Thunder and Lightening
Chapter 27
By
Lazlo Zalezac
Copyright (C) Lazlo Zalezac, 2004

In two different cars, Jerry, Jenny, Henry, Bill and Abe pulled up 
in front of the auto-detailing shop to pick up the Camaro. It was the 
first time Jerry was to see it since he had been shot and he could 
hardly wait to see how it looked. Eddie was waiting for them next 
to the car, but he didn't look nearly as happy to show off this car as 
he had been with the truck. 

The paint job was amazing. Using the dark on dark technique that 
Eddie had used for the truck, the scene of a lightning bolt striking a 
tall building in a cityscape looked three dimensional. As they 
approached to within ten feet of the car, each of them stopped to 
stare at the picture in amazement at the quality of it. 

The only person who didn't look pleased was Eddie. He looked 
over at the picture and shook his head as though displeased with it. 
There was something that bothered him about the car and he didn't 
know what it was. The paint job was exactly what he had wanted 
to capture, but there was something wrong. He had spent days 
looking at the car from every angle trying to figure out what it was.

After a few minutes, Jerry stepped up and walked around the entire 
car taking in the final product. The car was beautiful. The interior 
had been restored to a condition that was better than new. Coming 
back to Eddie, he said, "It's gorgeous. You did a nice job on it."

Eddie rubbed the back of his neck as he looked over at Jerry. 
Frowning, he said, "The first couple of days, I loved it. The longer 
I've looked at the car, the more convinced I became that there is 
something wrong with the paint job. I don’t know what it is, but 
there's something wrong with it."

Surprised at the self-criticism of his work, Jerry looked back at the 
car. He walked around the car looking at it closer trying to identify 
what would cause Eddie to say such a thing. The paintjob was 
outstanding and he couldn't see anything wrong with it. Across the 
back were the signatures of the shops that had done the finishing 
work and the name of the car. 

He didn't see anything wrong, but Eddie was right. After a few 
minutes, it seemed like there was some kind of itch at the back of 
his brain telling him that something wasn't right. Jerry walked 
around the car again, looking at it carefully. Everything looked 
right, but something about it bothered him. 

From the back of the car, Abe called out, "Hey, I thought lightning 
didn't have an 'e' in it."

Eddie ran to the back of the car and stared at the name of the car. 
Sure enough, he had misspelled the name. Slapping his forehead 
with the palm of his hand, Eddie saw that Abe was right. He 
groaned at the thought of the work that would be required to 
correct the problem.

Everyone gathered behind the Camaro staring at the misspelled 
name. Bill said, "It's not that obvious."

"You're being nice," growled Eddie as his face glowed red from 
embarrassment. He wanted to crawl into a hole and hide for the 
rest of his life. No one in the business was ever going to let him 
live this down. 

Jenny and Henry exchanged looks wondering what Jerry was 
thinking as he stared at the back of the car. The tension in the air 
seemed to grow the longer that Jerry stood there without saying a 
word. Henry moved over to Eddie just in case Jerry lost his temper. 
The big man knew that he could probably keep Jerry from causing 
too much damage, particularly with his arm still in a cast.

For his part, Jerry stared at the lettering trying to figure out how he 
was supposed to react. In the past, his rage would have seen this as 
an opportunity to run wild. There was nothing in the pit of his 
stomach but an empty hole. The rage was well and truly gone. 

Surprising everyone, Abe commented, "I think it's a good name."

Everyone turned to stare at Abe, but the young black man didn't 
look uncomfortable with the attention. Puzzled by his 
announcement, Jenny asked, "In what way?"

"We all know that Thunder knocked him on his ass, but since then 
he's dumped a lot of the shit in his life that was holding him back," 
answered Abe.  

Jerry nodded as he thought about what Abe had said. One of the 
things that he had dumped was the rage and he did feel lighter as a 
result. Lightening was a play on words, although unintentional. He 
wondered if he could live with it.

Of everyone there, Eddie was the most upset. Jerry had treated him 
well and allowed him to use the truck to improve his business. He 
felt horrible about having ruined the job and there was nothing to 
do except fix it. It went without saying that there would be no 
charge for the paint job. He said, "I'll fix it. Don't worry about 
that."

Henry was watching the big man, trying to figure out what was 
going on in his head. His friend wasn't reacting in a manner that he 
expected. If the big guy had broken out in laughter, he would have 
understood. He would have understood anger, but this silent and 
thoughtful reaction had him confused.

