A Pro Bono Lawyer in the Slum of Chicago

Andrew was from a slum in Chicago suburb. He was born and raised in an interbred family of which mother was a Caucasian and father was a hybrid of Latino and Black. Due to his biological background, his feature was unique in such a way that people often had to guess where he came from, and he had already used to people’s staring up and down as if judging him for identity. Anyway, none of these was important, what’s important was his resolute mind to become a pro bono criminal lawyer to fight for people being classified as lowlifes who seemed guilty by their in-born faces but not reality.

Behind every motive, there is a story which fortifies it. Andrew was of no exception. His father was convicted of bombing a lawyer’s office, which resulted in the death of many people. Since there was a capital punishment in the district where he allegedly committed the crime, he could be facing the death sentence and possibly being imprisoned in the death row. Though Andrew’s father did not have a steady employment, like many others living in the slum, Andrew did not believe that his dad had the guts to bomb a lawyer’s office for the motive of racial hatred. His dad was too timid to commit such a vicious crime. There must be someone who framed his dad to the crime, and Andrew had determined to find out about it before it was too late. Since they were poor and unable to hire a good criminal lawyer to do the job, Andrew had decided to attend law school and get his dad out of this mess by himself.

The title of criminal lawyer suited Andrew just fine, because he was from dirt and grime and he had used to argue in obscene and profane languages in order to survive in his neighborhood. He had seen hoodlums or thugs being cuffed and manacled and sent to the MSP (Maximum Security Prison), waiting to be gassed or lethal injected. He could hardly tolerate his innocent dad going through the same thing as the hoodlums did. He must muster his courage to get the law degree and to save his dad from being executed in the gas chamber. It was inhumane that the gas chamber was still in use in some districts. Although he had never been to one, he had seen enough in the video to learn the cruelty of tormenting someone on the death row inside the gas chamber; the agony was even susceptible to the viewers in the other room to witness the execution. He had to start gathering information to support his father’s innocence to see if his dad could be pardoned by the governor, the Attorney General, or federal court before it was too late.

The bomb that went off in the lawyer’s office was in the form of a parcel, a normal parcel that went through post office on daily basis. It was hard to discern a parcel which might have contained explosive device unless the entire nation was on the security alert to scan every piece of package being processed through the postal outlets, which would in turn take up lots of human resources of the government. Before he was convicted for the crime, Andrew’s father had been working for the post office for about two years then, the longest duration of job he ever had in his life. His other jobs had been part-time courier, warehouse laborer, and odd jobs here and there whenever possible. Though he kept on working all the time, he could hardly meet the end to pay for his bills. Well, it was a typical scenario for the non-skilled workers everywhere, especially when the inflation rate was creeping up without being noticed. The rent, the food, utility bills, the transportation cost and other unexpected bills were suppressing the people who lived in the slum of Chicago. Kids got tired of parents who sparred on the issue of money matters; they played basketball until dusk just for the sake of avoiding facing their parents. It was a good thing that basketball kept some of them away from doing drug and other illicit activities. Andrew was a good basketball player in school. But what distinguished him apart from others was his penchant for law books, particularly studying for individual litigation cases. Maybe he was destined to defend for his dad, or it could have been just a coincident. Andrew was glad that he did not fall into the trap of being a hoodlum, even though it was very alluring when he lived in a poor neighborhood where he had virtually witnessed illicit activities such as drug trafficking, robbery and prostitution on the sidewalk every single day.

People on the death row usually did not get executed for a long period of time. Petitions for appeal and retrial could go on and on for many years to temporarily spare the inmate’s life and make the defending lawyer’s pocket full of cash, provided, of course, the inmate’s pocket was deep enough to pay. The lawyer assigned to Andrew’s dad was paid by the government due to the law to protect the poor and helpless citizens when in need of a defending lawyer. Josh was his name. Josh was pretty much a rookie lawyer who just came out fresh from law school and desperately tried to unleash what he learned in law school to his first trial representing Andrew’s dad. Andrew didn’t expect anything extraordinary would be resulted from Josh’s representation of his dad. He was hoping that Josh could prolong the case until he got his law degree so that he could defend his dad at full capacity and dedication. Meanwhile he was going to probe into the case in his pastime to see if he could find some circumstantial evidence to defend the justice for his dad. Being a high school kid, Andrew was very good at law already. Thanks to the local library which provided him with plenty of resources as far as law was concerned. He sometimes stayed in the library for a whole weekend to savor some defending strategies written by the experienced lawyers. Some people thought Andrew was a workaholic in academics but he was actually very good at all kinds of sports, particularly, he was enlisted as a fifth round draft pick by a NBA team, but he declined to pursue his career in basketball. His interest in a NBA team was just to test the water to see if he was good enough for a professional league. For that he startled lots of his classmates and teachers, and kind of putting them in puzzle for eternity. Why was Andrew so stupid not to pick up millions of dollars a year salary at his finger tips? Lots of classmates dreamed of replacing his post, but the NBA team just did not budge a bit. Anyway, Andrew was accepted by the Yale Law School on full scholarship to compensate for what he had lost in basketball. Being accepted by Yale was not a surprise to him. Andrew was a confident kid who knew exactly what he was made of and knew exactly what he wanted to achieve in life. Very few people in the world can set up a goal early in life like Andrew, and he was very proud of himself

The Yale Law School is internationally renowned. Being accepted by it is like hitting lotto 649 jackpot, guaranteed to succeed in this material world. Andrew, however, was not thrilled by the money it would generate after graduation from law school. There was some sort of mission on his mind, some sort of inexplicable mission imposed upon him, which kept on telling him that he was the chosen one to defend the most vulnerable and helpless folks. For that, he was grateful that Yale accepted him on full scholarship. One day down the road, he was going to pay them back a million times more than he would receive from them. The summer was over, and September was coming in a few days. He had to get himself ready for his new school- The Yale Law School.

Yale, being one of the Ivy League schools, really lived up to its reputation. Immaculately trimmed tree lines were scattered around the beautiful campus which was packed with students milling around between classes. The first thing Andrew wanted to do was to check out the centuries- old library as if a housewife who was so eager to explore her newly renovated kitchen. Andrew was relieved after finding out the innumerous collections of law books in the immense library. After all, Yale is a prestigious for its Law School. Now Andrew had to learn how to act and talk urbanely instead of his habit of talking in profanity and slum-language. It would take a while to get rid of the incorrigible effect of being surrounded by the lowlifes through his life so far. But it could be changed with due diligence and determination. He wanted to make good friends for life, and he no longer wanted to mingle with undesirable friends. Yale Law School was his milestone for his life to the better domain beyond.

After devouring his first sandwich in the cafeteria, he strolled to the Student Union just for the reason of getting himself acquainted with the campus. As a habit, his backpack was always filled with plenty of books just in case he got bored and had nothing better to do between classes. His mind had never left his dad’s case. He was baffled to the question why the prosecutor had his dad’s finger prints and trace of DNA from his dad on the remnants of the bomb. Besides, the time frame of which the event happened was matched up perfectly. Obviously, his dad had been nailed pretty well by both the hard and circumstantial evidences. The fact was his dad never committed the bombing of the lawyer’s office. For that, Andrew knew it very well. He wanted to concentrate his investigation on his dad’s undesirable friends who might have framed him for an unknown purpose. Every time he thought of his dad’s case, a migraine shot up through his nerves, something that only the patient of the disease knows the extent of the intolerable pain. He swallowed a couple of prescribed pills to abate the pain a little bit. He might consider a CAT scan when he first landed on his first job as a lawyer to make sure that nothing malicious dormant inside his brain. For now the pills would do the job.

