TOO BRIEF A RESPITE

The time is immaterial. The only pre-requisite is an awakening from sleep. No dreams are necessary.  What is essential is an overabundance of real life stress, vastly in excess of the line of toleration.

It seems reasonable to conclude that your slumber was a self-imposed escape hatch as a desperate means to avoid implosion.

When you first open your eyes, the sky is cloudless and all seems all right with the world. You stretch out a bit--physically--and then--damnit--mentally.

It is impossible to come anywhere near specificity when a discernment of time is attempted before it happens. YOU REMEMBER.

The "woes are me" come back, with a thud. Same problems, no answers, and the merry-go-round of misery re-engages your life.

Oh, those few seconds of respite were delicious, but oh, so short. They were temporary breaks in the tensions at hand and perhaps linked to what is necessary to again face and deal with them.

More probably than not, the saga's next chapter will be another pit stop at the service station of your mind as you arise from your self-induced moments of reprieve and prepare to slay the dragon.

EMPHATIC CONVICTION

It's a bitch when your client is found guilty and sentenced to long hard time. Your first visit is double emotional trouble, for he equates you with the only light in the dark tunnel which engulfs him. He is Jonah in the whale.

His face says it all: hopeless terror.

You must somehow rise to the occasion and give him something to hang onto.

You look into his eyes and speak as earnestly as you can. This is the bleak side of the business.

"In truth, I can only try to imagine your despair. But I have already filed your appeal to the Appeal Court and, failing that, shall bring the matter to the Supreme Judicial Court, the highest court of the state. If relief is still not ours, I shall seek federal relief via  Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus and am prepared to carry the issue forward to the United States Supreme Court via Petition for Writ of Certiorari. In short, sir, I swear to you that I shall leave no legal stone unturned in my efforts to free you."

I paused, momentarily, hoping my words have delivered some degree of aid and comfort. I resumed.

"In the meantime, however, I urge you to carry on with your plans to escape."