Jerry looked over at Eddie and didn't say anything for a long time. 
Finally, he said, "I like it like this."

Abe smiled in agreement even though Jenny, Henry, and Bill 
looked at him as if he had lost his mind. Eddie looked angry. The 
idea that the big man was trying to keep from hurting his feelings 
was an insult. Bill countered, "If you keep it, people will think you 
are a big dumb oaf that can't spell."

Henry, well familiar with that reaction, nodded his head in 
agreement as he said, "That's true."

Shrugging his shoulders, Abe countered, "So what? The ones that 
think he's a big dumb oaf are wrong. Shit, we all know he's just a 
big oaf."

Laughter boiled up from the pit of his stomach and Jerry was 
powerless to hold it back. His loud guffaw carried through the air, 
infecting others as if it was a contagious virus. Eddie had proved 
the most resistant to the laugh, but found that he was chuckling 
along with everyone else after a minute. Hardly able to stand, Jerry 
found himself gasping for air after five minutes of solid laughter. 
Every time he looked over at Abe, he broke out in laughter again. 
Tears were forming in his eyes as he laughed. 

Jerry patted Eddie on the shoulder and said, "I'll keep it like this."

Shaking his head, Eddie said, "Look, I'll fix it."

"No, I like it," replied Jerry. The more he thought about it, the 
more he liked the name. Abe was right about the name. Lightening, 
rather than lightning, was the proper name for the car. He had 
undergone a huge change in which he had shed a number of the 
things that had weighed him down and held him back.

Worried about him loosing his temper when someone made fun of 
him, Jenny asked, "What will you do when people make jokes 
about it?"

"I'll laugh if it is a good joke and explain things to them if it is 
tasteless," answered Jerry. 

Having accepted the modified name of the Camaro, Jerry walked 
around it taking in the paint job. He liked the images presented and 
came to like the car even more. He opened the driver side door and 
examined the interior. It was beautiful beyond anything that he 
could have imagined. They had followed the same gray color 
scheme in the Camaro that they had used for the truck. 

Looking over the dashboard, he noticed an expensive sound system 
had replaced the old radio that hadn't worked. Surprised at the 
discovery, he asked, "What's with the radio?"

Smiling at him, Jenny said, "I bought it for you as a little present."

"Wow. You didn't have to do that," replied Jerry choked up at the 
thought of the gift. No one had ever given him a gift before. Sure, 
his wife used to give him gifts on Christmas, but they were things 
like lawn mowers and other home care goods. 

"Maybe you can loan the car to me when I go cruising for chicks," 
replied Henry with a grin. He winked at Jenny to let her know that 
he was kidding. He didn't want her reporting back to Sharon that 
he was already thinking of stepping out on her.

Jerry laughed and replied, "Keep talking like that and Jenny is 
going to take away the keys. I'll be stuck driving her little Nova."

Laughing, Jenny said, "I'll drive it and turn this car into a regular 
Man Trap."

Abe quipped, "Dye your hair blond and no one will question the 
name of the car."

"Ugh, that's horrible," exclaimed Jenny with a look of horror on 
her face. She knew that a whole series of blond jokes were about to 
start. 

Abe and Bill nudged each other with their elbows and started 
trading blond jokes. They knew a ton of them and would occupy 
themselves for an hour if Jenny let them. Unable to help herself, 
she laughed at the punch line for the joke about the blond bank 
robber that tied up the safe and blew the guard. Turning back to 
look at Jerry, she smiled at the grin that was plastered to his face.

After paying for the work done on the car, the group split up. Abe 
and Bill went shopping with Jenny to get some new clothes for 
school. Martin headed off to pick up parts for Abe's motorcycle 
and Bill's Buick from a local junkyard that claimed to have a 
couple of the parts they needed. Jerry got in the Camaro with 
Henry. The Camaro had an automatic transmission and he could 
drive it even with his cast. It was with a great deal of pleasure that 
Jerry sat behind the steering wheel.

As they drove down the street listening to the music, Henry said, 
"Let's pull into the drive-in burger place for lunch."

Jerry smiled at the chance to show off his restored car. He replied, 
"Sounds like a plan to me."

More than a few heads turned as they pulled into a parking spot at 
the burger place. A couple of teenagers got out and looked over the 
car. Henry smiled at his friend and asked, "How long do you think 
it will take them to notice?"

Jerry laughed and said, "Considering the state of education today, I 
doubt they ever will."