Hanging out in the library was his forever habit that was developed in his childhood, unlike some male students who stumbled on the ground of library to hunt for their potential girl friends. However, an impeccable girl emerged from no where just happened to sit right across from him in the library. Her sinuous figure, translucent skins, fluffy but well- managed blond hair, piercing blue eyes, dandy body movements, and an inexplicable body aroma emanating from her made the 18-year-old Andrew enthralled and fidgeted to the degree that his usual eloquence and extravert personality seemed defeated by her presence. It was a surprise to Andrew that the girl initiated the conversation, she said, “Hi my name Emily, and I will be attending the first year in the law school. It’s a pleasure to meet you on the first day of school.” Wow, the mellow voice of her soothed Andrew’s anxiety as if a mother patted her child’s shoulder to comfort him for the loss of a soccer game. He was thinking how to greet the beautiful girl sitting right across from him. Hi babe what’s happening? Would you like to have a drink or would you care to dance with me? No, that would not fit into the lifestyle as a Yale student, and it sounded as if he was a party animal. Hi maiden, it’s very nice to meet you. Thanks for having a conversation with me. Well, that seemed too formal and awkward and too polite for him to speak out. Andrew was a warrior on the debate team in school. Quite often his arguments put his opponents in the state of speechlessness. He was known as a student lawyer who defended for his school if any legal matters came to challenge anybody in school. But now he was in a limbo state with a mere 18-year-old girl; he was totally defeated by her charisma and a pair of compassionate eyes with which he was afraid of staring up to meet. Emily sensed Andrew’s predicament in responding to her greeting, and she said,” It’s all right, Andrew. I know that you are from Chicago area. It’s a beautiful city despite of its windy weather. I have been there a couple of times with my daddy.” What the heck, she even knows my first name before I utter a word. Are Yale students all smart asses who checked their classmates’ backgrounds before coming to school? Wow, it is a freaking sensation on the first day of school. Can it be a set- up or something? Or, against all odds, Emily just happens to be an important person in my destiny? Andrew was jerked awake from his reverie by Emily, who said, “You must have some worries on your mind, because you can hardly concentrate on our conversation.” Andrew responded politely,” I am so sorry. I just experienced a migraine headache this morning. I am not feeling very well right now.” Emily said sympathetically,” You should go home and rest well and we’ll talk some other time later.” Then they said good-bye to each other and departed from the library in no time.

On the other side of Yale campus Bo (yeah, lots of people whose names are Bo in the world) was having a conversation with his counselor regarding to his class arrangements. Bo was a foreign student who just arrived from Taiwan. He was on full scholarship sponsored by the Taiwanese government for him to study the international laws in Yale. After completing his study, he was supposed to represent Taiwan in the international arena whenever he was summoned. Of course, Bo was an elite student in Taiwan for him to qualify such a prestigious mission. After he registered in the dormitory, he was assigned to a room and a roommate who happened to be Andrew Lawface from Chicago. Whether you like it or not, the pair was randomly selected by a computer, leaving no choice for anyone to pick his/her partner in the room. Lawface is quite a name for a roommate. Was he born with that last name or he made some change after birth, knowing that he will be a Big-Shot lawyer someday? Bo already felt his first wave of cultural clash, knowing that he would live with somebody named Lawface for the next few years in Yale. He thought U.S. was a country of freedom, but ironically he didn’t have the freedom to choose the person he was going to breathe air with at night. He hoped Lawface would be a good person to live with; no drug, no smoking, and absolutely no snoring were allowed in his room. Now, he was too tired from the jet lag, so he decided to leave all things until tomorrow. First day of school was over as the tranquility of the night took over the Yale campus. Tomorrow was another day of bustling campus life, but at least tonight could be peace and quiet. Bo meditated while sleeping, something which appalled Andrew to the extreme. Andrew was not sure that Bo was a monk-student or some kind of variation like that. He just had to live to find out the truth as they got to know each other better.

Andrew woke up 5:00 in the morning to sip his coffee along with morning newspapers while Bo still meditating (upright sleeping). Andrew really doubted anyone who could get a good night sleep by stacking up legs on mattress, but Bo appeared to be breathing rhythmically as if having a good night sleep all right. Yesterday’s encountering with Emily was still fresh on his mind. Andrew did not believe a true love at first sight, but the image of Emily really had been stuck some where inside his brain like a magnet and being played back and forth like a DVD player intermittently. He had to find out why she knew about his background when he had no idea who she was. Maybe he would run into her today in one of the law classes. After finishing up his coffee and newspapers, Andrew started to peruse some court documents about his father, hoping to catch some possible loopholes to defend his father in the future retrials.

As if on cue, Emily showed up in the first period of Law 101. They briefly said “hi” to each other and settled down on the seats in tandem. As usual, Emily’s glamour fascinated Andrew to the extent that he could not concentrate on professor’s discourse. He wished his roommate Bo could teach him meditation to calm down his wandering mind. After all, Andrew was only 18 and didn’t have much experience in handling the issue of opposite sex, or if he had, the girls he encountered in his neighborhood would have been a different class from Emily anyway. Lots of them would have run away from home and got pregnant before they turned 18 years old, and they would have to bring up a family with social assistance from certain government agency which was designed for that purpose. Andrew was glad that he was in Yale now, and he did not have to face those miserable girls who were too young to be playing the role of mother properly.

As opposed to normal school of thought that beauty is conversely proportional to intelligence, girls in Yale Law School have possessed with both merits relentlessly as to make young people from other campuses admiring and envious at the same time. No wonder lots of young people work very hard trying to get accepted by the Yale Law School every year. Now Andrew knew that hard work would have its reward— money, beauty, desirable lifestyle and so on to suit the human nature. After the first period of being brainwashed by the old professor, who preached incessantly on the issue of law ethics, you know something like a lawyer has to charge his/her clients according to conscience not by the whims to increase billable hours to satisfy himself/herself and to torture his/her clients, Andrew had learned that life in Yale was different from other schools. He was accepted by Yale to work righteously, not to play as he previously thought. He gazed into the blue sky as if deep in thought, and he kept reminding himself that he was here to imbibe knowledge of laws to defend his father and other lowlifes in his hometown. He was not sent to Yale to dawdle away his precious time, especially when his dad was in dire need for his defense in the court.

Inside the lecture hall on the other side of Yale, Bo was hard at work; he was meditating while listening intently to the professor’s discourse. If you were the professor, you would be shocked by seeing Bo meditating while other students busily taping their laptop computers to take notes. Well, the theory is very simple to understand. Bo was well-known for his photographic memory and his master in eight different languages fluently in Taiwan. He was able to name all students and teachers by their first and last names in the entire school of six- thousand people. He was one of the few people who could go over a book and remember all as if a book had been copied by an advanced copy machine. Whether it was due to his meditating power or inherent talent, nobody knew the answer except Bo himself. However, Bo always said humbly that he was a normal person and asked everybody to treat him the same as others. Meditation was his habit developed from childhood, and it was not necessary to treat him like a saint or some sacramental being with biased opinion about him.

At lunch time, Bo, Andrew, and Emily ran into one another in the cafeteria. It was amazed for others to learn that they were all on the vegetarian diets, something which might mislead people to think that all Yale students are vegetarians according to the logical reasoning traditionally. Anyway, the trio started to converse as they got to know one another a little better. Andrew said,” How’s going everyone? Having a good time at Yale? I think everyone is so tense and serious so far. Maybe I could be wrong.” Emily smiled and said,” I‘ve had a good time so far. I think most professors are very friendly and knowledgeable. I love Yale. I made the right choice to come here.” Bo was mumbling something incomprehensible to the other two, and he was jerked awake by Andrew who said, “Wake up Bo! Are you still experiencing the jet lag?” Bo said politely,” I’m sorry, guys. I was refreshing today’s lessons by the professors in Taiwanese. Since English is my second language, I was transferring (translating) today’s lessons to the other domain of my brain. It’s kind of like a duo-cord hard drive in the computer, you know, transferring the files from C drive to D drive, C being English and D Taiwanese.” Andrew could not wait to ask his meditating-sleeping posture, so he said,” Bo, you speak English like a native tongue, and you can easily pass as a native speaker. Why is that? I thought people in Taiwan speak Taiwanese and Mandarin. Oh, by the way, do you always sleep like the way you did last night?”
Bo replied,” Well, my father has been a diplomat from Taiwan for a long time. I have been traveling or relocating to different countries since I was a little kid. As a result, I speak different languages; particularly I speak English the most. Meditation is my habit. Unless I am very exhausted, I usually sleep like that. Ha-ha, I don’t get exhausted from jet lag due to my frequent traveling. By the way, I am glad you didn’t snore last night.” Andrew wanted to ask Emily the question that baffled him yesterday, but not with Bo present. Andrew though better of it, because he would have lots of time later as the semester progressed. After the lunch time, the trio went separate ways to their classes.

