Odysseus

    The day started like it always did, with a cup of disappointment and sorrow. I didn't know how I'd pay my  secretary , the rent or utilities. I needed a crop of new cases and fast. I called around to see if anyone needed my services and struck gold on the third call. " Yeah", the paralegal said, " we got a case that that you could assist with." A quick courtship, a prenup, a fast marriage and a honeymoon in Europe. They seemed a happy couple with lots of promise but the market changed, his company didn't adapt and now it was in trouble. He tried to hide it, they continued to spend but the day of reckoning was arriving. The wife made a panicked call to her friends and as luck would have it, she talked to one of my satisfied clients. 

    I streamed my mix while I considered the case. Third Eye Blind, Kryptonite by 3 Door Down, a mix of 90's angst and pain for people who didn't fit the mold: the Goths, The Bros, The ones who had everything due to a sperm and egg meeting, dividing and implanting. I wish my DNA and parents had that kind of ancestry. They arrived on Ellis Island in 1913 were deloused and cleaned and then put on a train to Chicago, where they had family. Over the years they had children, their children had children and they strived to leave the South side of Chicago. A string of bakeries later they landed on Devon Ave. in Rodgers Park and finally found success. The siren call of challah, rye bread  and bagels drew in customers and the deli next door provided lox, corned beef and cream cheese. Every house had seltzer and wine so lunch and dinner was complete.

    Our hero, Jeff Simon, worked in the bakery on Friday and Saturday nights and also delivered the stuff to area restaurants and delis . The car's heater was set to high, yet ice was forming on the windshield from the moisture in his breath. The bags of bagels and rolls were cooling off and becoming solid. As he and his father drove he was told was a disappointment he was, how he'd never amount to anything and other things. Jeff said nothing, listing to WGN and other music of the time. They sung together " Oh Johnny " and "Shenandoah" and other song by Rosemary Cloony and others. On Halloween WGN played "the Face on the barroom floor :.




 

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Chapter 2

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