Henry shook his head at the comment and said, "You're a little 
rough on the kids today, aren't you?"

Shrugging his right shoulder, Jerry replied, "I guess I blame the 
schools for helping to create kids like Joe and Kenny. With a good 
education, they would have known better."

"Hey, they had the same education that Abe and Martin got," 
countered the big man. He felt guilty about how Kenny had turned 
out. For the past five years he had been trying to get the kid to 
grow up and act responsibly. He grumbled, "I let them down."

"No, you didn't. You gave him every chance to straighten up." 
Jerry shook his head thinking back to when he had first met 
Kenny. He said, "The first time I met Kenny, he said that he 
wanted to sell grass for a living. I probably should have taken his 
head off at the time, but I let it slide with a warning that making an 
easy living tended to be a lot harder than working at a tougher 
job."

"I told him the same thing myself, but he didn't want to listen. He 
thought he was smarter than everyone else," commented Henry. 
The sad fact was that Kenny was smart. His mother had told Henry 
that the kid had the highest IQ in the school. Everything came easy 
to the kid, too easy in fact. Asking the kid to work was an insult. 

"I'm still sorry about it all. He's going to be doing some time in 
prison," said Jerry. 

One of the kids looking over the car knocked on the window to get 
their attention. Henry rolled down the window and asked, "What 
can I do for you?"

"Did you know that Lightning is misspelled?" asked the young 
man in a timid voice.

"Well, the name of the car is Lightening and not Lightning. It's the 
picture that's wrong," commented Henry winking at Jerry. 

Jerry said, "Yes, this car represents a major load taken off my 
shoulders. I'm a much freer man because of this car than I was 
before I fixed it up. You might say that it was the straw that broke 
the camel's back and forced me to re-examine my life."

The kid stood at the window listening to the explanation with a 
puzzled expression. Finally, he said, "You're an adult. You can do 
whatever you want."

Both Henry and Jerry burst out laughing at that. Henry replied, 
"Son, you've got a lot more freedom right now than both of us put 
together."

"Say what?"

Jerry said, "Listen, you've got all kinds of choices to make. That's 
freedom. We've made our choices and have to live with the 
consequences. We've already sold our freedom."

The kid stood there for a minute with a confused expression on his 
face. After a minute, he said, "Gee, all I wanted to say was that you 
had a nice car."

Knowing the kid was confused by the conversation, Jerry said, 
"Thanks. I appreciate it."

The kid wandered off to tell his friends about the strange guys in 
the Camaro. It wouldn't be until several days passed that he would 
think about what the two men had said to him. At the moment, 
their words meant nothing to him. Everyone knew that adults could 
do whatever they wanted.

Jerry watched the kid walk off and shook his head. Henry voiced 
what was on his mind when he asked, "Do you think the kid 
understood what we were talking about?"

"No. I'm pretty sure that he looked at us, considered our size and 
thought that we could do anything that we wanted," commented 
Jerry. He thought it was ironic that kids wanted to grow up so that 
they could do anything they desired; never realizing that each 
choice they made restricted their own actions far more than what 
their parents could possibly impose. 

Thinking about the kids that were out shopping with Jenny, Henry 
said, "You know, it wouldn't be a bad idea to tell the boys that."

"You're right," replied Jerry. After a pause, his stomach growled 
and he said, "I’m getting hungry."

Jerry leaned out the window and pressed the button to order. When 
the voice over the speaker acknowledged him, he didn't need to ask 
Henry what he wanted to eat. Without hesitation, he ordered, "Two 
burgers, two medium french-fries, and two large shakes. One 
vanilla and one chocolate."

The two men enjoyed their lunch once it was delivered. Other 
people came by the car, examined the paintjob and went on their 
way after making comments about the car. Less than a third of 
them noticed the spelling of the name. One idiot actually made a 
comment about blacks not knowing how to spell, but Jerry put him 
in his place. Of course, he could hear the guy’s comment as he 
walked away that the fucking gorilla couldn't spell either.

When they had finished eating, Jerry turned to his friend and said, 
"I've never thanked you for installing the hot water heater."

The big black man looked at Jerry and said, "No problem. I 
couldn't believe that you and Bill lived there for a whole winter 
without hot water."

"It never really bothered me. To tell the truth, I didn't know how 
long I would be living there," replied Jerry. At the look from 
Henry, he added, "I didn't want to make the house any more 
valuable for that bastard landlord."

