WAKE UP CALL

Petty Esquire: A fictional account of the extraordinarily petty, six figure, underbelly of the legal world.



I woke up with a start on the first ring of the phone. I jumped almost to full standing position from the triangular position I had taken on the bare floor. My neck and my back both hurt and my head felt heavy because I had it hung between my knees for so long. I was disoriented because the apartment looked so different so I couldn’t immediately identify the phone. Now standing, my head began to throb. The veins in my temples pulsated radiating pain and the shadows of blood vessels across my eyes.

I found the phone in a corner on the floor where an end table once sat and supported a crystal lamp. “Hello?” I mumbled. The person on the other end of the phone kept repeating my name. After a few seconds his persistence jolted me back to reality. “Hank, it’s me, Ben.” “Oh. Hi.” “What’s going on with you?” He asked. I paused and he jumped in sensing that whatever it was, it wasn’t good. “Look, I’m going out to dinner with a friend of mine tonight, you know the one you met at the bar, and I was calling to invite you. Are you up for it?” I wanted to say no. I had to say no. How could I buy dinner when I had no idea where my next dollar would come from? And my head hurt so badly. The pain was becoming tighter and now it radiated down through my neck and settled in my shoulders. I rubbed my shoulder with my free hand while saying, “I can’t. I really need to get some rest for work tomorrow.” “I really want you there, man. It’ll be fun, just like old times—my treat.” I opened my mouth to respond but nothing came out. My thinking was so muddled that I couldn’t make a quick decision. While I was thinking Ben gave me the address of the restaurant and closed the conversation with, “see you in a couple of hours.” Then he hung up the phone.

I walked to my bedroom. I wasn’t sure if I did it to look for something to wear or to check and see if my fiancee had left any of my things behind. It was conceivable that she would take my stuff too just to piss me off. I guess she really wasn’t getting over my cheating on her. I opened my closet and found all of my things there. I was relieved. Basically she left all of my stuff untouched. I thought that was pretty considerate of her.

I sat on the end of the bed, which had been stripped of its linens. I rolled my neck around trying to get the crick out. While I exercised my aching neck, I closed my eyes and breathed slow, even breaths. I felt like the life that had been punched out of me earlier was coming back.