Chapter 6

Mark was on his way to do substitute teaching at Truman high school this morning. He was debating with himself if he wanted to continue subbing. The problem was one of him making considerably more money in selling energy units versus what he makes for subbing. The other side of the coin was that he enjoyed seeing and helping young people learn.

In walking from his car which he had just parked he could see three students who had a smaller student pinned against a car and were giving him a tough time. This wasn’t right he thought as he walked to this group.

“What is going on here,” he said which got their attention.

“Nothing,” one of the older students said.

“How about the three of you getting your butts to school,” and pointing to the younger student he told him to stay here.

After these three walked away giving periodic glances back over their shoulders, Mark asked this student for his name and what was going on.

“I’m Jason Korczak and those three always give me a tough time because I get better marks than they do in class. They always want to copy my homework because they don’t do theirs.”

“You should report them.”

“Oh no, if I did that then they really would give me a tough time.”

Mark told Jason he needs to be going or he would be late for class.

Mark enjoyed teaching at Truman because he looked forward to having lunch there. That was because he was now being joined at lunch by Jill Brennan who he had come to know was a very nice person. He thought her husband was a lucky guy. They just talked about everything in general and made a conscious effort not to discuss politics or religion which usually are hot-button topics. He was disappointed when the lunch period ended.

In teaching his last class of the day he had the three football players he had spent extra time with the prior time he taught here. An idea came to his mind that when the class was over he asked to speak to them.

He told them of what he witnessed this morning of the tough time three of the students were giving Jason Korczak. He reminded them that they told Mark if they could ever do anything for him all he needed to do was to ask.

“There is something you can do for me. I just don’t want to see Jason being harassed by these kids. School should be a place you want to come to learn and not dread being here because of being harassed. I am not asking you to engage in anything physical with these three students but I am sure if you were just to mention to these three that you don’t take kindly to them for bothering your friend Jason the problem would be solved.”

Brian Spooner who later Mark learned was the football team’s captain said, “Let me assure you teach, that the problem will be solved. The whole team will see Jason is not bothered.”

Again Mark had that good feeling he gets when he helps a person.

Mark had a thought about how he could be more efficient in selling energy units. He composed an ad that he placed in a local newspaper about the advantages of purchasing an energy unit. He had cleared doing this with JG Electronics. Mark paid the bill for the cost of the ad.

It turned out this was a good idea as it generated interest in purchasing energy units. All those who expressed interest when they phoned, Mark spoke with. He had to turn some of them down because of where they live, regulations, or because they didn’t own enough land to have a unit. The bottom line however was that Mark was now averaging over two sales a week. While JG Electronics appreciated the business they asked him to not increase his sales anymore as they couldn’t keep current with the orders and they didn’t want to hire more people at this time. They said they would add to the staff in the future. That was fine with Mark as he could space out his sales and the installation time of these energy units which would give him more free time. The amount of his compensation was increasing nicely.

It was about two months after he had discussed trial techniques, with Doris Montgomery when Mark received a phone call with an area code he didn’t recognize.

Answering the call he heard, “Mark Freeman, I am Lawrence Williams. I am the managing attorney for Cooper and Williams, a law firm here in Dallas.”

“Yes sir, what can I do for you?”

“I was talking to a friend of mine from law school, George Montgomery and he mentioned a problem he had with his daughter that you solved with her being more successful as a trial attorney. In a way, I have a similar and maybe not so similar problem that maybe you can help solve.”

“What’s the problem?”

“My niece Marci Williams works for us and has started to try cases. Her success in the courtroom leaves room for improvement which I understand is what George’s problem was. The dissimilar part of this problem is that Marci does not take well to any criticism as she is a very headstrong individual. She however is a very intelligent young lady. Some would say she is book smart and not street smart. She finished number two in her law school class at SMU and was very disappointed when she was beaten out by Gloria Mendez. Mendez you may know is now campaigning to be a U.S. Congressperson.”

“At any rate, Marci is scheduled to go to trial on a case this Tuesday. It could be a three or four-day trial. I would like to hire you to come up here to monitor the trial and give her instructions on how to improve her performance. I am aware of what your fee is for doing this and I will also include expenses. Can you do this?”

“I can but I do require that you inform Marci that I will be there and she is expected to cooperate with me.”

“I will do that and thank you.”

Mark now blocked out his availability for substitute teaching and then made a reservation at a hotel in Dallas. He thought about what he could do in Dallas when he had some free time and remembered that Gloria was not that far away. He gave her a call to tell her of his coming there.