"I signed his name," she said. "On checks and on school things. I did it a lot. I knew it was wrong. I put hooks on the doors, and I took the rotor out of his truck so he couldn't drive, and I didn't tell anybody, because I thought if I told, he'd go one way and I'd go another and we'd both be with strangers. And I thought, if I can just fix it. If I can just keep fixing it." Her voice wobbled. She waited until it stopped. "It's like a wire. It was wore through, and I kept taping it. And it worked when it was cool. But it got cold, and then it didn't, and he went out the window, and I didn't think about the window."
The judge didn't say anything. Behind Josie, in the benches, nobody moved.
"Mr. Haskett told me it was going to happen," Josie said. "He told me the truth every single time, even when I didn't want it. He said he wouldn't do anything without telling me first. And he didn't. He told me before he talked to Marla. And that night he held up the phone so I could see it before he called." She looked up at the judge. "Nobody else ever told me first. Grown-ups just decide stuff. He told me first."
She sat down. Mr. Petrie, beside her, handed her a tissue without looking at her, which she appreciated.
Judge Strand took off her reading glasses and folded them and set them on the papers in front of her.
"I'm going to ask something," she said, "that I don't generally ask. I'd like everyone in this courtroom who is here this morning on behalf of this young lady to stand up."
For a second nothing happened.
Then Tiny stood up, with his hat in both hands. Then Marla and Gus. Then Deacon, off the wall. Then Mrs. Delgado and her sister, and Mr. Fenn, and Mrs. Kittredge, who was crying a little and didn't seem to care who saw. Deputy Arnett stood up in his uniform, and his sergeant beside him gave him a look and then stood up too. Hollis Pike got his two canes under him and hauled himself upright with a sound like a gate. Men in leather vests stood all along the back wall, in the aisle, by the door, men Josie had never met in her life, from Wells and Battle Mountain and Jackpot, and the benches creaked and the floor creaked and then there was no sound at all. Every single person in the room was on their feet, except for the lawyers, and the judge, and Ms. Ochoa, who sat with her pen in her hand and her eyes shining.
And Boone, at the end of the second row, who'd been standing the whole time since she sat down. She hadn't even noticed when he'd gotten up.
Judge Strand looked out over all of them for a long time.
"Thank you," she said. "Please be seated."
They sat.
She ordered that Josefina Etcheverry be placed in the temporary custody of the Division, with placement in the home of Marla and Augustin Quintero of Cutter Springs, pending completion of their licensure. She ordered weekly visitation with her grandfather at Ruby Ridge, and more if the facility allowed. She ordered that the child continue at Cutter Springs Combined School. And then she put her glasses back on and looked down at her papers, and said, in a slightly different voice, "The court sees no reason to restrict the child's apprenticeship at Mr. Haskett's shop on Saturday mornings, provided Mrs. Quintero is aware of her whereabouts. The court is given to understand there are four things there that don't run."