Main 10 minute baad wapas aa gaya aur dekha ki mama bahar nikal rahein hai aur mami waise hi leti hui thi. Mama ke jaane ke baad main mami ke pet pe s...r rakh ke let gaya aur nabhi mein ungli kured te hue baat karne laga. Woh mere ballon ko sahla rahi thi.Mazak se kisi baat pe mere baal khinche toh maine unke pet mein muh se furrrr kiya. Gudgudi hui hans padi. Fir nabhi mein jeebh ghussa di. Mami ki siskari si nikal gayee. Mere sar ko halke se pet mein daba diya aur main nabhi mein lagatar jeebh. ‘It will be good for all of us,’ Mom said, her eyes light and hopeful. I didn’t understand it. I saw how it would be good for her. After working as a LPN since our father left and dropped off the face of the earth, then starting night classes to work towards her nursing degree when Justin and I started school, then working in a retirement home to get some work experience under her belt, this new job was her first chance to do what she wanted to do. I understood how it would be good for Justin. “There’s one addressed to each of us. Dad, what are these, and how did they get here?”“Oh, I put them there a while ago, after the last guy left, eight of them, wasn’t it? It’s all pretty self-explanatory. You’ve been served. So long!”I ended the call and switched off the phone. I still had the cameras and the microphones, so I was able to enjoy the expressions on their faces as they gasped in amazement and then ripped open their envelopes.They’d taken their meal ticket for granted for so long. Even with just the two years, I believe -- even now -- that I could sit up there, vote, write opinions, the whole nine yards, without particularly embarrassing myself or appearing incompetent."What I didn't get in law school was the feeling that I could go down to city court and competently defend some poor schmuck for a moving violation. Law school was strange -- kind of exalted. Other-worldly. They crammed us full of philosophical principles, but with very little instruction about which end.