Author’s Note: All events and characters created in this story are author’s own imagination.

Chris was a senior managing partner at a prestigious New York law firm, which harbored three thousand lawyers in different law fields. He was very happy that his sole daughter from his previous marriage had got accepted by Yale Law School. He always wanted his daughter to pursue her career in law, kind of following his footsteps and family pedigree. Chris’s family was a well-known aristocrat in New York City for many generations. They owned a mansion in the Upstate New York and real estate everywhere throughout North America. Their wealth was immeasurable, so was their benevolent dedication to the under-privileged families around the globe. Now Chris was holding a position as a pro bono lawyer in the firm despite he owned partial ownership of it, kind of a way of paying back to the society where he derived his fortune from. In his young and glorious days, he was dubbed as a Big Shot lawyer who charged his clients $500-$700 an hour for his work, and that’s not counting his year-end bonus as a managing partner, which sometimes could go as high as a couple of millions dollars when the company was doing extremely well. Due to his workaholic nature, he could easily put up 80-100 hours of work a week, totally ignoring his time with family and friends. Of course, he was much younger then, and making tons of money was his priority. Emily’s mother had passed away due to car accident when Emily was only three years old. Chris suffered the trauma of losing his love one and buried his life with court documents, trying very hard to forget what had happened. Chris had been a widower for about 15 years, no girl friends or mistresses, until he recently remarried a young lady, who won the international beauty contest and only a few years older than Emily. The relationship between the three members of family had been hanging in the air and had become a much-talked gossip in their social circle. Chris loved Emily and his new wife dearly without doubts, but there was always a distance between Emily and her step mother. The family in-fighting had been going on since day one of their marriage, because Emily suspected that her step mother was after her dad’s fortune. It’s not unusual for a wealthy old man to fall in love with a young and beautiful girl, because men are visual beings who almost always opt for the young, the tender, and the most beautiful girl there is, and sometimes they are willing to take the risk of losing their hard-earned fortunes. We have heard the same story being told over and over again millions of times. It is a weakness for male species, and the ones, who can’t control themselves well, will take the most serious debacle of their lives of which they will never be able to recover. However, the rich men are getting smarter and smarter day by day, thanks to prenuptial agreement before they decide to tie the knot. Some big star from Hollywood even invented a prorated formula to deal with his young wife in the event that the marriage gone sour. According to the formula, the wife is not entitled to one half of his assets until after 10 years later. Of course, he can always change the agreement any time he feels like it, it is just a phone call away to his lawyer. After all, men want both beauty and money at the same time, but longevity is something they can’t control themselves. Well, life is a fair game, because nobody can have everything he wants in life.

The three- day long weekend was coming up, and Emily was planning to invite Andrew and Bo, among others, to her home in New York. Being gregarious in personality, Emily loved to pool her friends together to have a good time; especially her house was large and sumptuous enough to host a party of 300 people. Andrew and Bo were excited as they were invited by Emily, because it would be a good chance to explore New York City for free. They could put away all their worries for three days so that they could enjoy the hospitality of Emily’s family. In no time, the family chauffeur drove the flashy limousine to Yale to pick up the trio. Once inside the limo, they were joking, gaggling, and giggling like a whole bunch of innocent kids on the school field trip to a wonderland.

Emily’s house was a humongous estate sprawling around 250 acres of scenery, with mountain behind the main house overlooking the Hudson River. It is not exaggerating to say that it was a small community instead of a house. Once the limo arrived at the house, the butlers opened the doors for the guests to exit the limo, and carefully ushered them to the palace-like main house, with Chris and his new wife, Marie, greeting them. Emily embraced her dad immediately and introduced her friends in Yale, she said,” Dad, this is Andrew from Chicago, Bo from Taiwan, Judy from San Francisco, and Susan from…..” Chris said amicably, “It’s a pleasure to meet you all. Please feel at home to come in.” Touring the house alone took them about an hour, but it was quite an experience to go through something which they never thought they would have a chance to see as an average citizen. Every piece of furniture, moldings, and flooring were built with delicate attentions; expensive antiques were ubiquitous to dazzle your eyes. Andrew finally realized that Emily was from a very rich family, something which made him depressed because their compatibility had suddenly been taken away by their stark contrast in the financial spectrum. But Andrew suppressed from showing his emotion, not in front of his classmates and Emily’s family anyway.

On the other corner of the house, Bo was vividly conversing with Emily’s step mother, Marie. Bo learned that Marie was born and raised in Central America, and he was glad that he had a chance to unleash his language power. Bo talked in Spanish so fast, similar to a successive bursting of bullets from a machine gun, comprehensible only to those who spoke the language. Marie was telling Bo that she recently got married with Chris and she felt lots of pressure from the gossip about her after Chris’s fortune. It was actually Chris’s choice to marry her, not that she loved to marry money. She just happened to marry a man with a great fortune. Bo felt sympathetic about Marie’s situation in the family, and decided to clear up the misunderstanding about Marie with Emily when he had a chance.

Andrew was discussing his father’s situation with Chris, knowing that he was conducting pro bono work in his firm. He was hoping that Chris could enlighten him as how to defend his father in retrial. “First, you need to find new evidence to support the theory that your father was being set up in the bombing incident. Second, trace all your father’s friends, close or not, especially the ones who might have arguments with the lawyer in question, to see if you can get a short list of those people who might possibly frame your father. Third, investigate the possibility that drug had been used to seduce your father to the state of unconsciousness so he didn’t know what he was doing.” Chris advised Andrew regarding to his father’s case. “If you need further help, you can always phone me and I’ll arrange some friends in Chicago to help you.” Chris said sincerely and handed Andrew his business card.

Pool side party was being held in the afternoon when the sun was glaring even though it was already fall. Boys and girls dressed in swimwear to show off their sinuous figures and muscular bodies as the music blared to drown conversations. Andrew and Bo had never seen that many girls with impeccable figures before, suddenly they were dazed as they were surrounded by beautiful girls from every race. Bo finally realized that this was called some kind of paradise in the west, you know, watching the beautiful girls in swimsuit, surrounded by the turquoise water and azure sky along with loud music and your hands cuddling with beer. American dream is at its best, besides owning your first house, of course. Bo thought to himself: Americans really know how to enjoy life, unlike people in my country who work hard until they die, without experiencing the joy of life. They say to friends that working is the same as leisure, but they curse themselves at night for not being able to experience something on the other side of Pacific Ocean. Bo thought to himself that this could be the second wave of cultural clash. Well, he was sent here to absorb international laws, but it wasn’t too bad that he had a chance to watch the rich and famous live their lives. Andrew, on the other hand, was still enthralled by Emily but was reserved in showing his true feelings because he believed that he wouldn’t fit into the lifestyle of the rich and famous. He was a boy from the slum of Chicago, and he was destined to stay at where he came from so he could work for his community. Being rich and famous didn’t inspire him a bit and it certainly was not a motivational factor for him to pursue his career in law. If there was going to be a relationship between Emily and him in the future, it had to come from their common philosophy toward life.

After the party, everyone was summoned to enjoy the banquet prepared by one of the best chefs in New York. Among the dishes were sizzling steak with broccoli and black bean sauce, sweet and sour chicken, house egg rolls, and specially grilled soy burger. Please don’t be fooled by the names because they were all vegetarian dishes with innovative natural ingredients, guaranteed to satisfy the most discriminatory gourmet, who would no doubt to be indulged in vegetarian delicacies afterward. In the very beginning Emily was a vegetarian because she was an animal activist, then Chris was persuaded by her to be a vegetarian after he experienced a heart attack a few years ago. As a result, the whole family became advocates in vegetarianism since then.

The three-day long weekend was over. Everybody enjoyed the hospitality of Emily’s family, and was so anxious to go back to school to continue being brainwashed by the professors. They admired Chris’s success in law and in life, but they kept the old professor’s words in mind like a mobile alarm clock, which constantly reminding them to practice law according to ethics when they were done with school. The limo was loaded with students in the direction of New Haven, along with indelible memory for the past few days.