"Putting a Band-Aid over a hole in the wall would double the value 
of those houses," quipped Henry with a short bark that passed for 
laughter. He grinned and then asked, “Ready to buy some Band-
Aids to fix up that house?”

After exchanging a look with Henry, Jerry started the car and they 
headed off to a hardware store. It was time for them to fix some of 
the other minor problems around the house since it looked like 
Jerry was going to buy it for the tax payment.

As they pulled in front of the house, Jenny was outside sweeping 
off the porch. She had beaten them back to the house after 
shopping with the two boys. It had been a disappointing trip. The 
boys had picked out their shirts and pants without even looking 
around at their options. There were times when she wished that 
Bill were a girl. At least then she would have someone that 
enjoyed shopping for clothes. 

Appreciating the view of Jenny sweeping the porch, Henry said, 
"You've got yourself quite a woman there."

"I know," replied Jerry, "she's more than what I deserve."

Henry parked the car and turned to face Jerry with a very serious 
expression on his face. Over the past few weeks, Jerry had been 
very hard on himself and Henry wasn't quite sure what to make of 
it. He suspected that Jerry was having trouble taking care of 
himself and felt like a burden on all of the people around him. 
Looking his friend in the eye, he said, "You've got to lighten up on 
yourself, Jerry. You're a good man. You may not believe me, but 
even Mr. Atkins says so."

Jerry shook his head as if he didn't believe it. He still looked in the 
mirror and saw a horrible monster. His calluses were slowly 
disappearing, but his hands remained paws. Although he had lost 
weight during his stay in the hospital, his basic skeletal structure 
remained the same. He was still a very big man that looked like a 
monster.

"If you keep this up, the next time there's trouble you'll get 
yourself killed. I'm surprised that you weren't successful last time," 
said the large black man as he shook his head.

"What? You think I was trying to get killed?" asked Jerry surprised 
by the implications of the statements made by his friend.

"Yes, I do. Four shots were fired in four different directions and 
you were in front of each one. The way I figure it was that you felt 
that you were the least valuable person there and the most 
expendable."

Jerry frowned at the assessment of his actions that day. He couldn't 
really argue, as he didn't remember anything that happened that 
day. He grunted, "I'll have to think about it."

"Listen. Jenny is madly in love with you. Abe thinks that you are 
some sort of super hero put in the slum to clean things up. Martin 
thinks of you like the father that he never had. Sharon is fond of 
you. You're my best friend."

Turning, Henry opened the door to the Camaro and stepped out. 
He waited for Jerry to get out of the car before he said, "Take care 
of yourself. Too many people will be hurt if something happens to 
you."

Frowning, Jerry stared at the ground between his feet overwhelmed 
by what his friend had said. He wasn't used to sharing his feelings 
with others, except for the rage. The rage had insisted on sharing 
itself with everyone around him at the least provocation. Now that 
it was gone, he was left with gentler emotions. Lamely, he 
answered, "Okay."

"I've got to go take care of Sharon. We got us a couple of quiet 
hours around the house and they are just too rare to let pass by," 
said Henry with a smile. He hoped that his words would have an 
effect on his friend. 

As Henry walked next door, Jerry realized that he owed his friend 
a great debt. He called after him, "Thanks, Henry. You're a good 
man."

The big black man, without turning, waved a hand over his head as 
both an acknowledgement and a farewell. Jerry smiled at the 
thought of what his friend was going to be doing all afternoon. 
Looking over at Jenny, he smiled at the thought of what he would 
be doing all afternoon.

Jerry stood in his front yard examining the sight it presented to 
him. Abe's motorcycle was spread out all over one side of the tree. 
The engine was in the trunk of the Pontiac Chieftain parked on the 
other side of the tree. Abe and Martin had already rebuilt the 
engine and carburetor. Most of the frame was ready to be 
reassembled, but they were missing the gas tank. The front fender 
that Abe had was in pretty bad shape and probably couldn't be 
fixed. Martin was looking for the front fork and the front fender.

Abe was working hard to get the bike completed before his next 
birthday. He wanted to start riding it as soon as he could. There 
were only a couple of months to go and it was going to be difficult 
for him to finish it in time. 

The Pontiac Chieftain was nowhere near as close to being restored. 
They were still getting ready to pull the engine, but Bill was stuck 
with working on the body until Jerry was strong enough to help 
him with the heavy work. At the rate they were restoring the car, 
they'd probably be finished with it in time for Bill to learn how to 
drive on his learner's permit. Jerry could imagine the look on the 
guy's face at the DMV when Bill went for his driver's test in the 
classic car. 

