Weekend Sampler
Here's a deleted scene (and
true story) from HEAVENLY MOVES. Hev works at the county public defender's
office. In this scene, she hones her customer service skills:
"I'd had a few run-ins with other
"clients" (as the attorneys called them) before I'd perfected my
unflappable work poker face and steely composure. One small scrawny woman in
her thirties had insisted she had to see a lawyer immediately, but I
knew that office protocol demanded she and the rest of the customers be seen in
the order in which they'd signed in. Her agitation escalated to rage, with
plenty of shrieking and cussing. For a second, I thought she might come over
the counter at me. And it was just a waist-high wooden counter--no bulletproof
glass extending to the ceiling. There was nothing but air between me and the
criminal element. Luckily (really luckily, as it turned out), when I
raised my voice for the first and last time on that job and told her in no
uncertain terms she needed to Sit Down And Wait Her Turn, she suddenly and
inexplicably caved and meekly complied. Who knows why... When I covertly
checked her paperwork later, I saw that she was out on bail for allegedly
murdering her common law husband in his sleep. With a claw hammer.
Ye Gods. And
I'd told her (more or less) to shut up and sit down. I never again lost my
temper with a client. And I made sure the counter top was always free of sharp
objects. Blunt ones too.
Good times at
the Public Defender."
© Amy Briant 2013
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