Everyone is innocent until proved guilty. However, if one bears a mean or guilty face and has a previous record of committing felony or misdemeanor, then one is automatically under scrutiny by the police investigation, a disadvantage in the eye of law. It’s so ironic that some football star’s case was an exception, because he had money to hire the popular Hollywood lawyer who made his guilty face sympathetic for the jurors and the judge to rule him an innocent verdict in the so-called the Trial of the Century to make American public flabbergasted. Or could it be reversed-discrimination against the mainstream of America? Was the judge afraid of riot erupting again if the verdict was against the football legend because of his black face? Well, only Mr. Football knows whether he did it or not, and he will never say he did it to stunt the American general public again, maybe on April Fool Day or his banned book he would dare to say so with a big “IF.” His demised defending lawyer probably already reminded Mr. Football in his dream to keep quiet to be on the safe side. If he ran out of the money, who knows, he might do some crazy things to challenge the American general public and the world again.

Anyway, Andrew’s dad had a previous criminal record with the police, although petty, he was detained in the prison for a few days without money to bail out. Though no one was hurt during the brawl after booze, it was an incident to complicate his current case involving bombing of the lawyer’s office. With fingerprints and other evidences, he was sent to the MSP (Maximum Security Prison), waiting for his lawyer’s petition for appeal and possible retrials.

The Maximum Security Prison was located in a remote area deep into the woods at an undisclosed location somewhere in the United States. Unless you knew exactly where it was located, it would be almost impossible for anyone to find it without guidance. Each cell was individually separated to prevent inmates from instigating trouble, and each cell was constructed with triple concrete walls with a tiny slit of window to prevent possible attempted escape. It’s hard to imagine that a death row inmate living in the cell the size of six feet by nine feet 23 hours a day, with only one hour a day to breathe the fresh air from the outside world. Andrew’s dad was pale and wrinkled, obviously due to lacking exercise and over sleeping in the confined cell. His only visitor so far was his wife Corky, who was a down-to-earth woman from a country farm. Corky usually visited her husband once a week to bring him his favorite snacks and news of Andrew. She worked at a local motel as a housekeeper who made paltry wages, barely enough to make a basic living. But she was proud of Andrew, and she knew that her son would be a successful lawyer to serve his community in the future. For that she was grateful and hopeful at the same time. Another day had passed, Andrew’s dad, Arnold, was musing about how he had been framed in the bombing, but, as usual, he had no clue. It seemed like there was a period of time of which his memory was elapsed, and he could not recall anything from it. He was in despair, and he wished that Andrew could come to visit him at MSP so that they could discuss everything necessary to get him free. Being confined in the small cell at MSP was intolerable, but Arnold had no choice. After all, he was not Mr. Football who had possessed with fame, money and a Big- Shot lawyer. For a poor man like him, praying for a miracle was the only thing he could do now.

“Welcome back. Today we are going to examine the ethics of law. I would like to start off by asking you this question- If your client is guilty by fact and he asks you to represent him in court, would you help him to conceal his guilt and help him walk out of the judicial system without serving his time according to law?” the old professor was lecturing primly. A flamboyant guy raised his hand and answered, “Yeah, I would help him. Do you know how much money I have to invest for seven years of law school? Of course, I have to get my investment back. I would charge the guy tons of money so that he would get scared by the amount of my bills and ask me to get lost. And eventually he would plead for me to send him to the jail where he’ll get free room and board.” This response drew a wild laughter from his classmates, and the guy was very pleased with what he just said. Andrew raised his hand as well after the guy had spoken of his opinion, and he said,” I would try my best to minimize my client’s sentence allowed by law but not deliberately help him to conceal his guilt. If I knew that he was guilty before signing the representation agreement, either from his own admission or by investigation, I would advise him that he will not walk out of the court without serving his term in jail, no matter how good a lawyer he’ll get.” This response drew applause and attention from his classmates, especially Emily who gave him a standing ovation, which was weird in a way because it was just a normal question and answer session. I guess anyone will do everything to cheer up his/her to- be boyfriend/girlfriend in a situation like this. Anyway, the professor asked what his name was, and Andrew said, “Andrew Lawface,” which drew another wild laughter from the crowd. The professor calmed down the crowd and said, “Very good Mr. Lawface. I understand you were drafted by a NBA team and you declined to go, is that correct?” Andrew blushed and responded, “Yes Sir, that’s correct.” The whole auditorium was erupted with unbelieving tones as if something extraordinary had happened. From then on, nobody teased Andrew’s last name again. His classmates respected him with awe.Lawface became a well-known name in the whole campus.

Once a basketball player, forever a basketball player until one ceases to breathe. Andrew hadn’t played basketball for two weeks, and he already felt very itchy as if every part of his body was wrong. After the last period of law class, Andrew decided to release his tension by playing street basketball with other kids living around the campus. Being 6’4”, Andrew was not considered tall according to NBA standard, but his dribbling skills, bursting slam dunks of all styles, invincible bouncing passes, and running speed were of the first-rated, even the current NBA stars had to show some kind of respect for him. If he were to pursue career in basketball, it’s not exaggerating to say that he would be the king of the court in a few years, replacing today’s shining stars in NBA. Andrew takes the ball, and then cross-dribbles to pass a tall kid around 6’9”. In no time, he dunks the basketball to make other kids gaping at him. This time Andrew bounce- passes to a kid around 6’ 6”, who makes a 360 degree dunk to impress everyone watching the game. Andrew makes a couple of three pointers and fade-away shots to make his team win by landslide. After the workout, everybody wanted his autograph and all asked him to change his mind about not going to NBA. Andrew was very nice to tell them he would seriously consider it, even though, God knows, he would want to be a lawyer after all.

Andrew returned to his dormitory room and was surprised to see Emily waiting in the lobby to greet him. “I know a very nice vegetarian restaurant by the beach; would you like to come with me to celebrate you being recognized in school? Don’t worry, it’s on me,” Emily blurted out as soon as she saw Andrew coming. “I can’t let you treat me all the time, besides, it’s a very expensive restaurant,” Andrew said sheepishly. “It’s all right. Dad owns the majority shares of the restaurant. Let’s say it’s his treat to us. After the meal, we can have a stroll on the sand beach to watch the sun receding and the moon taking over the starry sky,” Emily insistently dragged Andrew into her car and sped off toward the beach.

