I was struggling to juggle two part-time jobs and making it on time to the lecture hall. Still a dreamer then, I was young and filled with big dreams of championing for the cause of the poor. Justice should be made available to all, regardless of their means and backgrounds. A modern day legal Robin Hood. I met a wonderful adult student, sharing a similar aspiration like mine, only, she was struggling to balance her family life and a full time secretarial job. The road towards the coveted treasure trove at the end of the rainbow was a hard and bumpy one.
For those of us that made it till the end, it was not a reward of pride and recognition that awaited us. The brief moment of joy, and pride over accomplishing a dream, was a short-live affair and would not last very long after the overstated graduation ceremony. Reality would soon put its foot down. The kick to the ass would jolt any dreamer out of his idealistic daydream.
"Hi Beck. Congrats on your promo to senior partner in your law firm."
"Thanks, David. Heard you're not doing so bad yourself."
"News travel fast in this powerhouse city we live in. I haven't really accept the VP position."
"Why not?"
"That's what I'm calling you about."
"This sound serious and ominous," teased Rebecca. "Do carry on."
"Remember those dreams we use to share? Way back during the first year we were doing our law degree?" asked David.
"Yes," replied Rebecca. "We promise to become the best among our peers and champion for the poor and financially unable so that justice can be made affordable to all. A modern day Robin Hood and Lady Marion, correct."
"Correct," agreed David. "We've fulfil the first part. I'm not confident about the second part."
"Why don't you consider Pro Bono?"
"I've taken some cases on. Somehow, it still doesn't feel like 'One for all. All for one."
"I know exactly how you feel," confided Rebecca. "I'd recently took on several cases which I wasn't really too keen on. The firm accepts them base not on the legitimacy of clients' claims. It was done purely for money."
"My firm practices that too. The partners of the firm said we need that to cover the overheads."
"Typical."
"Indeed."
"Things have gotten to a point, whereby, money is not everthing. What'd become of our ingretrity?"
"I ask myself the same question everynight. Still haven't quite nail an answer for that. The closest I come to admitting is that I'm a coward and a selfish no-gooder."
"Same conclusion here. I did something I wasn't especially proud of last week."
"On yourself and to your client."
"Both."
"What did you do?"
"I have a case fixed."
"For settlement?"
"Of a sort. I have the Defendent's case thrown out by manipulating a weakness in the court procedure. My frank opinion from the bundles of documents exchanged was that she'd a legit case against him. The court ruled it her burden to pay for the cost. Now I've live with the guilty conscience, haunted by the knowledge of what I've done."
"I know the feeling," sympathised Rebecca. "We're a real powerhouse of disillusion. We spent years of our lives pursuing a career we thought would provide justice for the public. Yet, when it comes to deliverance of true justice, we're nothing but the public worst schemers, manipulating everything for our own end desire. We're no modern Lady Marion and Robin Hood. We're no better than that scum that robbed England and taxed all the Commoners dry."
The End.
"
