murmur of speculation through the courtroom which was quickly silenced by the judge’s gavel.
Cain pointed. “I say that he’s the Mutation. He and I are two separate people, and I refuse to be judged as though we’re the same.”
“Very well. Thank you, young sir. You may sit down.”
The whole court waited as Cain and Abel made their way across the room to their seat between the two attorneys, but when the defense called Abel to the stand, they turned right around.
“Now, son, I understand that this must be hard for you. One second you’re not a whole person, the next you’re your own separate person. Or are you a thing?”
“Objection!”
“Sustained. Do try to remain within the purview of the court’s procedure’s Gabe.”
Gabe nodded respectfully. “I apologize, your honor. Son, do you believe that you are a human being, with a right to live as any other?”
“I do, sir.”
“Why, when you have no body and no control, would you believe that?”
The boy laughed nervously. “Well, sir, for starters, I’ve seen only eighteen summers on this here planet Earth. Reckon I’m just as scared to die as the next man.”
“But what is it makes you a man, son?”
“Like my beloved brother Cain explained, sir, I can think and talk my own two cents. No matter what happens to a man’s body, it’s his brain that makes him himself. I can be happy, sad, angry, the whole run, and scared to boot.”
“That’s very sensible, Abel. What of your brother’s claim to the right of a free life?”
“Well, sir, I can’t begrudge him that, as each of us is called to bear a burden at one time or another. Each man has the choice of what to do—take it or leave it—and my brother has every right to live as free as he wants. But he has no right whatever to have me murdered. If that’s what it takes, then I’m sorry. I do not consent.”
“Thank you, son.” Gabe turned to the prosecutor. “Your witness.”
Abel was frightened of the old man who was working to see him killed. He saw genuine apathy and ruthlessness in the man’s face and posture, and was utterly helpless to defend himself from anything at all.
The old man addressed him with a show of extraordinary condescension. “Cain, I’m going to speak to your...the growth attached to you. Is that alright?” He chuckled. “I don’t mean to ignore you.”
“Objection!” Gabe cried.
“Sustained. J.R., the defendant is a human being, a citizen, and furthermore innocent until proven otherwise. Understood?”
J.R. grinned with pity at the judge. “Understood, your honor.” He spoke very slowly to the witness. “Do you know what ‘murder’ is, son?”
“I do, sir.”
“That’s good. I don’t know if you’ll be able to follow what I say next, but if you do, I want truthful answers. You are aware of the proposed procedure for taking you off of your brother. I mean, you understand how the doctor said he can do it, correct?”
“I do, sir.”
“You are furthermore aware that murder constitutes a malicious act—an act of deadly harm—to another human being?”
“I am.”
“Now, son, is the proposed operation not one that will be performed on your brother? A beneficial surgery intended to promote his health and welfare?”
“But he can’t operate on Cain without operating on me!”
J.R. smiled patiently. “I’ll rephrase the question, as perhaps you didn’t understand it. Your brother asked for the operation, is that not so?”
“He did, but--”
“Tut-tut! No buts, now! This operation, then. It would directly affect and benefit your brother Cain, is that not so?”
“That is so.” Abel wanted to speak out, to plead to the court to sympathize with him, but all he could do was stare up with fright at the man looming over him.
“So in effect, he is not going to murder you in cold blood. His intention is to remove a detriment to Cain’s health from his body.”
“And I’ll die!”
“That remains to be seen.” J.R. replied, stiffening when Abel spoke out of turn. “It’s a delicate procedure, after all. How can you possibly know--”
“I won’t have any blood, any organs, I’ll just be a head! No man’s ever lived when all he had was his head! How can there be any question if I’ll live or die?”
The prosecutor was taken aback by Abel’s tenacity. The judge almost endeavored to quiet him down until he wound down on his own. J.R. took a moment to collect himself, and then a wolfish grin spread across his features. He leaned in close.
“Suppose the surgery doesn’t happen and you’re allowed to live. What do you wish to live for? What, in truth, awaits you in exchange for your brother’s continued disability? Justify yourself to the court, boy!”
“I have a desire to live, or else I would not be here. But if that is not enough, I will tell you that I have taken pleasure in many of the simpler beauties in life. A butterfly. The summer rain. A slice of apple pie and the musical laughter of a young lady. Sir, there is a world out there I wish to see, and the means by which to do so are not of concern to me. Furthermore, sir--”
“Yes, that answers my question.”
“Furthermore, sir,” Abel repeated more firmly, buoyed by his obvious momentum, “my father loves me, even though my brother obviously does not.” Cain’s shocked look gave a lot away in that moment. “As long as I am wanted and needed by someone in this world, I will fight tooth and nail to stay by their side, as that love will always flow both ways.”
Flabbergasted, J.R. dismissed him and sat back down.
The defense called the father to the stand.