The Veggie Lovers Restaurant was situated on the hill side, overlooking the beautiful sand beach. The restaurant offered a variety of vegetarian dishes and a piano bar that played romantic music, along with flickering candle light in every table, to allure its young patrons who were yearning for a romantic atmosphere. Andrew and Emily were ushered to the VIP alcove with a dazzling view of the ocean. They ordered the renowned veggie grill and house salad along with ginger ale. The soft music from the piano bar seemed to produce its effect of soothing those who were in love, or to be in love as in the case of Andrew and Emily.
“This is the most up-scaled vegetarian restaurant I have ever seen. Your daddy must have invested a lot of money in it,” Andrew said curiously. “Well, daddy opened up this restaurant to advocate vegetarianism, not really hoping that it will be a lucrative business in the beginning. Actually it has been losing money since its debut last year, but daddy doesn’t care as long as it does not lose too much money. This is his first vegetarian restaurant for him to test the market. His ultimate goal is to run successful franchised vegetarian restaurants world-wide, similar to that of Macdonald’s. Daddy is actually quite ambitious in this regard,” Emily said while sipping her ginger ale.
“Wow, your daddy has a good vision and sense for business; his idea of business is ahead of everyone. I really envy you with such a wonderful daddy, Emily. By the way, how did you know my name when we first met in the library?” Andrew said while wiping his mouth with napkin.
“I have my source,” Emily said smugly.
“Please don’t tell me that your daddy owns part of FBI or CIA as well,” Andrew shot back.
“Not that, daddy has some friends in the law circle who told him about you and your father. That’s how I knew your name, and I planned a stakeout in the library to fulfill my curiosity about you. Andrew, can you do me a favor? Can you be my “rental” boyfriend?” Emily pleaded. “What? I beg your pardon,” Andrew was bewildered.
To Be My Boyfriend, You Fool “What exactly are you talking about?” Andrew anxiously wanted to know what Emily had in mind. Emily explained slowly,” Recently my daddy has been trying to introduce one of his young friends to be my boyfriend. Some are sons of bankers with whom daddy associates and others are sons of dignitaries. I don’t like any of them because I think they are whole bunch of snobbish guys who like to do the money talk all the time as if they were the only ones who know how to make money in the world. If I tell daddy that I have a boyfriend already, then he won’t mention about the boyfriend issue any more to upset me. So, could you please?”
“This is insane, Emily. I am from dirt and grime and you are the daughter of a famous lawyer. I don’t see how we will match up in a relationship, despite a “rental” one to fool your daddy,” Andrew blurted out. “I will tell daddy that you are a person with a big heart to help others .Besides, you are handsome by my standard. Your athletic and scholarly talents inspire me to make such a choice. Could you please, Andrew?” Emily continued pleading.
Though Andrew was invincible in the basketball court, but he was such a soft-hearted guy who often could not stand pleading from girls, so he said to Emily, “All right, Emily, here is the deal. Our agreement will be as followed: (1) I will be your “rent a boyfriend” for a period of one year, effective immediately. (2) You are to pay me a rental of $5.00 per month in the beginning of each month. If you don’t pay on time, our agreement is forfeited. (3) We are allowed only to hold hands in social gathering, but no kissing or silly acts beyond kissing, and I presume you know what I mean. (4) You are to pay all expenses incurring from the “rent a boyfriend” idea of yours. (5) Either party is allowed to call off the agreement if he or she doesn’t feel comfortable in any way for any reason during the period of the agreement. (6) At the end of this agreement, you are to decide whether or not to accept me as your boyfriend by paying an undisclosed amount of balance. If you are unable to pay the balance, or decide to let me go, I am entitled to find my next client. Do you agree to the terms drafted by Andrew Rent a Boyfriend Shop?”
“You know what, Andrew? You are such a bad boy from Chicago. Where did you learn how to draft a contract like that?” Emily said embarrassingly.
“Yeah, I am a bad boy all right, so you have decided not to have me as your “rental boyfriend?” Andrew was teasing her.
“Oh no, my big lawyer, I’ll take the deal right now. I’ll sign the agreement when you send me a hard copy, and I hope my oral consent will do for now,” Emily said seriously as if afraid Andrew would change his mind.

After the decent dinner and an unexpected contract on their minds, Emily and Andrew strolled on the sand beach hand in hand as stipulated by the agreement. With the moon slowly creeping up from the offing and twinkling stars hanging in the clear sky, Emily enjoyed the unprecedented warmth from her heart, an emotion mixed with elation and expectation. At first Andrew was hesitant in holding Emily’s hand, but Emily’s sincerity and charisma conquered his ambiguity. They were finally holding hands in the sand beach which was packed with people staring at them with either envy or admiration. Andrew had never felt so confident before, with Emily accompanying and whispering with him. Life was so good right now, as illustrated by countless romance novelists, but experiencing it the first hand was beyond good, a feeling so unique and only comprehensible to its beholder. As the bell in the steeple of a local church sounded to tell them it was time to go home, Andrew and Emily felt obliged with the bell to depart from the sand beach. They were at the dormitory before curfew taking effect. Andrew thought of kissing Emily for good-bye, but he was afraid of violating the agreement. He wished he had included kissing as part of the agreement. Anyway, he was tired and eagerly wanted to lie on his bed to rest. He was amazed that his roommate Bo was still meditating at this hour, or could he be sleeping? It was hard to tell, but Andrew started to snore in one minute to wake up Bo, who kindly let Andrew rest for the night. Bo would have to talk to Andrew tomorrow about his problem.

Rods of sunbeam infiltrated through the slits of mini blinds to wake up snoring Andrew, who was greeted by Bo with a pot of newly brewed Columbian coffee. Bo said,” Good morning man, you were sleeping like a baby. You smelled like lipsticks and perfume last night. Where had you been? You must have been with some female classmate, right?” Andrew rubbed his eyes to clear up his vision and explained what had happened last night in the sand beach. After listening to Andrew’s recapitulation of last night’s event, Bo said,” What? You invented a new business. I have heard of house renting, car renting, etc., but never heard of boyfriend renting. You and Emily must be crazy in this kind of childish game. Let me guess. You are in love with her, right?” Andrew blushed, not sure whether it was due to his shyness or genetic high blood pressure, and he said,” Come on Bo; I am not in love with her. I am just trying to help.” Bo tried to tease him, and said,” So, you try to help Emily get rid of those cocky bankers’ sons, then you’ll have Emily all by yourself.” Andrew finally admitted that he liked Emily for an inexplicable reason, but their big difference in family backgrounds seemed to play a mental handicap to further development. He just wanted to get along with her for a year, and then he would decide what to do next.

After being bombarded by Bo’s questions, Andrew tried to get even with Bo by asking his recent undertakings. Andrew said,” How is my big diplomat doing these days?” Bo replied, “I have been working hard on a project for my country. My country has been striving to become a member of the United Nations and the World Health Organization, but has failed every year without a constructive tactic to deal with countries with vetoing rights. I truly believe that my country needs a diplomatic genius, who not only is an expert in language but also specializes in diplomatic manipulation, especially with China and the United States.”
Andrew tried to make fun of Bo, and he said,” So, you are the diplomatic genius for your country.”
Bo retorted,” I didn’t say that; you said it. I believe that a true genius doesn’t come every year. I think it comes once every 50 years like a savior of some sort to get his country out of the political mire. It’s about time for my country to have such a person present.”
Andrew tried to pry deeper, and he said,” What’s your diplomatic tactic toward getting a good result?”
Bo said with a smirk,” I am not at my liberty to reveal to you because it is a classified diplomatic secrecy only reserved for the top government official. By the way, we have to resolve your snoring problem.”
Andrew said sheepishly,” I usually don’t snore. I snore when I am dead tired, like last night. Oh, I almost forgot that I wanted to learn a proper way to meditate from you, so that my thoughts won’t be distracted by a beautiful girl.”
Bo said amicably,” Well, meditation will also help you reduce annoying snore. Emily is a nice and beautiful girl. You should cherish your love with her, not try to learn meditation to ignore her.”
Andrew explained,” Bo, I want to learn meditation to make my thoughts more focalized instead of roaming around without purpose. I love Emily dearly, but I want to learn how to restrain myself so that I won’t lose my judgment in evaluating a relationship.”
Bo said calmly,” In that case, you have to learn by doing it. We will start tonight right here in this room. By the way, bring Emily along, so we are able to judge how you learn.”
Andrew was amazed, and he said,” What kind of teacher are you?”
Bo said,” You’ll find out tonight.”

The downpour from the gloomy skies washed away dirt accumulated on the street, making it clean and slick as if to welcome Emily to visit the small dormitory room assigned to Andrew and Bo. Bo rearranged the room to accommodate three persons, giving everyone a little space to maneuver, and then he started his preaching about meditation—”Since everything we perceive is a reflection of our minds, everything can be changed by our minds. And meditation is a tool to help us achieve that. Welcome to Bo’s Meditation Studio. Let’s start with deep breath to relax our tense muscles. All right, now we want to concentrate on our breathing, you know, keep our mind’s eye on the tempo of breathing. If you are distracted during the course of meditation by unexpected rambling thoughts, please try your best to bring back your focus to the breathing. It’s very normal to get distracted, so don’t worry too much about it. Gradually you will be getting better in meditation, distraction will be less and less, and you’ll be able to control your rambling thoughts much better. It takes constant practice and perseverance, like anything else in life. Now, Andrew, I want you to focus your mind’s eye on Emily’s forehead, trying to think of intrinsic qualities of Emily, you know something which drew your attentions in the first place.”

After about 30 minutes of meditation, Bo called for intermission to let everybody have a chance to ask questions. Andrew said,” I feel much better already, but I still had undesirable thoughts sporadically.” Bo said, “It’s normal. It takes a while to eradicate bad rambling thoughts.” After the intermission, they continued the meditation session for another 30 minutes, and then Emily left for her dormitory. They all agreed to practice meditation on daily basis to control their states of minds efficiently.

