The judge’s secret service detail—Roy and Janet—forgot one minor detail, namely not letting strangers into the judge’s office unannounced. Betsy strolled into the secretaries’ den, peered into the torture chamber, and casually walked inside.

“Ahh, who—who are you?” the judge barked at her intruder.

Betsy smiled sweetly, presenting her gift with two hands. “Judge Friedman, I’m Betsy Noland, one of Judge Adams’s clerks,”—the judge suddenly sat up straight and turned her frown upside down—“and here’s our opinion in Nelson. I thought I’d bring it to you personally.”

“Why thank you, thank you, young lady,” the judge said and stood to accept the gift. “How are you? Come, come, meet my law clerks.” The judge took Betsy’s hand and towed her into the clerks’ cave.

“Hey, Sheila”—Betsy fake smiled—“and hello, Matthew.” The judge and Betsy stood side by side, holding hands.

“Oh, so you people all know each other?” The judge asked, feigning surprise. Kate and Evan were spared the spurious pleasantries. Failing the bar exam had its benefits—the judge pretended that Evan no longer existed and it wasn’t clear Kate had ever existed to her.

“Oh yes, yes, we do,” Betsy chirped. “Nice to see you both. And in your natural habitat.” She glanced around our dingy chambers. “Well then, I must be getting back to our soon to be new justice’s office. It’s been a madhouse since the nomination.” She winked at the judge. “We’ve just been bombarded by the media.” Betsy pulled away, trying to liberate her hand. The judge secured her grip. “OK, then, I really must be going,” Betsy said, yanking again and sending a ripple through the judge’s bun.

Betsy used her left hand to peel the judge’s fingers off of her right hand. “Bye!” Her fake smile evaporated as she jogged away.

“I rilly don’t like that one,” the judge announced, strangling Adams’s opinion. “Roy! Roy!”

“Yes, Judge.” Roy reported to duty, all but genuflecting at the judge’s altar.

“Make two copies of this. Two copies, do you understand?” the judge howled. “Give one copy each to Matthew and Sheila and bring me the original.” Roy squinted, confusion clouding his vision, as he reached apprehensively for the opinion.

Then she turned to us. “Read the majority opinion. You’ve had weeks to anticipate what it says, so I expect a draft of that dissent in a couple of days. We rilly need to get these opinions on the books so that Nelson can appeal for an en banc hearing immediately. Oh-kay, people?”

“OK, that shouldn’t be a problem,” I replied with such confidence, the judge returned to her office appeased.