I schedule a call to The Lawyer on the Thursday before arbitration. I tell him it’s all lies in The Departed’s papers; he says it’s all plain enough and doesn’t matter anyway. Bring the papers if you want, he says, but it doesn’t matter, really.
What does matter, he says, is that you keep your cool.
I’m all upset. I want to be that calm person, cool and collected and rational; I want the arbitrator to think to himself, such poise and elegance in such stressful circumstances.
The Lawyer reminds me I have not been that person on several occasions; he reassures me that I can be that person, and that’s what I need to do. I’m telling you this as your lawyer and your friend, he says.
It’s going to be okay, he tells me. Just keep your cool.
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