Josh, the assigned rookie lawyer, called to tell Andrew that his dad’s retrial was scheduled for next month, and Andrew told him that he would visit his dad next week to discuss defending strategies. Andrew thought that he should look into the possibility that drug had been used by others on his dad to frame him for bombing the lawyer’s office. He would need assistance from a lawyer who specialized in drug-induced crimes, or in the worst case scenario, he would need a lawyer to prove his dad’s temporary insanity. Anyway, it could be done, because he had studied many successful cases in the books by utilizing that tactic. He needed to talk to his dad about it.

Since the “rent a boyfriend” agreement was signed, Emily had plenty of reasons to get along with Andrew; well, it was her intention to begin with, anyway. Andrew didn’t mind Emily’s tagging along because he could learn more about Emily’s personalities, and hence their compatibility, by working together. Andrew told her about his dad’s retrial, and Emily agreed to accompany him to see his dad at MSP.

Emily and Andrew were blindfolded by a prison security guard who drove them through winding roads into the woods, and finally came to the middle of nowhere- three or four rows of nondescript buildings surrounded by overgrown bushes. The security guard led them through the front gate where a paunchy warden in his fifties greeted them with welcoming handshakes. After the pleasantry and a quick frisking to make sure they carried no weapons of any sort, the warden led them through three secured steel doors to the cells where death row inmates were residing. Most of the inmates were sleeping when they arrived, except Andrew’s dad, Arnold, who was reading a detective novel to kill time. He was excited to see his son and the unexpected guest accompanying with his son. He said, “Andrew, It’s nice to see you after a long time. How’s life at Yale? You have grown a little since last time I saw you. Who is the girl beside you?” Andrew patiently answered all his dad’s questions, but he felt depressed to see his aging dad being confined in a cell with limited air circulation. He told his dad that the retrial was coming up, and his counsel would like to employ the strategy that he was induced with drug by the criminal at large to commit the bombing of the lawyer’s office. Arnold tried hard to recollect what had happened in the day bombing was occurred, but nothing concrete came to mind, except there was a lapsed period of time in the morning of which he felt lost and blurry in his memory. Anyway, he agreed to use the UID (Under Influence of Drug) strategy to defend him in the retrial. There must someone who knew Arnold work as a postmaster and had deliberately incriminated him by using his finger prints and trace of DNA on the explosive device while he was drugged without him knowing.

After the meeting Emily and Andrew were blindfolded, as the way they came, and they were escorted by the prison security guard back to the airport. As stipulated by their agreement, holding hands became their perpetual habit as if a couple in love- inseparable. With daily practice of meditation, they were much better in controlling their emotions, and now they were aware that love was a mutual caring and understanding, not just admiring of heavenly body and unrealistic fantasy. As the time progressed, their understanding of each other became crystal-like clear, and they knew that they were destined to be together as if everything was prearranged in life. Andrew said that if they were to reach a point when they decided to get married, he would write an affidavit to exclude him from gaining any of Emily’s fortune, just to prove to the world that he was not a money-minded person. Emily thought that was unnecessary, but she finally gave way to her big lawyer who insisted on doing it. As the plane took off from the runway, Emily rested her head on Andrew’s broad shoulder while Andrew whispered tenderly, probably some romantic talk, into her ear.
Life was good when true lovers exchanged careless whispers and listening to the heartbeats with each other, particularly when they were flying above intermingling clouds at 35000 feet, kind of like two angels enjoying the heavenly surroundings.

The retrial turned out to be a fiasco. The jurors and three-panel judges remained unconvinced by Josh’s oral argument and his theory that Arnold was under influence of drug imposed by others without him knowing. The lab testing turned out to be negative, probably because the drug had worn off already. Since Arnold was not a regular user of the drug, it was hard to detect any thing from his hair sample to find any trace of drug to convince the court that he had been set up. Worst thing was that there was no trace of hypodermic injection of drug on his body. Since it could be mixed with the drink or some other methods, it was not known at this point. Anyway, Arnold was sent back to the MSP to wait for a miraculous lawyer to defend for him or an execution writ being sent down from the upper court. He was despondent and hopeless like any of the death row inmate who tried to sleep their lives away instead of facing the gas chamber or lethal injection. Andrew consoled his dad, and he told his dad that he would get him acquitted at any cost. If the execution writ came sooner, he would get him the best lawyer in town to deal with the jurors and the judges. Arnold’s sorrow abated a little because he knew that Andrew was capable of anything, especially when things were not going well, it only fortified his resolute mind instead of diminishing it. For that Arnold was grateful that Andrew came from an inferior family, like their family, which cultivated and trained him to count everything on himself instead of relying on others. Life is a fair game; the most important thing is to believe in yourself and to unleash all of your potentials. Don’t look too far ahead of you because it will confuse and discourage you. Look at only one step ahead of you and conquer every step as it comes. Inadvertently, you’ll find yourself on top of the world. Who says a pawn is always a pawn and can’t be a king? When a pawn becomes a king, the trails he’s left behind is enough to prove to the world that he was meant to be a king to begin with.

One Year Later

The “Rent a Boyfriend” agreement was expiring in a few days, and Emily was anxious to know what the final payment to “buy” out Andrew was. After about one year of getting along with Emily, you know, day in day out in school and working together in classes/student clubs and occasional trips to visit her family, Andrew pretty much had decided Emily was the one for him. As a result, he told Emily that he would forgo the undisclosed final payment as stipulated in their agreement and his company, Rent a Boyfriend Shop, was officially over, which made Emily his first and the last client. Andrew gave Emily a tender kiss to signify the commencing of their girlfriend/boyfriend relationship. Though Andrew was a very outspoken and outgoing type of person, he insisted on keeping his chastity until their consummation, which seemed traditional yet revolutionary in the prevalence of sexual debauchery. Because Andrew was a school celebrity, he became a role model for other students to follow; and he virtually set and redefined a new moral standard in a relationship. After the announcement, Emily was delighted and invited Andrew to have a cup of coffee to celebrate the beginning of their relationship.

Chris’s business in vegetarian restaurant was picking up its pace. The financial statement looked much better than a year ago; it was beginning to show the viability to expand his business. Chris had consulted with his business associates to devise an expansion plan to launch an affordably- priced franchise. The plan was called “Eat to Own,” which was originated from Emily’s brainchild-All patrons of the restaurant are automatically shareholders of the company. Everyone who eats at the restaurant is issued an ownership/membership card, which will show one’s current value in the company once being swiped by the computer. After being a member/owner for over one year, one is eligible to redeem one’s shares from the company if one so chooses. One’s ownership shares derive from the net profit of the company. For example, if one spends $1200 a year in the restaurant and assuming the annual revenue of the restaurant is three- million dollars with six hundred thousand dollars net profit, then one is entitled to have $240 value of company stock in one’s account. (1200/3000000=0.0004 or 0.04% ownership, then 600000×0.04%=240) The plan seemed bold and unique, but Chris believed it would work to motivate people to eat at his restaurant. He believed that every patron of the restaurant ought to get a share of the company, and that’s how a company became big and infallible. He believed that this new wave of business idea would prevail through next millennium, so was his passion to advocate vegetarianism. It was a win-win situation, and he couldn’t wait to launch it.

The vegetarian restaurant franchise was finally launched, with Chris’s family owned 51% of the company and the other 49% was owned by the general public, just on the safe side in case of malicious take-over by the outsiders. Chris understood that a successful restaurant had to depend primarily upon its delicious foods to entice its patrons, therefore he hired only the top-notch chefs from different regions of the world to concoct the best delicacies to impress the general public and to etch on the minds of its patrons, kind of making them addicted to the unique foods sold only by his restaurant. With the ownership incentive and impeccable foods, Chris was hopeful to aim at the target of 100 restaurants in five years. Maybe he could be wrong to some extent, but he remained confident about his new business plan and his idealism of making half of the world population vegetarians in the long run.

As expected, Chris’s vegetarian restaurants were inundated with inquiries from curious and eager customers after their advertising campaign in all conceivable media. With the large revenue coming in a short period of time, the CFO suggested to expand from the original five outlets to twenty outlets while the business was hot and in demand. With Chris’s good connection to the banks, he had attained the required capitals to build his fledging empire without any hitch. The bankers were more than happy to joint-venture with Chris in his prescient business idea, knowing that the chances of success and cap rate were too good to refuse.

