Chapter 13
Delbert Wayne Duncan
Confesses
Dr.
Steven Wu strutted around Mindy Watkins windowless gray office office
with his chest extended. “He confess, Ms. Watkins! He confess!”
“It's
not a confession until he signs all of his papers,” Mindy Watkins
reminded her employee in a Sunday school tone. Mindy studied the
monitor mounted on the wall to her left. A struggling and inept
lawyer named Loqueenia Jackson sat across the table from her client,
Delbert Wayne Duncan. Last week a woman impersonating Delbert Wayne
Duncan's mother stumbled into Jackson's tiny office with five hundred
dollars in an envelope begging the counselor to help her forsaken
son.
Ms.
Jackson met a frightened man who desperately wanted to confess his
crimes. She agreed to accommodate her client's wishes and now she sat
with a notary as Delbert Wayne Duncan signed paper after paper
guarded by a seven foot Nurse Renee. Conspiracy this. Conspiracy
that. It all gave Loqueenia a headache and she was grateful for
Deputy Attorney Norman Nelson's assistance in highlighting with
bright yellow sticky pads, those places that required her client's
signature. And he agreed to stand by at his office in Memphis, should
she need any further help.
Dr.
Wu recited the saga once more and this time Mindy did not even
pretend to listen. They had tried to use religious stimuli to
threaten a lake of fire for Delbert Wayne Duncan should he refuse to
confess his crimes. When that didn't work they threatened his sons
with the infernal treatment should they not have their father's moral
guidance.
When
that tactic failed, Dr. Wu concluded that Delbert Wayne Duncan was
either a minority non-religious personality or that he was brain
damaged from his lifestyle choices. So they tried a different
approach. They would morph an image of his real life son stating that
he had cancer of the tongue and that if his father signed a
confession, he could come home and deliver him into the care of a
competent oncologist. The fish did not bite.
Dr.
Wu had never had a patient so resistant to truth therapy. From the
depths of despair Dr. Wu was struck by a bolt of insight. Delbert
Wayne Duncan had responded favorably to the images of himself gumped into
a fictitious commercial family. What if Dr. Wu morphed an image of
his breakfast cereal son complaining of tongue cancer and pleading
with his father to sign a confession to make his tumor go away? The
instant success surprised even Dr. Wu.
Mindy
Watkins held up a finger to signal for silence as she dialed Carlisle
on her phone. She had decided to bail on the family vacation until
the Duncan confession was extracted. Missy and Carlisle and the four
kids were en route to Olympic National Park in Washington State. When
John Joseph purchased the federally-owned passenger train system, he
immediately added luxury options. Knowing that the prime advantage of
rail transport was the slight marginal expense of adding each
additional car, the soon to be renamed Joseph Rail Service added
private cars at reasonable prices.
John
Joseph viewed American tourism as an underexploited market. So many
would be travelers, even upscale tourists, found America unwelcoming
and difficult to navigate. Joseph produced yet another blockbuster
with private cars and high end lodging along the tracks. So instantly
successful were the European cars and the hotels staffed with Swiss
and French staff that Joseph added cars for Asian tourists as well.
They now allowed third parties to rent their own cars that attracted
a largely American clientele.
As
was their custom, the Joseph-based company sold the naming rights to
the company itself as well as each train line, each train, each rail car and each
stop along the way. For the next seventeen years the Joseph Rail
Service would be called the Benjamin Franklin Financial Services
Railroad. The Watkins had boarded the “Crime & Justice” car
at the Supreme Burger Depot in Memphis. They would ride the Caffie
Nation Energy Drink Train on the Success Seminrs Line to Chicago's Real Ginger Antacid Depot,
transfer to a “Crime & Justice: Hate Crimes” car aboard the Friendly Fire Probiotic Train that would travel the Immodium Supreme Line that terminated at the NatureLax
Depot near the entrance of Olympic National Park.
As
the “Crime & Justice” cars were licensed by the producers of
the franchise, passengers had unlimited access to the “C & J”
library. The cars were arranged with toilets at each end and featured
four cushioned viewing areas and a refrigerator stocked with
sandwiches and cold beverages. Shades were pulled to guard one's
focus from the distracting countryside. All night long the “Crime &
Justice” jingle would percolate throughout the rail-bound Eden.
Carlisle
was unsure where they were or what time it happened to be. As with
Missy and the kids, he was lost in “C & J” wonder, oblivious
to the outside world. They ate premade sandwiches named after their
favorite show's characters along with a bottomless bag of Cheetos,
washed down with cold Mountain Dew. The weary travelers looked
forward to reaching their hotel in Washington so they could shower
and maybe do a little sightseeing before settling in for more “C &
J.”
Mindy
stated that she might be able to catch a flight and meet them at the
hotel. She fondly recalled last year's vacation. The family had taken
a series of just-released “C & J” cars on a surreptitious
route to the Grand Canyon. They started with the “Crime and
Justice” pilot and watched the flagship series in sequence. Actors
got older and the cast was reshuffled a few times.
They
got to the Grand Canyon and were able to resume “C & J”
viewing with a subscription feed. The family would eat breakfast
together, spend a few minutes looking at the hole in the ground, and
then they would rush back to their suite to resume “C & J.”
It was at that hotel when everyone's favorite character, Monique
Benz, played by Tamara Mansfield was written out of the script.
In
real life Mansfield had held out for more money and the executive
producer, Richard Fox, killed off the character to make an example
for the remaining cast members. The funeral of Monique was
controversial in its original showing and spiked the ratings in a
manner that harkened back to a pre-cable era.
Carlisle
had lost his mother two months before they replayed the episode at
the Grand Canyon. He was ever so composed as he mourned his mom, thanking
his heavenly father for all the lessons she had bestowed, all the
comforts she had given. Then he watched Monique's funeral and the
floodgates opened. Mindy recalled the loss of her own parents and
Missy joined in their grief. It was an exercise in healing.
Mindy
hung up the phone and looked at the monitor. “They are still
signing papers? Damn I am so glad I never went to law school.”
Dr.
Wu retold once more, the story of the confession. He again emphasized
how strongly Delbert Wayne Duncan had identified with his commercial
family. Mindy wistfully shook her head. “It's a shame he's going to
prison, Dr. Wu. He would have been an excellent consumer.”
With
a bittersweet expression, Dr. Wu added, “He would eat a lot of
cereal.” At last, the signing of forms had been completed.
