It'll Kill You

- short fiction on sin # 5 -

The court reporter usually found it hard to stay awake in sentencing hearings, but the next witness looked like he had something interesting to say.

The witness was a thin Chinese man who would have looked twenty-two if not for the grey hair at his temples and the slight folds at the edges of his mouth. To the untrained eye, you might have thought there was a resemblance between him and the young man being sentenced. The young man was dressed in drab grey overalls and stared straight ahead, his mouth slightly hanging open. But the court reporter had spent two years in mainland China and while the two men might have been from the same region, she knew they were not related.

“State your name, sir.” The defense lawyer started right in, sweeping her blond hair behind her ears in a business-like manner.

“Pin Chang.”

“And your profession?”

“I am a – ” he paused, “ – what you would call a doctor.”

“A medical doctor?” the lawyer asked.

“A medical doctor, yes.” Chang nodded. “In Chinese medicine.”

“Have you met Mr. Tsen before?” She pointed at the young man.

“Yes,” Chang agreed. “His parents brought him for a consultation. He was pale, suffering from dizziness, pain in his abdomen. Red eyes. All typical symptoms.”

“Typical of what?”

“Stagnation of chi. He needed to restore the flow of his energy. He needed to tonify. Especially –"

The lawyer from the prosecutor’s office stood up. “Your Honor, I object. What relevance does this have to Mr. Tsen’s sentencing?”

The court reporting was wondering how long it would take for him to interrupt.

The defense lawyer turned on her heel to look at the prosecuting lawyer, though she addressed the judge. “Your Honor, this witness’s testimony will show that Mr.Tsen’s life is threatened by an illness and should be accounted for in his sentencing for this homicide.”

The murmuring in the crowd grew quickly into loud discussion. The judge had to bang her gavel at least three times before she succeeded in bringing order to the courtroom.

“Continue, please, Mr. Chang,” the judge pronounced.

Chang took a deep breath before he leaned forward into the microphone. “I was concerned by the amount of stagnation I saw. Any kind of treatment, if started, needed to be followed through with properly. Or if it isn’t completed, it might cause even more harm.”

“Again!” the prosecutor interrupted. “What relevance is this?”

Chang looked up at the judge. “You see, the dysfunction of every organ is associated with a mental or emotional state of well-being. The spleen is associated with anxiety, the kidney with depression. In our medicine, the mind and body are whole. They are one.”

Chang paused before looking back at the people gathered in the courtroom. “This young man grew up in rural China. His father was a journalist. It is likely he suffered many human rights abuses.”

“And did your examination find that he suffered from this kind of trauma? Did you find some evidence of post-traumatic disorder?” the defense lawyer asked.

“Not exactly.”

There was a silence in the courtroom. Even the Court Reporter stopped so she could look at Chang’s face to see what the next words would be.

The Court Reporter grew irritated. The prosecutor was going to speak again. “Chinese medicine is not a real science, your Honor. How can we take Mr. Chang’s testimony as valid?”

Chang spoke. “Chinese medicine has been around for thousands of years, sir. Just because the Western world has not used it as evidence in your legal systems does not diminish its validity.”

The prosecutor turned red and sat down.

“Your Honor,” Chang said, “the evidence was actually Western. And Eastern. My assessment showed problems with his liver.

Everyone leaned in to hear Chang’s words, even the prosecutor.

“Which is associated with what?” pressed the defense lawyer.

“Anger. Wrath. He was holding it in. Not letting it through his system. His body was not processing it either. Which accounts for the remarkable results of his physical tests, but results not unheard of. At least in my country.”

“And these results were?” she asked.

“His liver cells are degrading,” Chang replied. “Toxicity levels are high.”

“So, what you’re saying is that he’s dying,” the lawyer stated.

“Oh yes,” Chang replied, looking with sad eyes at the young man. “It is a shame. If we had gotten him treatment earlier, we may have been able to save him. Save that poor other young man too.” Chang looked up at the judge. “But now it is too late. He is literally being eaten by his anger.”