A Comedy of AR's

Chapter 83
Freaky Friday (29) – Face Your Fears

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Daniel drove back to Sam’s house for a breakfast strategy meeting.

Seeing him get out of his car I noted, “Wow, you look really sharp now, Daniel.  We picked out a good suit for you.”

“A shower and a shave didn’t hurt either, but this is a thinner size suit than I used to wear.  I must be in my upper twenties today, but I won’t stop aging till I’m 34.”

Sam suggested, “A young look should be an advantage … like a fresh start.  So what do you guys plan to do?”

I replied, “Like you said, Sam … face our fears.”

“You mean face my fears,” said Daniel.

“Look, Daniel,” I said, “my role will be the front man.  We don’t know how Gottfried will react when he first sees you.  But we can’t just let him reject you.  I will talk, talk, talk, to make sure that he understands that he has to have this meeting with you.”

“Okay, but once we’re engaged, you should probably back off and let me use my own words, for better or worse.  I just wish we didn’t have make up a pack of lies.  It’s not like me.”

Sam offered, “It’s not like any of us.  But you and Derrek have been dealt a bad hand with the water curse.  Today, you’ll be lying in order to do future good deeds.  You’re not trying to cheat anyone or hurt anyone.  I think morally, you’re on the good side of the ledger.  We want to see you take back your life.”

I added, “If you had the courage to take down Yolanda, then this should be a piece of cake.”

“Thanks for the pep talk, guys.  I’m ready as I’ll ever be.”

The Goldfarb & Prestek law offices were located on Niagara Street near the ultra-modern U.S. Federal District Court House.  Buffalo was not a large city and it only took about twenty minutes to drive downtown.  Daniel parked in a local garage.  We took an elevator up to the seventh floor.

“I have to admit, Derrek, I’ve got a few butterflies.”

“Do you still want to do it?” I challenged him.  “You know I put on a dress for the occasion, just like when he met me as ‘Precious.’  … a dress over panties over a chastity belt that’s quite uncomfortable.”

“The worst he could say is ‘no’, so let’s head to the door.

When we arrived at the office ‘door’, we were not surprised that the faded outline of the characters ‘& Prestek’ had been shellacked over.

“That’s probably a good thing, Daniel.  He hasn’t hired a new partner.  Are you ready to turn the handle?”  (I’m sure I was just as nervous.)

We held our heads high and entered the reception area where we were greeted by Yolanda’s replacement, a woman named Dorothy Degree.  I put forth my most charming personality and a big smile.  It was 11am.

“Good morning, Ms. Degree.  My friend and I would like to speak for a few minutes with Mr. Goldfarb.”

The secretary smiled back at me.  “And may I ask your names?”

I walked up close to her desk and almost whispered, “Well, we’d kind of like to keep it a surprise for him since he hasn’t seen us for quite a while.  But when he does, I think it will really make his day.  We had some great times together.”

I still had the woman smiling.  That was good.  She hit the button.  “Mr. Goldfarb, you have a couple of visitors here to see you.”

“Who?”

“Well, they said that if you came out to greet them, you’d get a nice surprise.”

“Okay, thank you, Dorothy … I’ll be out in a minute.”

Tension mounted.  The ticking of the clock on the wall sounded very loud.  Our palms were sweaty.

The private office door opened and Gottfried entered the lobby.  At first he froze.  He stood stone-faced, offering no emotion … zero … but after a moment, he spoke a few words.

“I’m looking at a ghost.” He said. But his expression did not change.

I was my turn.  I ran up to the man and exclaimed, “Mr. Goldfarb, my name is Anna Meeks and coming here was all my idea.  Daniel didn’t want to come but I said he had to come and explain about the last two years.  I’m a friend of his family and I know Daniel and he’s a very good man.  All people make mistakes, but most people learn from their mistakes and that’s the kind of person Daniel is.  We would so much appreciate if you would give us a few minutes of your time just to talk.  That would be really important for both you and Daniel.”

Gottfried Goldfarb looked at me, the eleven-year-old girl and then he looked behind me at his former partner … and then turned his back.

“You can both leave now,” he uttered.

Gottfried retraced his steps and walk back into his office.  He swung the door so that it would shut behind him.  But I had other ideas.  I sprinted to the closing door and did a baseball slide into ‘second base’, kicking the door back open.  (My chastity belt really hurt me on that move.)  Then, being a girl, I showed no fear in getting up into his face.

“Mr. Goldfarb!” I yelled.  “That man has suffered for many months.  Sometimes things happen to people … things you can’t predict.  But people can bounce back from bad breaks.”

The attorney looked down at me.  “Daniel Prestek walked out on me when I needed him most.  I have no use for him now.  I’m getting along fine without him.”

I returned, “Then that’s all the more reason to see him.  You have a right to know why he left.  He owes you an explanation.  You should at least allow the man the dignity of conscience if he wants to spill it to you.  He’s a human being, and from my vantage point, a very good one.  All he asks … All I ask … is a few minutes of your time, nothing more.”

