Plotting - John Fetto

Billings sat perusing his papers, waiting for the Judge to call his case and began to plot, his mind working quickly over the alternatives. It was simple. If he had a good case, he wouldn’t want to try the case, and they would. If he had a great case they wouldn’t want to try the case, and he would. But of course it was more complicated than this. He wasn’t a monster. He didn’t just think of numbers. He was concerned with people too. Not his clients especially but Linda and her invitation to go to a ski lodge in Tahoe this weekend. If he tried the case, he’d have to prepare the whole weekend, if he had to prepare the whole weekend, he wouldn’t be able to go away with Linda. Linda or try a case. He turned over another piece of paper, as if reading and weighed the pros and cons.

The case had merit. If he worked his ass off, he could really ring the bell, in numbers of six fingers. But Linda had merit too. He quickly inventories her merits, and re-calculated the gloss on her parted lips when she had invited him before she left last night. Eyes and lips. Eyes, lips mouth, a kind of pouty mouth, neck, and then he began to lose count. On one side was---no on the other side was, win, Linda, the ski lodge, all to themselves, a hot tub, wine, not much skiing, but who cared…

The judge called his case and he walked up, handed the sheriff a slip of paper with his name, the name of his firm, the case number, and sat down at the table before the judge.

“Is this case ready to try?”

“Yes,” said Billings.

“I’m afraid not,” said the defense attorney. He stood up as he said it, buttoning his jacket as he prepared to make a long speech. “Your honor we still haven’t deposed…” and then he went off to name half the phone book they needed to prepare his case. Somewhere around ‘g’, Billings lost interest and thought about Linda standing in the little lodge, greeting him as he walked up in his ski jacket. She was wearing less…

“Mr. Billings?” said the Judge and Billing’s realized it was the second time he’d been called.

“You honor,” he said and paused. “We’d ready to try this case now…”

The defense attorney was already up and interrupting him.

“If I may, your honor.” The judge frowned at the defense attorney who suddenly lost his voice. “But I don’t want counsel to think we’ve taken advantage of his total lack of preparation. I have no objection to a short continuance.”

Members of the audience teetered as he sat down. He almost thought he overplayed it, as he sat down, and he hid his smile behind his folded hands. It took the defense counsel a full three minutes to explain how it wasn’t his fault he was unprepared, and Billings didn’t pile on any more. He was thinking that if the court ruled early, he could make a token appearance at the office, get to Tahoe early.