justice?

The last time they were together it was a hoot. Gina and Dennis were on their honeymoon and Dennis was interviewing for a job with an Audio recording company. Gena and Dennis were considering moving down to Southern California from the Pacific Northwest if the job panned out, which it did not. Before they returned home, they stopped to see their friends, Bill and Barry. Gina and Bill had been friends since middle school. They had both been in AP classes together. They had even had a brief relationship, but they had always seen each other and maintained a real and deep friendship. Bill had come for her marriage to Dennis, and now they were down drowning their sorrows over lost opportunities with Bill and Barry in a West Hollywood hangout. The four of them were drinking heavily and having an animated conversation about the plusses and minuses of Guilt. Dennis and Bill believed some guilt was essential to remain moral, Barry and Gina thought guilt only made everything worse. As they all drank more, everyone got louder and more animated. Eventually, most of the restaurant gathered around the table and cheered on their respective sides. It was a wonderful night with good friends.

But now it was more than a year later. Dennis was employed finally and Gina had become pregnant and Cleo was born the perfect picture of a Gerber baby. Dennis, Gina and Cleo made the perfect middle-class picture of a young and happy family. They looked right out of central casting.

Their first trip after Cleo was born was back to Southern California to visit Dennis’ family and of course to see Bill and Barry again, and on one bright and perfect Southern California day, Dennis, Gina, and Cleo traveled north to meet Bill and Barry in Santa Monica where Bill had prepared a perfect lunch basket of delicacies: fresh squeezed orange juice, baguettes, cheeses, meats, and prosecco, and of course, weed to help make the sky bluer and the togetherness sweeter.

They set themselves up in the park above the Santa Monica beach on the grass beneath in the mildest of winds. Cleo was delighted with the surroundings and was gurgling. Gina and Dennis were delighted to have some time to have actual adult conversations with other adults in a warm and perfect climate. They ate, drank, laughed, and surreptitiously passed a joint back and forth and felt happy and without a care, when a Police Officer came up to them. “Hello officer”, Gina said. “Hello,” said the officer. “Are you all having a good day in this beautiful place?” “Yes sir,” Bill said. “You know you need to not be doing that. I don’t like to interrupt families having a good time, but you need to stop doing that, do you understand?” “Yes sir, we do,” Gina said. “Well you have a good day then,” The officer said, and he walked away. Bill and Barry sat there with their mouths hanging open. “Oh my God,” Bill said walking over to Cleo. “You are magic, you just saved our bacon little girl. Barry, we may have to get ourselves one of these.” They didn’t of course. And Dennis and Gina had their first feeling of being bad parents. And all five of them understood that Justice is in fact, not blind.

— DanielSouthGate