Daniel was now standing in the doorway.  Gottfried sighed, “Close the door and sit down.”

“Thank you Mr. Goldfarb,” I offered.

“How is Putz doing?” asked Daniel, as an ice breaker.

“Oh, Putz is doing well … he’s into just about every sport you can think of … and he’s doing pretty well at them.”

“Gottfried, a thousand apologies couldn’t begin to describe my regrets of what happened two years ago.”

“Daniel, the police didn’t spend too much time looking for you.  They just figured, you and Yolanda were star-crossed lovers, and you were thinking with your penis instead of your brain.”

“That’s close to the truth.”

“Daniel, I think that’s bullshit.  You were too conscientious of a lawyer to leave all your clients in the lurch just to run off with some ditzy blonde.  And why did you leave your clothes in a pile on the floor?”

“Gottfried, I was a flawed human being at that time.  I was privately having a mental breakdown and was too proud to tell you that I was ‘weak’.  Some people refer to what happened to me as a ‘midlife crisis.’  I allowed Yolanda to take over my powers of reasoning.”

“Daniel, your straining credulity.”

“But that’s exactly what happened.  Yolanda was sleeping at my house the night before … and she grabbed one of my ‘sporty’ type outfits from my closet and brought it to work.  When we were banging each other on my desk after work, she filled my head with ideas of traveling around the country together … and just saying ‘who needs work?’  Leave the rat race behind and be free together.”

“So what happened?”

“Three weeks into our road trip, we got into an argument over something stupid, and she stole most of my money and left.  So I came back to Buffalo, but I was always too ashamed of what I had done and the people I let down … to face you.”

“And are you still mentally broken down?”

“No Gottfried.  I got the help I needed.  I’ve been seeing a brilliant psychologist, Dr. Sammantha Adams, and she’s helped put my life back on an even keel.”

“Well isn’t it nice that you feel good now.  But we here, weren’t feeling very good when you bolted out of thin air and left us with a mountain of unfinished legal work … and we didn’t even have a god damn secretary to help us.  You put me and the rest of us through a real shit show while you were out banging the blonde and  trying to find yourself in your so called midlife crisis.  I never thought that you, my partner, would be so fucking stupid as to run away from your responsibilities.”

“I bear a lot of self-hatred for doing that.”

“You’re not alone Daniel.  I hate you, too … a lot.   You have no idea how close this mess came to ending our company.  So are you done aggravating me, Daniel?”

“No, Gottfried.  I’m devoted to making things right.  I want to come back as your pro-bono  assistant … no salary at all.  I have enough funds to keep me afloat … I’ll be a gopher, do odd jobs, whatever you need.  Perhaps someday I’ll regain your trust in me, perhaps never.  But I want to try.  My head is screwed on straight now.  I can do this.”

“But I even hate the sight of you, Daniel.  And I’m not happy you came here today.”

“Agreed … Coming here was the hardest decision of my life.  But Sammantha Adams grabbed my jaw and told me to face my fears … and let the chips fall where they may.”

Gottfried shook his head in thought.  “Who the hell is this little girl?” he asked.

“I’m Anna Meeks,” I answered.  “I have family back in California that knew Daniel’s family.  So in Buffalo, we see Daniel sometimes.”

“I see,” said the attorney.

With chin in hand, Mr. Goldfarb sat deep in thought for the next 30 seconds.  “Well, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t backed up in my work.  Come in Monday, and I’ll give you a 30 day probationary trial run.”

Daniel stood and offered his hand.  “You won’t regret it, Gottfried.”

“I disagree,” said Mr. Goldfarb.  “I’m already regretting it.”

Back in the car, Daniel rested his head on the steering wheel.  “Derrek, I don’t know why I just put myself through that hell.  I thoroughly debased myself just to protect the water curse secret.  Maybe I should have just told Gottfried about it.”

I tried to find him a good reason.  “If the government found out about you and me, they would do experiments on us and never let us go … national security they would say.  And then they would try to turn us into a weapon … drop us behind enemy lines as babies and let us quickly grow up to gather intelligence.  We would lose our personal freedom.”

“We don’t know that for sure, Derrek.  Maybe they’d call it a ridiculous idea.  But I wouldn’t have lost my good name and my reputation today by telling lies about what a horrible person I was.”

I held Daniel’s shoulder.  “Whether the new situation does or does not work out, you still have the option of telling Gottfried the truth and proving it later on.”

“Maybe I should go back and tell him right now.”

“No!”  I exclaimed.  “Daniel, you killed Yolanda.  Certainly it was self defense, but would the cops believe you?  It would open up a whole new can of worms and get Sammantha’s dad in trouble for helping us get rid of her.”

Daniel sighed, “So you think we should just do like the ‘Frozen’ song and let it go?”

“Yes.  You’ve got your foot in the door with Gottfried and I have a feeling he’s going to be happy to have a real partner back helping him.  You’ll rise quickly.”