Rough Justice

associate could. 'WHY CANT PARTNERS EVER MAKE UP THEIR MINDS?' Mary shouted.

'Maybe she was kidding,' Judy said, mystified. She sat in one of the chairs facing Mary's desk, bundled in a drippy yellow parka. Judy was still too cold to take it off, and snow from her boots melted onto the rug. The tip of her nose had thawed but she had a bad case of hat head.

'Kidding? Kidding?! Have you ever known Marta Richter to kid about anything?'

'It is odd,' Judy said. She was thinking, something was fishy. Something didn't square. She couldn't put her finger on it. The blizzard was blowing outside and snow blasted past the window of Mary's office. The temperature had dipped, and the police had warned everybody off the street. Why would Marta come out on a night like this to check a motion she knew wasn't written? Especially after she had put it on the back burner. 'It really is odd.'

'Odd? You think it's odd?' Mary began to laugh, a little crazily. 'First she tells me to write the motion. Then she tells me to stop writing the motion. Then she screams at me for not writing the motion. You think that's odd?'

Judy nodded.

'Odd is not a word I'd use. Odd is a cakewalk compared to this. Odd is chump change.'

'Well, it is—'

'SCHIZOPHRENIC! Schizophrenic is the word I'd use! Schizophrenic is what comes immediately to mind.'

'Mary—'

'She's splitting, I'm telling you.'

'Mare—'

'We got a bona fide multiple here, billing time.'

'Wait. Relax. Chill. You sure Marta just said to do the motion?'

'I have ears, don't I? I heard her! Right on the phone, that's what she said!' Mary couldn't stop shouting even though she was giving herself a headache. 'Look at my neck. Look at these blotches!' She opened her blouse at the neckline so Judy could see. 'My head is going to explode! Warning, warning! Step away from the associate! Step away from the associate!'

'Maybe it's menopause,' Judy said thoughtfully.

'I'm too young for menopause!'

'Not you, doof.' Judy rolled her eyes. 'Erect. Maybe Erect is going through the change.'

'Not possible. Erect has no estrogen. Nobody with estrogen could do this to another human being.' Mary deflated into her chair. Her head fell into her hands and she raked her hair back again and again. 'Oh, God, why am I a lawyer? Why couldn't I have been a cowboy?'

Judy watched her with a twinge of regret. She'd gotten Mary into this mess. Made her leave Stalling & Webb to start their own firm, which never got off the ground. Still, something very odd was going on, and Mary wasn't getting it. 'Listen, Mare. Marta Richter is a world-class trial lawyer. She's not stupid. And she may be compulsive, but she's not crazy. There must be a reason for what she's doing.'

'No, there isn't. She's still a partner and they're all alike. I don't care if she's a woman and I'm supposed to like her. She should burn in hell. I should find another job.'

'Think about it. Maybe Marta is seeing something we can't. Something we don't. It's like Van Gogh, seeing the colors we don't.'

Mary kept shaking her head. 'I have other skills, don't I? What color is my parachute?'

'Yellow.'

Mary blinked, pained. 'Yellow?'

'The yellows of Van Gogh. He can see them, but we can't.' Judy shifted forward in her parka. 'This is the same thing. Marta can see something we can't. We have to figure out what she's seeing, what she's doing. She's like Napoleon.'

'Napoleon?' Mary was getting dizzy. Sometimes she thought Judy was just too smart for them to be friends. She needed a dumber friend. 'I thought we were talking about Van Gogh.'

'You know that story about Napoleon? That famous battle he was in?'

'No idea.'

'You know it.'

'No, I don't.'

'I know you know it, Mare.'

'I don't know it!' Mary wondered if Judy, Marta, everyone around her was going crackers. Maybe it was the snowstorm. Cabin fever, early onset. 'Judy, what are you talking about?'

'Napoleon was in a battle, I forget which, and there was so much smoke and dust he couldn't see what was going on.' Judy unzipped her parka. 'Nobody could see what was going on because of the smoke. The sides who were fighting couldn't even see each other to shoot.'

'Okay.' Crackers. Losing it. Too much coffee. Not enough coffee.

'Napoleon told his lieutenants where to move his men anyway, in response to what he knew the other side would be doing. No one understood what he was doing, but he could direct the battle without seeing anything. All his soldiers thought he was nuts. But when the dust settled, who do you think won?'