Perri O'Shaughnessy - Unfit to Practice

From behind her magazine, she watched a mother dump sugar into her daughter’s cup of milk at the end of the counter, the little girl smiling and begging for more until the mother finally called a halt to the sugar feast, promising more, all the sugar she wanted in the next cup. Nina walked to the front and looked out the window. Night had fallen and the silver lights decorating the cafe windows blinked on.

Where was he? When she didn’t see him on the street, she returned to the counter to wait, her heart at ease for the first time in a long time. He would come, and they would take a long walk through the town, stop at the Pier One, maybe go to the movies, then go over the hill to Carmel, home.

She could count on him.

Waiting, happy, she swung on her stool, back and forth. The delighted little girl a few stools away observed her, then spun, too, but in circles, her legs kicking out and in, long after Nina had stopped.

Watching the girl turning, hands gripping the spinning seat, ten or twelve or twenty times, Nina felt dizzy with possibility and hope. She knew now she could not control the life that flowed like the Pacific Ocean through her, its cold tides, its heavy weather, its clement, sunny days.

She wondered what the future would bring.

She swung around all the way around, just once. Simple thoughts swung through her head:

My name is Nina and I live down the street.

I am me.

WE WOULD LIKE TO OFFER OUR SPECIAL THANKS to Peter von Mertens and Lynn Snedecor for reading the manuscript and making many helpful comments, Ann Walker for Tahoe leads, Bill Dawson for his intense interest in the issues that plague legal practitioners, and Deputy Sheriff Tom Hill of the South Lake Tahoe Police Department for answering questions about procedure.

Our brother, Patrick O’Shaughnessy, contributed the usual spice to our characters and plot, and continues to be the best worker’s comp attorney in California, in our opinion.

Brad Snedecor was, as always, an indispensable creative accomplice.

Thanks to the California State Bar court personnel for their consideration.

The California Bar Journal was a source for information about bar court proceedings. We consulted a number of informative Web sites and books about the Hmong people for the story of the Vang family, including www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Congress/8725/unip2001.htm and I Begin My Life All Over: The Hmong and the American Immigrant Experience by Ghia Xiong (contributor), Lillian Faderman. For Mrs. Gleb’s testimony, we wish especially to acknowledge The Psychology of Handwriting: Secrets of Handwriting Analysis by Nadya Olyanova, ©1960, Sterling Publishing Company.

Our greatest respect and admiration go to our terrific agent, Nancy Yost, and to our perceptive editor, Danielle Perez. Many thanks to Irwyn Applebaum for his patient and benevolent style, and to everyone else at the Bantam Dell Publishing Group for all their hard work on our behalf-what good people.

And finally, an escapist lift of the coffee cup to the fine and clever company in the back booth at the Plantation Cafe: Bill Cheney, Ruth and Bill Dawson, Laura Ferrari, Jim Nicholas, Pat Spindt, and Sylvia Walker.

All mistakes are our own.

PERRI O’SHAUGHNESSY is the pen name for two sisters, Pamela and Mary O’Shaughnessy, who live in Hawaii and on Lake Tahoe, and in California and on Lake Tahoe, respectively. Pamela graduated from Harvard Law School and was a trial lawyer for sixteen years. Mary is a former editor and writer for multimedia projects. They are the authors of Motion to Suppress, Invasion of Privacy, Obstruction of Justice, Breach of Promise, Acts of Malice, Move to Strike, Writ of Execution, and Presumption of Death, coming in August from Delacorte Press. Readers can contact Perri O’Shaughnessy at perrio@perrio.com.