“Mister Deon, you love both your sons equally, is that correct?”
“That’s right, though I wish I wasn’t so much mad at my boy Cain right now.”
“How do you feel whenever someone called them Mutations?”
“That’s stupid town gossip, the kind that stirred up trouble in Salem back two hundred years ago. Like people ain’t heard of joined twins before. How about that Chinee circus act came through a while ago? Them two never got no heat, and they was able to get along like two brothers should.”
“Do you believe that both your boys deserve a chance to pursue life, liberty and happiness on their own terms?”
“I do, but I believe even more strongly that a family oughta make sacrifices to help one another, and when one brother can’t stand on his own, the other oughta be there for him. Just because they look different don’t mean it’s not the same dag thing. I want my boys happy together—not apart. I’ve half a mind to beat sense into Cain, except for that Abel’d feel it too.” He glared at Cain.
“That’s all I need from you, sir. Your witness, J.R.
J.R. got up uncertainly, knowing the day was lost unless he pulled a rabbit out of his hat.
“You’ve alleged that you love your boys equally. But surely you can see that your boys are not equal?”
“They’re equal in the eyes of the Almighty, and that’s all that matters to me.”
“Surely you don’t believe the Almighty cares for Mutations, do you?”
“If you’re callin’ my boys Mutations, in the street I’d pop you one. In the courtroom, I say they ain’t Mutations, not any more than any other pair of twins. We got a thin line as to what makes a man a Mutation, and this fear we all got has gone too far.”
When J.R. saw that he would get nowhere with the father, he ended with him and prepared to deliver his closing statement.
“Gentlemen of the jury,” he began, “I submit to you that if this boy is not permitted to do with his body as he pleases, it will set a dangerous precedent for the administration of law all across our nation. He will be told, in no uncertain terms, that his body is not his to do with as he pleases. And why? Because something else, a parasitic organism which is completely dependent upon him to survive, demands to be recognized as a sovereign human being.
“Friends, this is an issue of personal freedom. That freedom we sought to attain when we loosed the shackles of the British Crown and took our independence from them. We were strong, and we survived, and that is how nature selects those who are meant to live. Let God do what he will with those who do not.
“This case will affect the unwed mother prior to labor, if she should decide she cannot raise her child. This will affect people with any strange tumorous growth they wish to have removed. If you find that hard to digest, wait and see. These things have a habit of piling on each other like rungs on a ladder. Once it is started, it will not stop.
“Cain wishes to have his freedom like any American. The procedure to give him that freedom could prove fatal to what he affectionately refers to as his brother. But it is Cain’s body to do with as he wishes, and if he wishes to have a procedure, and no harm will be done to him, that is his right. Let no man dictate to him what he can or cannot do with his own flesh and blood.”
“Distinguished gentlemen,” Gabe began, “our society has a peculiar way about it. That is, we all first learn to see the world in terms of what it is.” He held up one empty hand for emphasis, as though it contained something, followed as he spoke the next sentence by the other. “This fruit is smooth, red and sweet, while this one is orange, bumpy and sour. We know the innate differences between them, so that the next time we see them, we may judge them accordingly. Except, before long we are taught that this one is an ‘apple’ and this one an ‘orange’. Are these names important? Perhaps, if I want to say to you ‘go and fetch me an apple’. But these two items were not created with their names, they were given these names out of a human desire to catalogue, to define. What, then, happens if you prefer the sweet taste of apples, and I discover a place with oranges of remarkable sweetness? I urge you to try one, but you insist that you prefer apples, because they are sweet. I insist in kind that these oranges are sweet, and you refuse to believe me. You say ‘No, no. Are these not oranges? Orange means sour.’
“So it is with other words, other labels, once we have determined what we would like them to mean. Human. Individual. Alive. Mutation. But who do we look to to tackle these very complicated things? Who can possibly know how to analyze these things and tell us without a single doubt what they are? For this, we often turn to a doctor, a priest, or perhaps a court of law. And I ask you, what in my education as a lawyer, or even this gentleman’s education as a judge, has given us the divine knowledge to decide what is alive and what is not? When we assign a label, is it the only one which fits? Or can something be both man...and Mutation? Man and twin? Man and parasite? Even all four? Yes, this case will establish a new precedent, as indeed it should. For the divine right of lawyers and judges and even juries to define words which do not belong to their field of study should be eradicated! Or else, my friends, it may be only a matter or time before, for convenience’s sake, a court determines that you are not alive, not human, but merely a breathing, speaking bag of flesh, in order to pass whatever sentence it deems appropriate.”
Three hours and some very intense deliberation later, the jury reached the verdict. They granted Abel the right to live, and determined that Cain was not, in fact, within his rights to remove Abel from his person. He stormed from the courtroom that day, not even allowing Abel to speak to their father, and that was when Abel knew his trouble had just begun.