Homeland Elegies(86)
SLAUGHTER
Just so everyone’s clear, Corinne. You were Christine Langford’s mother?
CORINNE
Am. I am her mother. That’s how I still think of it.
SLAUGHTER
Of course. I’m sorry.—She was the eldest, am I right? Of your three children?
CORINNE
That’s right.
SLAUGHTER
When did you and your husband realize Christine had a heart issue?
CORINNE
After the death of our other daughter.
SLAUGHTER
Kayleigh?
(She nods. When she speaks now, we hear her reedy, nasal voice properly for the first time.)
CORINNE
When she died is when me and Christine started having trouble. That was when we got ourselves tested.
SLAUGHTER
Trouble with your hearts.
CORINNE
Yes. Problems with our heart rhythm.
SLAUGHTER
How old was Kayleigh when she died, if I can ask?
CORINNE
Nine.
SLAUGHTER
And she died in her sleep—isn’t that right?
(She seems as if she’s about to speak, but she doesn’t. Her silence answers the question. Slaughter waits before prodding anew, now more gently—though still with enough volume to be heard by all.)
SLAUGHTER
Do you mind telling us what happened?
CORINNE
She’d spent the day with her grandfather on the farm.
SLAUGHTER
Kendall Dairy, is that right?
CORINNE
Yes, that’s right.
SLAUGHTER
They make their own buttermilk, don’t they?
(A titter of recognition ripples through the jury.)
CORINNE
It’s true. Folks tend to love it. They make it a different way. Something about the enzymes. A lot of stuff I don’t know anything about.
SLAUGHTER
Best buttermilk around these parts, in my opinion.
HANNAH
(from the defendant’s table) Objection, Your Honor. Relevance?
JUDGE
Sustained. Chip, please spare us the scenic route.
(Slaughter looks entirely unconcerned by the instruction. He leans into his cane, turning away from the jury and back to his witness.)
SLAUGHTER
So your daughter Kayleigh had been on the farm that day…
CORINNE
Helping her Nano with chores. She loved being outside with the animals. My dad used to say she was going to keep the farm going when she grew up. Anyway, when she got home, she said she wanted to take a nap.
SLAUGHTER
Was it a normal thing for her to be taking a nap in the afternoon?
CORINNE
Napping in the afternoon on weekends is something everyone in the family tends to do. When they were kids, it was usually because we made them do it. Not because they wanted to.
SLAUGHTER
But on this afternoon, it was her idea.
CORINNE
It didn’t seem like there was anything wrong with her. Just a long afternoon.—She was sleeping on the couch in the family room, and I was in the kitchen. It had just started raining—and I heard the strangest sound I’ve ever heard in my life. Some kind of gurgling. I thought maybe the window in the family room was open, that there was something going on in the gutter from the rain. When I went in to check what was happening, I saw the saliva coming out the side of her mouth. She looked…limp. Like she just wasn’t there anymore. (after a long pause) She never came back.
(The jury is rapt. The emotion on her face—and in the room—is undeniable. This is when I realize that the mise-en-scène has worked: the lifeless makeup, the offhand accumulation of details about things like naps and buttermilk, even the Judge’s reprimands—all have built to this moment of startling emotional purity: before us, a mother remembers the death of her child. I hear a sniffle from the jury box. I can feel the pity and sorrow in my own throat, too.)
SLAUGHTER
I know this is hard.
CORINNE
—It’s okay. It’s for a good reason.
HANNAH
Objection. Leading.
JUDGE
Sustained. (gently) Please, Mrs. Hollander, stick to answering questions.
SLAUGHTER
How long after Kayleigh dying did you all start developing heart problems of your own?
CORINNE
It’s hard to know if one thing started the other. I’ve always been a little short of breath, shorter than normal, even as a kid. Doctors looked into it, but no one found anything.