Our Point: Short Stories by Linus Walton

Author:Linus Walton [Walton, Linus]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-06-02T22:00:00+00:00

I gave her credit.

I would be starting, leaving, in a matter of weeks.

I left that very fall.

Two Years

He got a call one Sunday morning from his lawyer friend Tom. Tom did work a lot of Sundays and once in a while he would call. This time he was agitated, more than usual.

“Did you hear anything about Jon ______ in Syracuse?” he asked.

He knew Tom referenced a lawyer they had done business with over the years.

No, he hadn’t.

“Yeah, well when I called there last week, they connected me with a different lawyer. Didn’t say why. They acted a bit weird.”

“Well what,” I asked, not sure where this was going. “Is he dead?”

“That’s the thing. Not sure, didn’t get an answer. Didn’t think I could ask.”

So in the call Tom went on with the business at hand, talking to an associate at the firm. Probably concerning the usual—negotiating a payoff amount for a medical bill judgment which had cropped up in the title of a house property closing.

So was he dead? was my issue—the sixty-four thousand dollar question.

I looked online for the next three weeks for any obituary. Then I did see it, and forwarded it to Tom. An impressive obituary, a good one, as these go. The kind that’s enlightening, tells things you had no idea about. He had a hell of a background. Ivy League B.A. degree, though it didn’t say in what. Then law school, just across the river in the same town, for three years. Both in college and in following years he had far-ranging interests—music, Broadway plays, opera, literature. Wrote his own musical compositions even. A regular at piano recitals. Performed on piano then harpsichord for family and whomever would listen. And as for college theater—a standout—with a trademark raucous laugh in a lead role, a laugh he held on to, made use of later, in all sorts of contexts.

For a good laugh is a valuable asset.

Memorable, I considered.

A saving asset.

But he was personable, I thought, reflecting on the article. Especially personable. This more than anything.

And the range of interests he had—what was that again? Definitely refreshing. I had to look, read the piece twice more.

I knew his bread and butter had been in commercial law. Which came down to a lot of collection work, unavoidably so. A high volume at that. From my own teeth cutting I knew that collections demand daily follow-up, canvassing files, figuring the next step. And surprisingly, a lot of paper is involved, that is, litigation. Daily putting the pressure on, turning the screws so as to recover money for the creditor client. And much of the debt arising out of medical care, the massive cost. People left in binds if insurance doesn’t cover, or isn’t there. Desperate, at wits end. Teetering.

Somehow he bore it for forty years. Even bought the firm from his predecessor and partner.

But he stayed fair minded, what stuck in my mind when Tom first mentioned the name. He was ever willing to consider an offer. If your

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.