Dee's mom is with them but she doesn't look nervous, she looks mad. Avery wonders if she's mad because Dee won't wake up.
A man in a uniform who doesn't smile tells Avery to swear to tell the truth and she swears it. Then the judge tells her to sit down and says that she will have to answer questions. Her mom and dad have already told her this but she nods anyway.
"Your witness."
Dee's mom's lawyer stands up and walks toward the tall chair like he said he would and says "Hi Avery, can you tell us how you know Ellie and Dean Warren?"
Avery looks to her parents who nod at her. "Dee and Miss Ellie live next door." she says. She looks at the man with the uniform and no smile so he can see she is telling the truth, but he is looking at his watch.
"Who's Dee?" the lawyer asks
Avery isn't sure what to say. "Uh, only grown ups call him Dean."
"That's okay, I just want to be sure everyone knows that when you say Dee you're talking about Dean Warren. Avery can you tell us about the last time you saw Dean? What happened when you showed him your Zapp Brannigan doll?"
Avery looks again to her parents and then to Dee's mom. They had all yelled a lot about the Zapp doll. Especially Miss Ellie.
"Avery?" says the judge.
"Um yeah. He came over to our garage to play castles and he had his ... he had his ... he had his guy with the cape who I can't remember and I had my Zapp and we were defending the castles."
"That's okay Avery, just focus on what you do remember. Can you tell us what Dean thought of your Zapp doll?"
"He wanted it, but he couldn't have mine so I told him we could print another one."
"Print him one?"
"Yeah with our printer." Avery points to the table where a misshapen mechanical looking box sits next to her Zapp doll and some papers. It looks smaller there than it does in the garage, she thinks.
“Let the record show that the witness has indicated exhibit E a RepRap mark four Maxwell class desktop fabrication system as previously confirmed by expert witness.”
“Noted.” says the judge.
“Avery, tell us about printing the doll.”
“Well my dad says first you have to search what you want on thingiverse 'cause it has everything, but if it doesn’t have what you want you have to search for something else though. Dee said he knew how to do it so I let him.” Avery feels nervous. “I. I know how to spell y’know.”
“I know you do Avery” says the lawyer. Turning to look at the quiet pale men who are sitting at the other table across the room he says “Let the record show that the witn-”
“We will stipulate that my clients do own and operate the thingiverse website and 3D model database” says one of the pale men.
Avery isn't quite sure how someone could own the thingiverse but it made sense that someone had to operate it. Dad says that computers need help from people to work and that the more you help them the more work they would do for you.
The lawyer looks back to Avery. “What happened when Dean searched for the doll?”
“He spelled Zapp's name wrong so we couldn't find him".
“What did you find Avery?”
“Zapps gun.” Although there are a lot of people there, Avery hasn't really noticed until just then. They all seem to be looking at her and it's awfully quiet.
“What was the gun called Avery?”
“Zipgun.”
The lawyer holds up a clear plastic bag with a gun inside it. “Is this the gun Avery?”
“That looks like it, but they all look the same. Anybody could print one just like it, and they always come out the same and that kind of green like army men. Dad says that’s ‘cause it’s cheaper.”
The lawyer smiles at her. “You’re a very smart girl Avery. Let the record show that this printed copy of the thingiverse object id 8D0C22FE16 titled ‘Coil Powered Zipgun’ was found by police in the garage next to the aforementioned printer. Avery what happened next?"
"I went to the bathroom and when I came out mom and Miss Ellie were putting Dee into the car. He had a towel on his head and there was blood."
"Nothing further."
The judge looks to the pale men who look right at Avery then back at the judge.
"No questions."
"The court thanks you for your service young lady, you may step down and join your parents."
Avery keeps an eye on the man with no smile as she retakes her seat, but he seems more interested in the pale men now. Mom and dad squeeze her between them. Miss Ellie looks at Avery for a long time.
+++
When Dee arrives at Avery's birthday party it's a surprise she hasn't expected for even a moment. He shows her a pretty cool scar on his eyelid, and tells her about how a hot ball bearing can do something called cauterize on it's way through your brains. He says that he slept for three whole weeks, and that when he woke up he'd forgotten how to walk! She's not sure she believes him but he does seem to be wobbling a little.
While Dee and Avery talk Miss Ellie explains to mom and dad about how thingiverse hadn’t done due diligence and whatever that was meant the pale guys had to pay her a lot of money for letting Dee have a gun that could shoot for real. Dee says his mom is going to buy them a mark five printer with a parental control lockout. Dee says he doesn't care about the lockout, because he heard it can print dolls that talk!
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