The next day Cynthia stayed home for the first time in a long while, not immediately knowing what to do with her time, while Roger left for work. He kissed her goodbye and left. On the way to work, he took a detour to the Houston Public Library. Needing something to jog his imagination, he went there looking for a book of baby names. Once he found one he liked, he checked it out and left for work.
His ever-curious co-worker, Dean, greeted him when he entered the hospital legal office. "Hey Roger. Coming in a little late, aren't you?"
He looked at the clock on the wall, "I guess so."
"Well, I've been working on the project to acquire the extra property for future expansion on the south side of Bellaire Blvd. Care to join me?" Dean asked.
"Sure. I'll be back in a minute," he replied as he headed toward his office. Once there, he draped his jacket over the back of his chair and put the book of baby names on his desk. He planned to look through it over lunch. He returned to work with Dean.
"Where were you this morning?" Dean asked.
"At the library," Roger said, sitting down with a pen and a clipboard.
"The law library?" Dean asked.
"No. The public library," Roger replied.
"Had some overdue books?" Dean asked.
Roger, a little perturbed, replied, "You sure are curious this morning. Are you bored or something?" Dean was an annoying sort of coworker who Roger was polite to at work but did not extend their relationship into his social circle.
"Yeah. A little. These real estate acquisitions are boring."
"Well, I'm not sure how I can entertain you with my library trips," Roger quipped.
"You'd be amazed," Dean replied.
"If you must know, I stopped to pick up a book of baby names," Roger replied.
"Oh? No Roger Jr.?" Dean asked.
"No. And, Cynthia might have a girl," Roger replied.
"Good point," Dean said. "It has to be exciting….becoming a father, I mean."
"It is."
"I don't think I'll ever know. I'm 34 and I haven't met a girl who can put up with me," Dean said.
Roger was struck by a glimpse of Dean's humanity, but nonetheless thought to himself, perhaps if you weren't such a creep, you might have someone.
Out loud, he said, "You will. There's someone out there for everyone."
Dean replied, "You're such a Pollyanna, Parsons."
"Maybe," Roger said.
"Do you have any names in mind yet?" Dean asked.
"Not really. We just have the middle names picked out," Roger replied.
"Oh?"
"Yes. If it's a girl, her middle name will be my mother's name, and if it's a boy, his middle name will be Cynthia's father's name."
"Are you going to let the grandparents know ahead of time, or surprise them with the names?" Dean asked.
"We haven't talked about it yet," Roger replied.
Marcus Phillips entered the legal office. He was the supervisor of the legal team. "What are you two up to?"
"We were just talking, but we're about to dig into this real estate acquisition on Bellaire," Roger replied.
"Good," Marcus said, pulling up a chair. "So, Parsons, have you gotten any suspicious packages lately?"
Surprised, Roger replied, "Why, yes. We got a baby crib yesterday. Was that from you?"
Dean looked at Marcus when Marcus replied, "Actually, it's from the whole office. We took up a collection."
Roger, obviously moved, replied in a quiet tone, "That was an incredibly generous gesture. Thank you so much. Cynthia thanks you."
"Nonsense. You deserve it. You do amazing work here and we're all glad you're going to be a father. That child is truly going to be one lucky kid," Marcus replied.
"Well, thank you again, anyway. It's really nice."
"You're welcome," Marcus continued, "Now, let's get down to brass tacks. What's been done on this acquisition?"
Dean replied, "I've been looking into jurisdictional building laws, and here's what I came up with." He handed Marcus a file and continued, "From what I see, it shouldn't be too cumbersome to build on the spot."
"I've been researching the title history of the land and there doesn't seem to be any existing liens or overdue taxes," Roger said.
"I know that the property owner is willing to sell, so that shouldn't be an issue," Marcus said while looking through Dean's file.
"I think we should recommend to the hospital board that a geologic survey of the land be done before any deals are discussed," Roger said.
"I agree," Marcus said. "Dean, I'd like you to write a report based on this information. Put it in language the board can understand."
"You bet."
Marcus continued, "Roger, I'd like you to put all of the property documents together in one place and write a summary report for the board as well. Be sure to put your recommendation for a land survey in your summary."
"Okay," Roger said.
"We have something else to work on today, so I'll just make the deadline for this property stuff Friday at Noon, so it's ready for the Monday Board of Trustees meeting," Marcus said.
"What's up, Phillips?" Dean asked.
"Fortunately, it's a rare occasion, but we have a medical malpractice lawsuit on our hands."
"Really?" Dean asked, seemingly energized.
Roger sighed quietly and leaned back in his chair. Most of the time, he enjoyed his work with the hospital even though it could be boring at times, but medical malpractice suits weren't his kind of excitement. He knew his job was to defend the hospital at all costs even when it seemed apparent to him that a patient had a valid complaint. The plaintiff generally lost due to being outgunned by the hospital legal team, which seemed unfair to him and left a bad taste in his mouth, as a participant.
"What's going on," Roger asked.
"Well, we have a litigant who claims that his elderly mother died in surgery because the surgeon was drunk, "Marcus replied.
"Was he?" Roger asked.
"We're going to have to find that out. It's a pretty serious allegation and the litigant, being a person of means, has already gotten a duo of the best lawyers in Houston. They've already been questioning hospital staff, so we really need to move on this. It may be that this doctor is innocent, but if he was drunk and they prove it, we're going to have to negotiate a settlement. This could take up our time for a while, so we need to wrap up this real estate acquisition." Marcus continued, "While you two are working on that today, I'm going to meet with some hospital administrators and the doctor in question."
"Okay," Roger said.
"If you two can get these reports done before Friday, that would be even better," Marcus said.
"I'm on it," replied Dean.
The men went to their separate offices and worked until lunch when Marcus and Dean left to go to the hospital cafeteria for lunch and Roger stayed behind to eat lunch at his desk. His office was tastefully decorated with a desk and two arm chairs with deep brick red fabric upholstery facing his desk. The walls were painted a light warm brown and there was a large, six foot wide bookshelf with a variety of legal books. He had some plants in his window and across from his desk on the wall was a print of Norman Rockwell's 1927 painting, The Law Student. He ate his sandwich while leafing through the book of baby names. There must have been tens of thousands of names. He went to the 'R' names for boys. There were a lot of 'R' names to be sure, but he didn't really know which resonated with him for a potential son. He put the book down and looked out the window and daydreamed while finishing his lunch.
Roger decided that since he was such a movie buff, he would come up with 'R' names of some of his favorite actors. He took out a notepad and started jotting down some names off the top of his head. He wrote down "Raymond" for Raymond Massey from Abe Lincoln in Illinois, "Ronald" for Ronald Colman from Random Harvest, and "Richard" for Richard Burton. He realized that some surnames make good boy names and he jotted down "Randolph" for Jane Randolph of Cat People, who he liked because she reminded him of a lighter haired version of Cynthia. Then he wrote down "Russell" for Jane Russell from The Outlaw, well, because….