The Unknown Chapter One

by Amr Elrafei

It's 5:00AM, Dan is already wide awake. Full of excitement he grabs his cap and gown, running out of his house, gets in his SUV and drives to campus.

In the old dorm building on campus, Sam is still asleep in his room, his bag packed, his phone laying on his chest, plugged in to an old and tethered charger cord, his cap and gown on the chair next to the bed, he makes a snoring sound. Dan walking down the hallway sees a bright light coming from Sam's room, he runs to the door and knocks. His phone alarm going off, door knocking, Sam gets out of bed and opens the door. Good morning, both speaking at once, congratulation again together, as they both Crack a smile and hug. It's still quite in this little town and as daylight approaches you can hear the birds chirping outside.

Why aren't you ready, today is our big day, are you still wanting to have breakfast this morning before the graduation? Yes, I am sorry, I am just a little nervous about moving to the big city today, but no worries I will be ready in no time. After breakfast, driving Back to campus for the ceremony, both were very thankful for the support they gave each other allowing the two of them to graduate from one of the best law schools in the country. At the graduation as they walk up to the podium and get their diplomas, you can see Dan's parents standing in the background, they congratulate both Kids and as Mrs Smith walks off to the car, Mr Smith talks with Sam again about working with he and Dan in the family law firm. Thank you so much for the offer sir, but I am really looking forward to starting my new job at the public defender office, and your family has already been so supportive and helpful to me, and I am hoping this new job will allow me to do the same for others who need help, plus I believe it's going to be a great way for me to learn how to navigate my way around the big city as I begin my new life there for the first-time.

Riding to the city in Dan's SUV, you can see the city skyline approaching and all lit up. My parents are taking us to Romeos tonight to celebrate, it's one of the best restaurants in town, and then the two of us can go out afterwards if you like, I will show you a little bit of the city's night live. Sounds great as long as we don't stay out late, I talked to miss White today, she owns the building that I am moving in to tomorrow and she told me to meet her at 9:00 AM to get the keys to the apartment. In the restaurant you can see a lot of the who's who in town, as they walk to their table Mr Smith waves, good evening your honor. This is Judge Henry, I am sure you both will see a lot of him in the courtroom. As they walk by the judge's table Sam hears the judge saying to his dinner guest I will take care of that for you on Monday Zach. The next morning at the Smith house breakfast table, Sam thanked the Smiths again for everything as he and Dan head out to meet Miss White.

Pulling up to the old two story run down building, are you sure you want to move in this place? It's the only thing I can afford to live in and with no car, I can walk to the court house and the public defender office from here. Standing outside waiting was Miss White, she points at one the apartments on the first floor hands Sam the key, this will be your apartment, let me show you around. I am sorry about the condition of the place but I am trying to get things fixed a little bit at a time, you have one working outlet in the bedroom, and I hope to get the air-conditioner fixed as soon as possible, I live in the apartment next to you and if you need anything just let me know. Keeping a positive attitude, Sam spends the rest of the weekend getting settled in, familiarizing himself with his surroundings and getting to meet some of his neighbors in the building.

On Monday Sam gets to work and meets his office manager Mr Ross. This will be your office and I have training set up for you the next two weeks before we can assign you any cases of your own. after meeting with a couple of co workers and getting some information on his training, Sam exited with the opportunity gets done for the day and starts his short walk home. As he gets home he finds Miss White standind outside with a distressed look on her face. What's wrong? I got a visit from a city inspector today and he informed me that in two days they will have an inspector stop by to see if this building is in standard living condition and if not they will force me to evict all the tenants and fix the building or sell it and I can't afford to fix it or sell it. Why not take out a loan? I can't, because when my husband got sick before he passed the medical bills got to be so much and we were forced to take out a loan then to pay them off, and if I sell the building now in it's current condition I wouldn't have any money left to afford getting a place for me to live yet alone worring about everyone that lives in the building now, where would they go? Well when I go to work tomorrow I will speek with my boss Mr Ross and see if our office can do anything to help in this situation.

Sam goes to bed that night thinking about the situation and hoping that he can convince Mr Ross to take her case. In the morning a bright light is seen coming from Sam's room, and moments later a similar light appears in Ross's room. Sam's alarm goes off, anxious to speek to Ross about his landlord situation, he quickly gets ready and runs off to work. When he gets to work he talks with Ross and convinces him to take on the case by going to court and asking for a two week extension to allow his landlord time to fix the apartment building, Ross goes to court and is given a court hearing the next morning to present the case to the residing judge, when he gets back to the office he lets Sam know that judge Henry will hear the case tomorrow morning. When he gets home that evening Sam informs Miss White about the update in the case and assures her that he is doing all he can to get the judge to approve the extension. Again as Sam goes to sleep that night all he can think about is going to court the next day and convincing the judge to aprove the extention. In the early morning hours with Sam still asleep we see the bright light again coming from his room and moments later a similar light in judge Henry's room. Sam wakes up full of energy and again rushes into work, when he gets to the office Ross informs him that he will be going with him to court and presenting the case to judge Henry himself due to his passion and energy about the case plus it would be a good experience for his training as well.

Nervous for being in the court room for the first time, sam gathers himself and his thoughts and start to present his case for the two week extention, when he was finished, a team of lawyers hired by Zacks development Corp were also given a chance to present their case, zacks Corp owns the building next door to Miss White, and they claim that her building condition is affecting the value of their building, and the amount of rent that they can ask for from tenants. After both sides presented their case , and to the disbelieve of Zacks Corp lawyers, judge Henry found in favor of Sam, siting that a two week extention to give Miss White a chance to fix her building was a reasonable request. Sam thanked the judge and Mr Ross for helping in the case, and full of joy he runs back home to give Miss White and all the tenants the good news. Full of confidence in himself and the tenants, Sam gets some pizza and invites all of them over to discuss a plan on how to help Miss White and themselves to get the building fixed. They all agree that over the next two weeks they will help in their spare time to do repairs, painting, cleaning, and Miss White agreed if it works she will help with the rent rate to compensate for their efforts. As everyone starts to work on the building Sam goes to bed every night hoping that they can get the work done, and in some of the nights over the next two weeks, the bright light would appear out of Sam's room, and as everyone worked on fixing the cosmetic stuff that they can fix a lot of the electrical and mechanical issues were being fixed as well, no one knew who did it, but full of hope Sam and the tenants beleived that other good Samaritans from the neighborhood must be helping out in secrecy, as electrical, outlets, AC units, hotwater heaters were all getting fixed as well.

After the two week period was over the city inspector showed up, and even so he found a few faulty items, it was not enough to shut the building down. So for now Miss White gets to keep her building, the tenants get a break on their rent and Sam gets to celebrate a win at work and living in the big city.


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