Life in the Boondocks

When I was first married, we lived in an area that I lovingly referred to as the "Lunatic Fringe." My husband was an attorney, and as every lawsuit has two sides, there was always one group of people who didn't like him very much. And, they didn't keep it to themselves.

It seems that there was always someone making threats of some kind against DJ, and some of them were taken more seriously than others. For instance, someone once threatened to snatch Kell. This was before our second child was born. DJ always said not to pay any attention to it, that the threats were empty, but I was not so sure. Anyway, they always made me uneasy, to say the least.

One night, I woke up suddenly, thinking I had heard a noise. I could see into Kell's room, as it was just across the hall from our bedroom. I saw a light coming through the window, playing across the wall, and ceiling in her room. I woke DJ and he stormed up the hall, flashing lights as he went, and opened the front door, turning on the porch light. He ran outside and circled the house, but of course, there was no one there. Not by then. He must have frightened whoever it was, though, because we had no more trouble. I would have felt a lot better, though, if he had called the police.

After we moved to Harrison, one night I answered the phone and a man asked to speak to DJ. The man was calling from Florida, so I didn't feel any particular uneasiness, as I told him DJ wasn't at home . But, he was obviously a crackpot. He ranted and raved and said he was going to make DJ take his case, even though he had already turned him down. I told him that there were other lawyers and why didn't he call them. He said he had called every lawyer in the area, and finally found DJ. He repeated that DJ couldn't refuse to take his case, and I said I was sure he could, and if he would leave his number I'd have DJ call him and tell him so himself.

I so happens, one of our local attorneys had died recently, and I could hardly believe my ears when this old coot said what he obviously believed to be a dire threat. He said, ominously, "You know, 'So-and-So' refused to take my case, and look what happened. He died."

I was still laughing when DJ got home. As I said before, some threats were scarier than others.