Everybody was gossiping about the newly founded restaurant franchise in their coffee breaks, you know, how delicious the ingredients and soy-based textures were, and how everybody could own a small share of the company stocks by patronizing at the restaurant. The spreading of the words-of-the-mouth was tremendous to push the publicly-traded company stocks up by 20% after the IPO (Initial Public Offering). Chris’s business in the vegetarian restaurants was flourishing like a snow ball, which was getting bigger and bigger day by day. It seemed like his dream was about to come true. But he was humble to say that he had to look at the result a year from the opening day to really know whether the business plan was working or not, now the figures only showed a newly-wed in love, very hard to tell how long the passion would last. Meanwhile, he had to advise his chefs to constantly innovate their recipes to satisfy the ever- craving general public. In a way, it was like R&D in the high- tech industry, always searching for new leading edge gadgets to improve competitiveness and profit margins. Anyway, it wasn’t too bad in the beginning; at least, Chris had the courage and boldness to try out something revolutionary. Of course, he had got the most important thing in the secular world-money.

Bo was contemplating on the future of his country. He thought his country needed an influential diplomatic card to get itself out of the ever increasing political mire, and it seemed to Bo that a new niche of economy to lure the United States was one of the possible solutions. If his country could invent a technology, something likes electric vehicles, to joint-venture with the most powerful country in the world, and then his country’s seeking for recognition of sovereignty would have a gleam of hope. The question was-the electric car concept had been in the study for a long time, and no country seemed to have a plausible proto type to defeat the reliance of crude oil. Bo thought his country not only needed a diplomatic genius but also an unprecedented technology inventor to secure a spot in the international arena. Bo was a little disappointed with the inability for his country to get hold of its top people, who usually went for better research environment and indisputably good remuneration overseas. Loyalty or allegiance to one’s own country seemed to be put aside when other worldly things weighed much heavier. Bo was despondent when he thought of this, and he dozed off in no time. Andrew was amazed to find Bo’s rare occasion of lying on the bed, and he thought Bo must be very tired from his project or something. He wanted to invite Bo for dinner at one of Chris’s restaurants; maybe he could wait until Bo woke up from his siesta.

Chris’s #20 restaurant was located nearby the school. When Bo and Andrew arrived, it was already packed with students and teachers, and they had to take a number and waited for a waitress to usher them to a secluded alcove in the back so that they would have a little privacy. Once being seated, Bo made fun of Andrew,” Hey, your father-in-law- to- be is doing very well in the vegetarian restaurant business. Pretty soon you’ll be sitting on top of the world counting money while I work like a dog as a paralegal. Isn’t it nice to have a rich girlfriend?”
Andrew retorted,” Knock it off, Bo. Emily is just my girlfriend, not my wife. What are you talking about? Obviously, Chris is doing well in his business, but it has nothing to do with me. Bo, what do you think of my dad’s case?”
Bo thought for a moment, and he said,” Apparently, the real criminal has already escaped out of the country, probably in some kind of la-la land enjoying his life without harassment from the police authority. It’s hard to nab him when we don’t know who he is. Obviously, this guy, whoever he is, is an expert in framing others for his atrocity. To prove to the court that your father is innocent, you need to have a lawyer specializing in drug-related litigation. By the way, did you know that there is some kind of drug being used in ‘date-rape?’ I don’t remember the exact name, but I heard it’s very effective to seduce the party in question to the state of unconsciousness. Even after the ‘date rape,’ the party in question has no clue of what’s happened. It’s very important for anyone not to accept suspicious drinks offered by a stranger, especially if one is a girl. It’s very likely that your father digested the mysterious drug and he was not aware who mixed the drug with his drink.”
Andrew said,” That’s what I thought, too. Do you know any lawyer specializing in drug-related litigation?”
Bo said smugly,” I think your father- in- law- to -be might know some souls in Chicago. Besides, it’s free of charge if you marry Emily right now.”
Andrew didn’t know how to counter Bo, but he said,” Bo, you are such a naughty boy. How about I challenge you one-on-one to get my revenge?”
Bo said nonchalantly,” Don’t under-estimate me, Andrew. I was the king of the court in my country. Since you were enlisted by NBA, you have to give me 5-0 advantage to begin with.”
Andrew said,” That’s fair. Let’s do it now.”

Andrew and Bo met at the school gymnasium after the dinner. Gymnasium was deserted in the godforsaken hour, with most people either had gone home for the weekend or had gone for the Friday night party, leaving the two law students skirmishing in the basketball court to determine the real king of the court. As Bo suggested, the rap music was blaring from the portable stereo system to keep their stamina rolling and their spirit in high gear for the one-hour showdown of their basketball skills. Because the air was humid, they decided to take off their shirts to stay cool and to show their muscular biceps and impressive six-pack abdomen. Who says girls are not visual human beings? If there were girls present in the gym, they would have screamed and whistled in high decibel to drown the loud music and probably to damage the inner ears to cause ear ringing at night. Anyway, after the five- minute warm up, Andrew and Bo were ready to unleash all of their basketball power like a game 7 in the basketball championship.

Bo cross-leg dribbles to the left side, and then behind-back dribbles to avoid interception by Andrew. In no time he employs his signature move-180 swirl left hand lay-up. Andrew takes the ball and makes a swish on the net, then points his finger like a pistol-shape at Bo, as if telling him “Got you.” Bo dribbles to the baseline and finds himself besieged by Andrew’s bulky body and long arms. With no luck inside the baseline, Bo dribbles beyond the three- point- line to score his first three-pointer of the game. Andrew gets agitated by Bo’s 100% field goal so far, he jumps from the free- throw- line to finish his Jordan Style walk-in-the-air dunk to show off his flying power to whittle Bo’s cockiness. Bo misses a couple of subsequent jump shots to tell Andrew that he is just a normal human being who makes mistakes not like a cartoon character who is invincible. Andrew caught up with Bo to make the score tied at 20 points each. Bo deliberately let Andrew win the game to save Andrew’s self-esteem from crushing. After the game they hugged and complimented each other in a professional manner.

Chris had a charity fund called the Third World Relief Fund, which was set up by him a long time ago. The purpose of the fund was to help children of the third world countries with relief in food, clothing, education and shelter. Chris not only donated the money but also designated his own people to supervise and monitor the fund in the third world countries. Each year Chris chose a most-needed country in the world for the people at his beck and call to actually go there and help. In the past few years, the leader of the goodwill team had been Emily, and this year was no exception because Emily had done a good job in the past to lead her compassionate team. Andrew was curious about what Emily would be doing in Somalia, the chosen country for this year, so he decided to tag along. Of course, Emily was happy to bring Andrew along. After all, she had to put her boyfriend to work.

People who are on the rich side of financial spectrum have a hard time, if not impossible, in comprehending the predicament of those who struggle on the opposite side. Rich people develop the empathy or sympathy for those unfortunate ones in the war-torn countries by means of mass media, a good tool to convey distressful conditions from the third world countries to the industrialized world. However, very few people have the privilege to play the role of world ambassador to literally monitor the help being implemented the first hand. Somalia is a poor African country that has been struggling for famine, diseases, and government in-fighting since its declaration in 1960. As a result, the average life expectancy is very appalling-45 years for men and 47 years for women. Every year donations and medical help come from the West, hoping to relieve the poor living condition in Somalia. However, nobody knows for sure that the money has been implemented directly upon the most needed people because different factions of militias constantly fighting for territory as if a never ending civil war to make the country chaotic and its citizens frantic.

Emily’s plane landed on the sweltering land of Somalia in the evening hour. The scenes which came to her view were not pretty; in fact, they were the worst as compared with other indigent countries she had visited since she was in her early teen. Women, men and children were so gaunt to the extent of approaching skeleton-like figures, due to famine, malnutrition, and lacking of medical attention. Corpuses and mutilated body parts could be seen occasionally as if dying was too typical to draw attention. Emily could not imagine that there were people like what she had just seen in the world, and it made her sick so that her appetite for food was gone as a result. This visit only made her realize how lucky she was to being able to live in the heaven-like West, and she had determined to try her best to help the poor people in Somalia.

