Having been frustrated by the endings of some stories that are posted here and having been criticized for some of my own story endings, I decided to try something new, a story with several alternative endings. These ending will vary quite a bit, from the romantic to the hardcore. I know the set-up is long, but it needs to be, for all the various possible endings to make sense.
Also, any authors out there are invited to write their own ending!
No sex for awhile in this story!
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Introduction
"Case Dismissed," the judge stated firmly, then slapped his gavel down with the accompanying wooden crack.
My client turned to shake my hand, but I was already stuffing papers into my briefcase and moving quickly to the courtroom door. If I catch a cab to the airport I could make the early Friday afternoon flight from Boston to Miami. I could surprise my wife at the South Florida Law School reunion.
My son, Jake Junior, was already at his grandparent's house for the weekend so the only thing I was missing was my suitcase. It had been packed for a week, ready for Jill and I to spend a long weekend in Miami at our 10 year Law School reunion. I had left the suitcase in our bedroom. I had thought that this last minute case which I had caught from my public defenders office would end up killing the weekend for me.
But surprise of surprises, the Boston PD had realized that my petty thief client could not have been involved in the armed robbery and had agreed to drop the charges. Now he was free and I was free too. The last flight to Miami would be leaving in 2 hours. Friday traffic and post 9-11 security meant that I could just make it onto the plane, but I would not have time to stop by our house. That was OK, it would only be two days. I could buy a swim suit and some casual clothes in Miami. As the cab careened through the rain and drizzle of spring-time Boston, Mass. I thought about lounging on the sunny white sand beaches of South Florida with my beautiful and smart lawyer wife.
Jill had flown down to the reunion yesterday as we had planned.
At first she said that "If you can't go I won't go either."
But I had insisted, she deserved the break from "Mommy-hood" and she had been so excited about seeing our old friends. She had been planning this trip for weeks, even dieting and going to the tanning saloon, so she "would look good in a bathing suit and not stick out like a "Northeastern tourist" when she saw our classmates, most of whom still lived in the "sunshine state."
I smiled as I thought about Jill, 13 years earlier. Beautiful and smart, 22 years old and one of 12 women in the South Florida Law School class of 1994. The class had 65 students, by the time we graduated there were only 45 of us left and only 9 women. Jill was the smartest and most beautiful, everybody had wanted her, but I had won her heart. We hadn't dated until halfway through year two of law school. But a year after graduation we were married. I knew I was the luckiest guy in the class. I felt like the luckiest guy in Florida, maybe the luckiest guy in the whole United States.
Jill, she is my "soul-mate." I know that term is thrown around a lot, but she really is. We fit like two perfectly matched puzzle pieces, and now with 3 year old Jake Junior, life got only better. Sometimes as I walked into the door of our modest suburban house, knowing that Jill and Jake Junior were inside waiting for me, the love would well up in my chest, and I could hear an audible groan escape my lips. I was so lucky, so loved. Tears would actually come to my eyes.
I was a lucky one, I had always been loved. Growing up in a poor working class neighborhood of Washington DC, I hadn't had a lot of "things," but we always had food, and love from my hardworking blue collar parents. We had always been taught "right from wrong" and the marble monuments in the center of DC had effected me greatly. That's why I had become a public defender. I have a strong sense of right and wrong. I believe in the system. I wanted to stand up for the "little guy." Hardworking guys who got taken advantage of. Guys like my Dad and the people who I grew up with. Simply stated I wanted to do what was right.
I worked hard, got scholarships to college, then a scholarship to SF Law School. My parents were so proud. I was the first in the family to graduate from college, much less attend a professional school. I was proud, I wanted to make a difference. The others in my law school class were not like me. Oh, they were smart, but they all had come from the upper middle class or even rich upper class homes. They weren't bad, at least most of them weren't. They loved the law as I did, but money and power is what motivated them. That's Ok, I wanted money too, but not at the expense of others. Not at the expense of people weaker than I, I wanted to help people more than I wanted the big money. Regardless of what kind of law I practiced, I knew I would have more money than my parents. I knew that I would be comfortable and that was enough for me.
