Katherine sobbed and choked out her words. "Homer sneaked into my room in the middle of the night and forced himself on me."

Roland was beside himself with rage, shouting, "Homer Swanson, get out here! You think you can hide and get away with it? Get out here now!"

I looked at Katherine calmly. "You say my brother forced you. What proof do you have?"

"What proof do I need? I'm an unmarried girl. Would I slander him for no reason?"

"Why wouldn't you?"

Katherine cried harder. "Hilary, what kind of person do you take me for? Saying that, are you trying to get me killed?"

Maya Finch, watching the show from the side, slapped her thigh.

"Oh my, what kind of people are these Swansons? Homer forces himself on a girl, and Hilary here says she's slandering him on purpose. How is anyone supposed to live like this?"

"Sweetheart, I told you yesterday to stay at Dawn's place. At least in someone else's home Homer would have thought twice. You move into the Swanson house, and how is that any different from a lamb walking into a tiger's den?"

I fixed Maya with a hard glare. "None of this happened. If you keep talking nonsense, I'll report you to the neighborhood council."

"It's right here in front of everyone and she still won't admit it!"

I turned to Katherine. "Since you say my brother forced you, then when he came into your room last night, why didn't you call out for anyone?"

Roland had gone looking for my brother, come up empty, and circled back.

"Right, Katie, didn't I tell you to call me if anything happened? How is it I didn't hear a single sound?"

"I was keeping watch outside your door all last night. I never saw anyone go in."

Katherine shot him a vicious look.

"What are you saying? You think I'm slandering Homer too?"

"No, that's not what I meant. Maybe Homer slipped in while I was dozing off and covered your mouth, so you never got the chance to call for me."

See that. Roland had thought up the excuses for her himself.

Katherine cried even harder. "How could something like this happen to me? I don't want to live!"

And with that she lunged to slam her head into the wall.

Roland caught her fast. "Katie, don't do anything rash. We'll call the police, get the authorities, and put Homer Swanson behind bars!"

I chimed in at once. "Yes! Call the police right away. If Homer really did this, I won't let it slide!"

"Dawn, could I trouble you to run down to the local police station and report it for me?"

Dawn agreed immediately and was about to head out when Katherine screamed.

"Don't call the police!"

She was frantic.

"If the police get involved, my reputation is ruined. And Homer surely acted on impulse. He's not a bad person."

Roland shouted, "No, we have to report it to the authorities!"

"Yes, we have to report it to the authorities! If our family has produced someone like this, that can't stand!"

Seeing this, Dawn hurried off at a trot to report it.

Katherine's face went red with panic.

"Hilary, I don't want Homer to go to prison at all. If he's willing to apologize to me and marry me, I'll drop it."

"That won't do. No one in our Swanson family has ever done such a thing. If Homer really did this, then even if you're willing to forgive him, I'll never let him off!"

Before long, Dawn came back with an officer.

The officer asked, "Where's Homer Swanson?"

That was when they discovered my brother's room had been locked with a padlock the whole time, and there was no one inside at all.

I slapped my thigh, pretending it had only just come back to me.

"Officer, I remember now. My brother said yesterday he was going to stay over at a friend's place. He wasn't home last night at all!"

The color drained from Katherine's face in an instant.

"That's impossible. Last night he crept into my room and he... he..."

"Katie, it was pitch dark. How could you be so sure it was Homer who crept into your room? What if it was someone else, someone up to no good?"

I glanced at Roland.

"And when you went to sleep last night, why didn't you bolt your door?"

"I, I forgot."

Roland spoke as if he held the moral high ground. "Even if Katie's door was wide open, that's no excuse for Homer to assault her!"

I turned to Roland, my eyes cold enough to frighten anyone.

"My brother wasn't home last night. How could he have assaulted her? More likely she staged the whole thing herself, so she could force her way into marrying my brother. Or someone else did it and pinned it on him."

"And you're the obvious suspect. You've got your own home, but you insisted on staying at ours. Was that to make the crime easier?"

"That's slander!"

"Even if your brother wasn't home yesterday, he could have sneaked back at night and slipped out again!"

Just then my brother came back with his friend.

"Sis, why are there so many people in the courtyard? And why are the police here?"

An officer stepped forward. "You're Homer Swanson. Right now a woman is accusing you of forcing yourself on her."

My brother looked at the officer, then at Katherine, sobbing and half-dressed, and he understood everything at once.

"Officer, I haven't done anything against the law. I went out yesterday right after dark, when everyone was still awake."

"Where did you go?"

"I went to my friend Darrell Fox's place."

Darrell was standing right at my brother's side.

The officer turned to Darrell. "Were you with him the whole night?"

Katherine called out to Darrell. "Darrell."

"This is serious. Tell it straight."

Darrell exchanged a look with Katherine before he spoke.

"Homer did come find me yesterday, that's true, but he only sat for a while and then went out. He didn't come back the whole night. I only ran into him again this morning when I was heading out."

"He looked flustered, so I even asked if something had happened."

"He wouldn't say, just kept walking straight ahead, so I followed him over here."

Roland flew into a rage on the spot and lunged forward to hit my brother.

"Homer Swanson, you animal!"

The officer held him back.

"Calm down, sir."

Katherine started sobbing again. "I'm not lying. Homer, if you liked me you could have just told me. Why would you do this to me?"

My brother's girlfriend, Ivy White, was standing at the edge of the crowd.

"Homer, did you really do it?"

Everyone turned to look at once.

Ivy's face held pain, confusion, and above all disbelief.

My brother walked toward her. "Ivy, believe me. I didn't do it."

Katherine suddenly screamed. "Homer Swanson!"

"You did this to me. Who's going to want to marry me now? You have to take responsibility!"

"Marry me right now and I'll drop it. Otherwise you can wait to go to prison!"

Roland was frantic. "Katie, you can't marry him. You'll never be happy with him for the rest of your life!"

"You don't have to worry about your reputation. I'll marry you!"

Katherine shoved Roland away, disgust all over her face. "What does any of this have to do with you?"

"Homer, all I want is one promise from you. Say something."

The people around us started egging it on too.

"Homer, I say you just marry the girl. Or do you really want to go to prison?"

"A girl this fresh and pretty, you're not losing anything by marrying her."

"You did a thing like this and she's still willing to give you a chance. You'd better treat her right."

...

In my past life, buckling under every kind of pressure, I talked my brother into giving in and taking Katherine into the family, and that was where all the tragedy began.

This time, I spoke to the officer.

"Officer, I believe my brother is innocent. Please investigate this thoroughly and clear his name!"

"And if you have no witness, I'd advise you to accept the accuser's offer to settle."

My brother, who had said nothing for so long, finally spoke.

"Who says I have no witness?"

At that moment more than a dozen people suddenly poured into the courtyard.

"We can all vouch for Homer Swanson!"

"That's right, we're all witnesses!"