Witness

Soon after my astronomic encounter, I was summoned to the court as an expert witness.

I shall not elaborate on the details of my appearance - it is neither appropriate nor interesting. But a small incident was really remarkable.

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To put it simply, the point of discussion was what actually happened during a critical period.

Early in the morning, a key witness - let's call him Mr. A - was asked to describe and was questioned in great detail about the sequence of event.

After an hour, another witness presented what he did. The judge suddenly interrupted, "That could not be the case. Mr. A just said that he tried the car before calling for help."

A few of the audience (including me) looked puzzled - we seemed to have heard a different story; the barrister of the (supposedly) defending side rose up, "Sir, Mr. A actually said that he called for help before he tried the car."

The judge checked with his own notes that he put down, and he insisted, "No, I did make some notes when Mr. A was giving his evidence. He tried the car first."

I turned around and looked at the seat behind me; Mr. A was humbly sitting there.

"Why don't they ask him again ?" I said to myself.

But no. The point was not what the fact was, but what was being said. The two legal professionals discussed for another minute or so; the judged then suggested, "We have tape recording of the whole process. Why don't we get back to the tape and check what was said ?"

The lawyer duly complied.