PI Brief Update

Lost Dreams

I was discussing OldSmoothie and UpTights on Friday with SlipperySlope. “I used to know them both years ago. Rising stars of their generation. Picked out for great things. They even made rather a glamorous couple for all of about a week.”
“Oh.” That was news to me.
“But now they’re like a couple of old has-beens fighting over lost dreams and faded glory, BabyB. Great to watch but you know what? It’s one of the few spectacles in this whole money-making world which actually makes me feel just a little bit sad.”

I didn’t have anything to say as he paused.
“You know what I mean, BabyB. OldSmoothie all ‘I coulda been a contender’ rubbish as old colonels blow smoke up him on his golf club committees.”

I couldn’t help smiling at the accuracy of that portrayal. It seemed Slippery had more about him than his brash front suggested.
“Then poor UpTights. I mean one minute she’s all Gloria Swanson and ‘I’m still big, it’s just the world around me got small’ and the next minute she’s Blanche DuBois and the kindness of strangers lost in her own little world. These days UpTights hates the whole world, especially women and OldSmoothie. He just hates himself.”

Golly. There really was no answer to that either. Then he brightened up and said.
“But hey, that’s why they’re still in business. Complex is good in your line of work, BabyB. I mean, no case is ever black or white. Just like barristers.”

Then he paused and looked at me sympathetically and added,
“I wouldn’t be a barrister for all the money in the world.”

BabyBarista is a fictional account of a junior barrister written by Tim Kevan. You can buy the latest BabyBarista novel, 'Law and Peace' on Amazon. The cartoons are by Alex Williams, author of The Queen's Counsel Lawyer's Omnibus.