A new assignment!  I had wondered when I would be given the next.  Timing, of course, is very important for matching, as I well know, but I have to admit I was growing impatient.

My focus is now on a man named Don Collins.  He is older than any of the others I have worked with, forty-eight, previously married with two children just entering their teens, Jayden and Priscilla.  They live with his ex-wife Maria in a different state, an arrangement that has been growing less and less palatable to Don for the past few months.

In fact, there has been much changing with Don.  Danit has given me a great deal of information with which to familiarize myself, and it tells me that Don is just completing a transformation of sorts.  At the beginning of the year, he was a corporate lawyer,[1] very successful and content with his career, but careless with his personal life.  I believe the turning point was during a visit with his son Jayden, who turned thirteen on the second day of the year.  Because of this, he and his sister spend New Year’s Day[2] and the following week with their father, while they spend Christmas with their mother.

While Jayden was staying with his father, there was a conversation between them that had a resounding impact on Don.  I was not there, of course—that was before I was an active Cupid—but a Scribe recorded the conversation for me.  It is as follows.

Don: “So, Jay, you still on the hockey team?  Has that started up again yet?”

Jayden: “It starts when school goes back.”

Don: “What position will you be playing?”

Jayden: (hesitating) “Well, last year I was a striker.”

Don: “Are you thinking about trying a different position this year?”

Jayden: “Dad…I’m not going to play this year.”

Don: “What?  I thought you loved hockey.”

Jayden: “I did, but…I don’t know, I just want to do something else.”

Don: “Well, okay.  What else were you thinking?  Basketball, maybe?”

Jayden: “Dad, come on.  I’m not tall enough.”

Don: “That doesn’t have anything to do with it.  It’s all about skill, son.  I used to play some basketball.  We can head over to the gym this afternoon—”

Jayden: “Dad, I don’t want to go to the gym.  Just forget about it.”

Don: (after a moment’s silence) “Well, do you want to tell me why you’re quitting?”

Jayden: “It’s no big deal, it’s just…  There’s this guy on the team who’s been bugging me.  That’s all.”

Don: “Bugging you?  How, what do you mean?”

Jayden: “It doesn’t matter, Dad.”

Don: “Well, it obviously matters enough for you to quit!  Did he do something?”

Jayden: “No, Dad, it’s fine—”

Don: “Have you talked to him?  Or…to his parents?  Have you told your mother?”

Jayden: “Jesus,[3] Dad, just give it a rest, would you!  Why the hell do you care, anyway?  It’s not a report card or a vacation, so it’s not your problem, is it?  Just leave me alone!

At this point Jayden left the room in a hurry, and Bayaer, the Scribe who was observing, tells me that Don was in a state of shock.  He had believed himself to be well informed as to his children’s lives, but this was obviously not the case.  In the following days, Don attempted to discover the truth from his son, and it became clear how poor their communication skills had come, or rather, Don’s.  He simply did not know how to talk to his son, and his son did not trust him enough to confide in him.

Facing similar problems with his daughter and his ex-wife, Don began to realize just how detached he had been from his family.  He had fallen into a habit of taking the easy way, not asking questions and listening to only the good news.  Despite these faults, Don is a good man, and he has been working to improve himself.  It has been more difficult than he expected, as many things are on Earth.  Bayaer has seen goodness growing in him, the kind of goodness that leads to strength and action, and all action has its consequence.  The initiative he has taken has, as yet, only caused him trouble.  His relationship with his family is strained now, as often happens when one member changes the dynamics.  His friends and colleagues, also, are noticing a difference, and most of them do not approve.  (I myself would not call them friends, but that is one angel’s opinion.)

Matters have come to a head with Don this past week.  He was assigned to work with one side of a case that was to go to court this week.  I find it very difficult to understand the nature of the case, but I do know that on one side, the side Don was meant to represent, were several influential men.  On the other was a young woman, lonely and powerless.

Don was hired to speak against the woman, but Bayaer tells me that he looked at her and saw his own daughter, and he could not do it.  Instead, he presented crucial information to the woman’s lawyer, and now it seems that her side will win the case.

Don’s reward?  He has lost his job, and his career reputation has been blackened.  He will not work again.

It is terribly unfair, isn’t it?  Again and again I see clear evidence of the Enemy’s corruption in this world.  Don has been trying so hard to be a better man, to take the narrow way, and all he has gotten for it is depression, isolation, and uncertainty.

This, of course, is where I come in.  I will be meeting him tonight—wish me luck![4]

 

[1] I have taken much time to absorb this concept, and I believe I understand it now, but do not quote me, please.  A lawyer is like a Justice, but more passive—they seek truth and use their words, rather than their actions, to defend others in a court of law.  In theory.  However, the humans have decided that even someone in the wrong can use a lawyer to twist truth for them.  A ‘corporation’—a nebulous form of business that seems to represent many, many people—is especially good at this latter, darker purpose.

[2] A celebration related to the calendar which measures the passage of time for the humans.  A new year is seen as a time of renewal and hope, and the humans celebrate with colored explosions and copious alcohol.

[3] In the interest of accuracy, I have left the profanity in the record.  I apologize to any unwary readers who may be offended by it.

[4] I do not intend to offend any of my readers who are Fortunes.  Luck remains in your purview; this is simply a phrase that the humans use when attempting something new.