The Second Doublewide on the Right, page 66

I’m Fixin’ To present part 66 of The Second Doublewide on the Right:

It was a slow Monday and Tuesday on the Ocmulgee County Court Calendar with only a few civil cases to be heard, causing Judge Thurston J. Garfield, III, to be in a most foul mood. All he observed on the docket were divorce, child support, and several petty deposit account fraud cases, where some ignorant person had written a check at the grocery store and it had gotten to the bank before they could deposit their meager pay check.

The bad check had to be over five hundred dollars in order to make the charge a felony, but the ones today were all less making them misdemeanors, tying the judge’s hands from being able to hand out any long jail sentences.

All he had done today was impose fines and sentence people to probation and community service. The only satisfaction he received was the knowledge that most of them would fail to pay the fine, complete the community service and never report to their probation officer, which would enable him to sentence them to long jail terms the next time they appeared in his court.

To make matters worse, after court was concluded, he returned to his office only to discover that Ms. Thurman was already gone. There was a little yellow sticky note on the door to his office informing him that she had to leave early for a doctor’s appointment. It also informed him that the letters on his decision on the case he had under advisement were prepared and on his desk awaiting his signature.

Thurston J. was not pleased with her not being there, that is until he picked up the letters and discovered a lacy and sweet smelling sliver of lingerie under them. At that moment he forgave her for not being there, and it took him a while to get his mind back on his work.

There were four copies of the letters, one addressed to the Rawlston Corporation, one to the law firm representing the home owners association, one to the Court, and a personal copy to be retained by himself.

They all said the same thing, but the one addressed to Rawlson was good news for them, and the one to the home owners law firm was bad news.

After he had signed the letters he folded them and inserted each one in the corresponding envelopes Ms. Thurman had so efficiently paper clipped to them.

He licked the edge of the flap of each envelope and pressed them closed before he personally walked over to the post office and posted them by registered mail. Normally, Florence would handle this task, but he wanted them postmarked with today’s date. Afterwards, he returned to his office and tidied his desk up before he decided to leave for the day.

He cut the lights off and was halfway out the door before he stopped and returned to his interoffice and retrieved the sliver of lingerie and affectionately tucked it into the inside pocket of his suit coat, along with his copy of the letter.

Since the court calendar had been so light the judge figured he would get home early, which would be a good thing because his wife Velma had planned on going on a shopping trip to Augusta with a bunch of other old crows. He knew when that happened they always stayed for dinner and wouldn’t be home until late.

He was locking his outer office door when he heard an unwelcome but familiar voice call out to him, “Hey, Judge, you got a minute?”

It was D. Walter Waddell, Esquire, otherwise known as “Slick” the lawyer. He had on the same brown suit which he always wore to court. It had been dry cleaned so many times until it had a slight sheen to it, and the top button on the coat was hanging by a thread. His necktie was curled up into a faded yellow tube.

The judge thought about telling him he actually did not have any time for him. He dang sure wasn’t going to invite him back into his office, so he just stood there in the hallway and said, “Make it quick,” as he glanced at his watch. “I’ve got an appointment to keep.” The only thing close to an appointment he really had was going to the clubhouse bar once he got home.

“It won’t take but a minute, Judge,” Slick said as he used his hand to brush his unkempt hair out of his eyes. “I was just wondering if you had handed down a decision yet on that case you took under advisement of the home owners association versus Rawlston Construction?”

The question caught the judge off guard. He stalled for time by saying, “Uh, why should that be fixin’ to concern you councilor?”

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