Andrew, being 6’4” and 250 lbs, was acting as a body guard for Emily in Somalia. If the situation got dangerous and out of control in the region, a whole squadron of elite soldiers was just a phone call away, ready to be deployed at the command of Chris in New York. For the time being, Andrew was more than enough to protect Emily’s safety in the sizzling African desert and the chaotic society similar to that of anarchy. After days of getting along with Emily, Andrew was touched by Emily’s compassion toward the local people as if Emily was the new generation Mother Teresa who took care of the sick, the old and the helpless without discrimination. The love and affection between Emily and Andrew was getting stronger as they worked together in relieving the people in Somalia. After all, helping others was actually helping themselves in cherishing their love on the personal level and the ultimate love for the human race.

Seven Years Later

Everything went smoothly in law school for Andrew, Emily and Bo. After they passed the Bar Examination, they were officially lawyers readying themselves to explore the world in practicing laws. Andrew’s wish became reality—he accepted a job offer in Chicago as a pro bono lawyer working for homeless and other under-privileged citizens in his neighborhood. Emily landed a job in her hometown New York to become a rookie lawyer in real estate law. Bo went back to Taiwan to work for his government in the area of international law. On the day of departure from the campus, they gathered for the last lunch as law students, reminiscing and cherishing the good time they had together in Yale, not knowing when they would be together again.

Andrew thawed the tension resulted from departing friends, he said, “Hey, it’s all right. Though we are going separate ways, we can MSN one another every day to tell interesting stories in our jobs.” Even though the love between Andrew and Emily was so stable to the degree that they could wrap up and consummate the relationship, it seemed that there was still one last barrier to conquer—their undying impulses to serve the world of hopeless and helpless people. They had decided to let the good memories keep rolling in their minds while they separately underwent their tasks at hand, for they believed that a true love did not need constant fervor to cherish it. To them, a true love was to know that everyone was doing extremely well in reaching their respected goals.

Even a culprit has conscience to admit his guilt when his life is about to end in this world; that is a good aspect of being a human being—nobody wants to bring along bad deeds to the unknown world beyond his/her control, and what has been done in this planet has to be taken care before vanishing. Johnny, who had framed Andrew’s dad for bombing the lawyer’s office, came to the authority to admit his guilt when the last stage of cancer tormented him to the extent that he had to take morphine to abate his pain temporarily. Knowing that his days were numbered, his conscience begged him to turn himself to the authority for justice, and therefore the justice for Andrew’s dad. Finally, Andrew’s dad was acquitted without much fighting in the court. After being released from the jail, Andrew’s dad kept reminding Andrew to keep his initial intention to serve his community. Without the burden and worry about his dad, now Andrew could contribute 100% to his new job as a street lawyer—a street lawyer without clock and billing hours, only an undying spirit to serve justice—that’s what law is all about.

A New Beginning

The issue of homeless people is no longer new in the United States of America where there are plenty of shelters provided by churches, temples, community centers, etc. to accommodate needed people, especially in the winter time when the outside temperature drops below freezing point. The homeless people, however, try their best to find other dwelling where they feel at home. If everything else fails and it is too freaking cold to sleep outside, then they are forced to stay at the temporary shelters provided by either the government or the charitable organizations. Homeless people are humans as well, so they value their self-esteem like anyone else in the society. If they are given a chance to put life in order, they’ll do so without a second thought. But they do need help in the transitional time, and that’s how the pro bono lawyers and social workers are needed to help them through the tough time.

The first day of job was exciting for Andrew. He was lead by an experienced pro bono lawyer to tour his new company. As expected by him, there were no plush offices and sumptuous furniture in his vision; everything came to his eyes’ screen was either clustered with old files as high as ceiling or dilapidated offices with crumpling desks and chairs. Well, he thought to himself, it is understandable because the sole financial source is from public donations, despite occasional injection of cash from the government, especially when the election is drawing near. As a rookie lawyer, Andrew decided to revamp his company a little to make it appear neat and comfortable for the despaired people. He mentioned the situation of his company to Emily, who promptly and generously donated the needed money to do the renovation.

During the second week of his job, Andrew had got twenty cases lining up for him to take care, ranging from application for unemployment, food stamps, collection of unpaid wages, to welfare checks. Though nothing complicated, he always tried his best to get the optimal result for his clients. Because he worked as a pro bono lawyer for the homeless, he had decided to serve in local church in his pastime for the sake of getting to know the homeless people better. Andrew usually communicated with Emily through MSN at night for hours to discuss various topics, ranging from public issues to personal love affair. They knew by heart that they loved each other, and that was enough to last until eternity.

The disheveled and rugged look of appearance betrayed his glorious days as a CEO of a Fortune 500 company. His name was Joe, who joined the big troop of homeless when his company declared Chapter 7 under the US bankruptcy law and his children and wife left him for a more financially stable man to pay their bills. It was so pathetic that a strong man in business could suddenly become a homeless person who had no place to sleep at night. Dwelling under bridges, parks, churches, or anywhere he just happened to stumble upon, became so typical to make him truly a vagabond, not knowing where the next stop would be. Joe sometimes cursed to himself for his inability to land a new job when his old company went belly up. For now wandering on the street to see if there was a new opportunity waiting for him to turn around was the only option available to him. He sighed with despondence, but he knew he would not want to live the rest of his life on the street like those who looked miserably lining up on a queue waiting to receive their daily meals. He vowed to come back and make lots of money, even if he had to start from the very beginning with little capitals. He needed to get some help in retrieving some lost wages from the insurance company and welfare money from the government so that he would have the initial capital to start a small business.

As the sky became gloomy and dusk taking over, Joe was wondering where to sleep tonight; maybe sleeping in the recess of a store front could be a good choice. With a mere 12 degree Celsius sleeping bag and an extra blanket donated by a church, he probably could get by the autumn without hurdles, but he would need something much better to conquer the cold when the winter was here. Well, he could always sneak into a temporary shelter in the event of a severe storm. However, he tried to avoid that possibility because the putrid smell of garbage and stinky smell of hundred of bodies without taking a shower for a long period of time were unbearable. Anyway, he would not worry about that tonight because the weather man said it would be nice and cool.

With Andrew’s help, Joe was able to recover his lost wages from his previous employer and was entitled to receive welfare benefits from the government. However, Joe wanted desperately to go back to the job market, that is, to start his own business the old fashion way and, hopefully, he would build his own empire with a strategically structured business plan, not for the sake of getting a business loan but for his own vision to play big with little money and lots of hard work. Joe believed that if Sam Walton could do it for the Wal-Mart, why couldn’t he do it despite in the different time frame and business situation?

According to the Chinese saying-one can’t take a tiger’s heir without entering the tiger’s den-Joe had decided to relocate to California where the real action of swap meet taking place and a battlefield for a real general to unleash his formidable power. With that in mind, Joe stumbled upon San Jose, the so-called high-tech center of the world. Ironically, Joe was not much a high-tech guy despite his degree in engineering; he was planning to fight his low-tech business in the high-tech surroundings. Maybe when his business plan worked perfectly, he was going to the dream-land of international traders- Los Angles, California, where he would have a chance to be the king of swap meet and ultimately to build his empire to earn a wink from Sam Walton in the grave. Well, Joe was a dreaming boy with action. As soon as the plane landed on the tarmac of San Jose International Airport, he started to find an economical rooming house where he could rest his body and mind for the upcoming business dealing.

With the $5000 check he received from Andrew, he applied for a vendor’s license from the state government and purchased a $1000 crappy cargo van from a used car dealer, and the remaining $4000 was spent on purchasing the merchandise, readying himself for the billion- dollar market share in the flea market business. Joe knew that it would not be easy to go up to the corporate ladder by means of selling merchandise through the flea market, but he was willing to give his only option a try; in a way it was like a general who knows the war is hard to fight but willing to fight it against all odds. He remembered his boss’s motto from his previous employment which stated that there was no good or bad time to get into the market and the only drawback was one’s wavering mind, so insecure and was so easily defeated by adversary. Joe had decided to put everything in a good perspective and his mind was like that of an iron, not even a sizzling flame could melt it.