I suppose it's true that most people lead dual lives. Anyone who works outside the house has one persona at work and another in his or her personal life. This is probably not as pronounced in most people, however, as it is in A.
A. is a lawyer, of the criminal variety. (Meaning he defends criminals in court, not that he is a criminal.) He's one of the few lawyers who actually does appear in court on a (very) regular basis, and one of the even fewer who occasionally does jury trials.
He is currently in the middle of a somewhat contentious jury trial, which means he's spending his days choosing a jury, delivering opening statements, cross-examining state witnesses, conferring with the judge in chambers, and all that other stuff that you might see in the popular courtroom dramas of Hollywood.
Then he comes home and changes into his sweatpants to sit by his woodstove and drink his homemade hard cider.
Last night at 10:30 p.m., long after we were asleep, the MiL came upstairs in search of A. The dogs had cornered a raccoon right next to the dining room door, behind the very chair I sit in to monitor the adventurous children. The raccoon had probably been on the nearby table eating the cat food when the dogs found it.
The raccoon kept trying to get out from behind the chair to escape, but Mia wouldn't let it. She kept it there until A. arrived with his rifle and dispatched the raccoon.
This morning, he put it on top of the woodpile, where it will remain frozen until he gets a chance to skin it and scrape it in preparation for sending it away to be tanned. Then he can use it to make a new coonskin cap for Cubby, who has outgrown the one A. made for him two years ago.
And then A. put on his suit and headed into the courtroom. Clark Kent has nothing on him.
8 comments:
Inside the house????!
Mary in MN
No, just outside the door on the covered part of the patio.
I think A. likes the Daniel Boone role better than the Perry Mason one. Although, getting out of bed at 10:30 p.m. to go outside and shoot a raccoon isn't something anyone would consider fun, unless you're an insomniac who hates raccoons.
I love these stories.
Hey, how was Cubby's debut at the church Advent event?
This is fabulous! You blogged once in passing about his being at night court which I still think of as only a show from my youth and not an actual thing.
Cubby spoke his line with great aplomb. As did Charlie. It ended up being a family affair.
One must remember that A.'s greatuncle used to shoot rats with a .22 inside (the living room, I think) the house he was renting in the "small city" back in about 1948. There has to be a genetic component!
If he told this tale in town, few would believe him. "Tell it to the judge!" indeed.
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