Jack picked his mother up at the airport. Bud, Jack's father, decided he would stay at home because he did not want to sit in the courtroom on one of those hard benches for days.
“My legs will get stiff and I’ll get cramps,” he said. “I can’t just get up and walk around the courtroom to stretch them in the middle of it now, can I? It’s best if I just stayed back here to mind the house.”
He would wait to get the reports from Louisie every night instead.
Jack expected as much from his father. He liked his father well enough, but Bud was never one to express his feelings. His father had not hugged him once as a child, and Jack knew that Bud's decision to stay behind had nothing to do with the trial. It had more to do with the fact that there would be people and cameras there, and Bud might be expected to show some outward compassion and emotional support for his son—something Bud had not done in the past and was certainly not prepared to do now.
His mother was charming and excited to be back with Jack again. She wanted to be caught up on all of the details, and Jack soon delivered. His mother rode along for every turn and twist Jack put forward. Jack's confidence was lifted by the way she absorbed each of the simple facts he regurgitated about what had happened to date. If she only knew the real facts, Jack thought. The truth of how low he descended on this journey of his would horrify his mother. She would never understand why and would most likely be mortified for having born a son of such extreme malice.