Week Seven, Part 2 - Think Like A Lawyer

On the home front, I work to spend time with Steph and Lauren. It makes Terri happy and increases the “family feeling” in our ten-month-old marriage. My impulse, however, is always to escape to the basement and study.

While Terri cooks supper, I sit down on the couch and let Lauren "teach me" whatever she learned in school. She walks back and forth in front of the fireplace. Click. Click. Click. She loves the sound of her mom’s high heals.

“This is how we make the letter ‘H’ at Community Baptist,” Lauren says, imitating her kindergarten teacher.

During supper, Terri raises the issue of the Simpson verdict. She wonders about Nicole’s children. “Who will they live with?”

“Probably O.J." I say. "He's the biological."

Terri frowns at me. “Here’s a good way to get the kids back – kill your ex-wife!”

I try to lighten the mood. “Didja hear O.J. proposed to his girlfriend, Paula Barbieri? He’s gonna take another stab at marriage.”

Stephie at least thinks I'm funny and adds a one-liner of her own: “Better drink milk, cause O.J. kills.” She laughs so hard that her shoulders shake.

Lauren shouts out, “Kill all the lawyers,” her favorite line from “Hook.”

When the girls quiet down, Terri asks what they’re saying about O.J. at Notre Dame Law School.

I give her Dean Link’s statement about “presume he’s the most likely to have done it.”

“No,” she says, “Let’s be blunt – he killed two people in cold blood.”

“Come now!” I say, more out of lawyerly instinct than conviction. “No weapon, no eyewitness. You’re almost at reasonable doubt right there.”

“Yesterday you said the physical evidence against O.J. was overwhelming!”

Terri’s right and I laugh. “To think like a lawyer, one must learn to argue either side with equal facility.”

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