He went to the front of the car and looked at the ornament on the 
hood. It had the classic Chieftain ornament that actually looked 
like an Indian head. When the headlights were on, the ornament 
would light up. When the car was first on the market there had 
been the sales slogan that said, "Let the Chief light your way."

Of course, Jerry didn't remember that from when he was young. 
The car was already old before he was born. Bill had found that 
fact somewhere on the internet and claimed that was just a little 
more of the charm of the car. Bill had spent a lot of time on the 
internet looking for this car. The first Pontiac Chieftain that Bill 
had found had been sold by the time that Jerry had gotten out of 
the hospital. It had taken his son another month to locate this one.

For the most part, the body was in pretty good shape, but the 
chrome parts were pitted fairly badly and there was a lot of chrome 
on that car. Martin was hoping to pick up some replacements at the 
junkyard, but it was unlikely they could replace all of the parts. It 
wasn’t a disaster, but Jerry was hoping they could replace as much 
as possible. 

Jerry felt bad that he wasn't able to help Bill as much as he wanted. 
He cursed the cast and all of the limitations it placed on him. It 
would be a couple of months before it would be removed and that 
was a couple of months too long. By then, the weather would be 
getting cold and they wouldn't be able to work on the car with any 
kind of regularity.

Jerry went over to the porch. Jenny had a grin on her face as she 
announced, "I left the boys at the mall. They're going to get a little 
something to eat and then go to a movie."

"Wanna christen the Camaro?"

With a wink, Jenny said, "Sure, big boy. It's been a long time since 
I made out in the back of a car."

The next Sunday, Jerry, Bill, and Abe were outside working on 
their individual projects. Abe had removed everything from the 
frame of the motorcycle and it was ready to be taken in for 
painting. He stepped back and looked at the bike. Since Martin had 
found a new front fender and gas tank, all of the pieces for the bike 
were present. The parts that were supposed to be painted were 
ready to be taken into the paint shop. 

He looked over at Jerry and said, "That's the last of it. All of the 
pieces are here and in pretty good shape."

"It looks good," commented Jerry. 

"Thanks, I can't wait until after it is painted. The engine is rebuilt 
and there's not too much to do except put it back together again."

Bill came over to the bike and looked at the pieces. He asked, 
"What color are you going to paint it?"

The two young men had discussed that many times. Bill wanted 
him to paint it a solid black, but Abe was considering the original 
colors, red and green. The flat colors wouldn't look as flashy as 
solid black, but the result would have a stately nostalgic feel about 
it. He answered, "I'm going with the original colors."

"You know, you might be right," replied Bill as he looked at the 
picture of a restored motorcycle. He commented, "The colors do 
grow on you after a bit of time."

"Martin is going to take me to the paint shop tomorrow. Would 
you like some help on the car?"

"Sure," replied Bill. The two young men returned to the car and 
went to work replacing some of the missing metal from the body 
with the metal inert gas wire-fed welder. Jerry had showed Bill 
how to use it and now he was repairing the damage that rust and 
time had perpetrated upon the body. The two boys were wearing 
welding masks.

Jerry stood back, wearing welding goggles as he watched Bill 
carefully build up another bead of metal along the doorframe. He'd 
have to use the sander to restore the surface to the proper shape, 
but that was to be expected. For the most part, there wasn't much 
damage to the body that a little bondo wouldn't fix. Bill started to 
work the welder a little too fast and Jerry warned, "Don't go too 
fast. You have to go at the right speed."

"Sure," replied Bill as he went back to the proper pace. He had 
learned a lot about working with metal from his father over the 
past month. Since his father couldn't work on the metal sheeting 
for the indoor fountains, he had taught Bill how to do it. As a 
result, Bill now knew how to cut metal with a torch, bend it to 
shape, and close seams with a good weld. 

It took nearly an hour, but the missing metal on the front door was 
replaced. Removing the welder's mask, Bill turned off the welder 
and stepped back to admire his work. His hair was sweaty, his 
clothes were dirty, and his hands filthy, but the young man stood 
tall with pride at a job well done. Jerry smiled as he watched his 
son examine the work he had done. 

"Good job," he commented.

