The Decision
(a lawyer, a silver dollar, a balcony)
Over and over, he twisted the coin in his fingers. The fading sunlight glinted dully on the worn metal. He knew the coin by heart. It was a 1953 silver dollar. Every morning, he put it casually into his pocket, and every night he placed it on the stand beside his bed. It was the first money he'd ever made as a lawyer.Fifteen years ago, Michael Burton had taken his very first case to court. He'd represented a poor, old, widow lady who was being forced from her home. She'd lived there fifty years. She'd raised six kids and buried two husbands. But a big corporation was trying to take over the block where she lived. Michael put everything he'd learned in law school to work and helped her keep her home. It was supposed to be a pro bono case, but the day after the ruling, she'd come into his office and given him a silver dollar. In his mind, he'd become a real lawyer that day. Now he stood on the balcony of his luxurious, New York apartment, ignoring the sunset glowing through the skyline. He thought only about the silver coin in his hand and what it had meant. He thought about what he had become when he earned that dollar, and what he had become today. For the price of a half a million dollars, he’d defended the sleaziest, slimeball that ever existed, Sid Malone. Sid had been accused of rape, extortion, drug dealing, plus a whole bunch of other charges. He was guilty of every single charge. Sid knew it, Michael knew it, the judge knew it, even the jury knew it. But Michael, through some devious legal maneuvering, had been able to get the charges dropped. Outside the court house, Sid handed Michael a check for $500,000 and slapped him on the back. “Whatever you want, Michael, you come to me. Girls, dope, you name it. I’ll take care of you just like you done for me.” Now, five hours later, Michael reached into his pocket and pulled out Sid’s check. He held it in one hand, the silver dollar in his other. “What have I become?” he wondered. He pondered the significance of the two objects he held in his hands, then, with a shrug of his shoulders, he tossed the silver dollar off the balcony. “What the hell,” he said as he pocketed the check. “The pay’s a lot better.”
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