Abe helped Bill put up the welder so that Martin could return it to 
the rental agency the next day. Once that job was done, Bill got out 
the sander and went to work smoothing out the surface. Abe 
stepped back and watched the sparks fly as the sander took off the 
metal at a steady pace. Jerry watched his son work. He felt a lot of 
pride for Bill in light of the skills that the young man had learned 
over the past month. 

Jerry went back to the porch and sat down thinking about how 
much his son had changed over the past year. He realized that Bill 
could get a job at a bodywork shop with the skills that he had 
already developed. It would be a good paying job for a kid his age, 
but Jerry wanted more than that for his son. He wanted his son to 
go to college and to make something more of himself than a grease 
monkey. 

The cell phone clipped to his belt started playing 'Hail To The 
Chief.' He glared over at Bill, knowing that his son had changed 
the ringer on him. Half the time when the phone rang, he had no 
idea what tune would play. Fishing his cell phone out of its holder, 
he answered, "Hello?"

"Jerry, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your mother-in-law 
died," answered Tony, his lawyer.

His stomach churned at the news even though he had never liked 
the woman. It didn't matter how he felt about her; he still didn't 
want to hear that anything bad had happened to the woman. He had 
no idea about the impact that the death of Melissa's grandmother 
would have on his daughter. He said, "I'm sorry to hear that, Tony. 
How's Melissa taking it?"

"She's not as upset about her grandmother's death as one would 
expect," answered Tony. The lawyer representing Jerry's ex-wife 
was already with the girl and she was furious about having to live 
with her father. As far as he knew, she wasn't concerned about her 
grandmother's death. He added, "Well, I hate to have to tell you 
this, but you have custody of Melissa now and she's not happy 
about having to move in with you."

Jerry thought about how all of his attempts to communicate with 
Melissa had been rebuked by her. There was no way that she 
would want to live in his house. She wouldn't like living with him, 
she wouldn't like the house, and she wouldn't accept living in the 
neighborhood. He stated, "I know, Tony. She's not going to be 
happy about this at all. What about her mother?"

"She's in jail on a DWI."

The news that his ex-wife was in jail surprised Jerry. He hadn't 
heard anything about what she had been doing since they had filed 
charges against her for beating Bill with a baseball bat. The news 
that she was driving around while drunk only confirmed his 
impression of the mental stability of the woman. 

Looking around the neighborhood, Jerry wondered how his 
neighbors would react to Melissa. Jerry asked, "Where is 
Melissa?"

"She's at her grandmother's house with your wife's lawyer. They're 
waiting for you to come pick her up."

Sighing, Jerry considered his situation. There wasn't much he 
could do. At least he had his Camaro and could drive over there 
without having to beg for a ride. He said, "It'll take me a little 
while to get there."

Hanging up the phone, Jerry looked over at Bill and Abe. He didn't 
know what to tell his son. Bill was not going to be happy living 
around his sister again. She had taken a hammer to his first scooter 
and beat the hell out of it. That was only the crowning touch of a 
life spent abusing her brother. He said, "Bill, I need you to move 
your stuff out of your bedroom and put it in the bigger bedroom.”

Walking up to the house, Jerry was concerned about what he 
would find inside. Ever since he had left his ex-wife, he had tried 
to arrange a meeting with his daughter but she had refused every 
offer. With the death of his mother-in-law and the fact that his ex-
wife was in jail, she didn't have a choice except to deal with him. 
He had hoped that they would have a chance to get to know each 
other in a more relaxed fashion.

His lawyer, Tony, was parked in the driveway and walked over to 
join Jerry. Shaking his head, he said, "I'm sorry about this."

"It's not your fault," commented Jerry. 

"She's not very happy about having to live with you," warned the 
lawyer. He had never heard such a hateful rant since Jerry's ex-
wife had unleashed her vindictive tirade in the courtroom. 

"I imagine she has a lot to say about me," remarked Jerry with a 
sad tone in his voice. Although it was hard to admit, he had known 
that she didn't think highly of him even when he was at home 
paying all of the bills. Her mother had poisoned her soul with her 
attitude about men in general and Jerry in particular. 

Tony knocked on the door. After a minute, the other lawyer 
opened it. The poor man looked as if he had just gone twenty 
rounds with a heavy weight boxing champion. He looked at Tony 
and then at Jerry while shaking his head the entire time. With a 
grimace, he said, "Come in."

From behind him, there was a screech in an angry female voice, 
"Don't let that fucking ape in this house!"