Encounter

Chapter Seven

Nathan willows was a great lawyer and a well-respected one at Harrison's solicitors. He was a well-liked person amongst his colleagues and got on well with everyone. Nathan was a defence lawyer and most of his clients ended up being local thieves or burglars, someone had to defend them even if they had done the crime. He had always found that being a defence lawyer always paid better.

Nathan on occasions, would take on family court cases and also work-related lawsuits. His most recent case had been an interesting one, but he had won the case as he so often did. He had won on behalf of a young local woman. She was a care worker whose employers had been breaching the working time directive and the management had been bullying the poor girl.

If there was anything that Nathan hated more, it was people being bullied at work and workplaces not following procedures and laws set out to protect workers. The tribunal had gone ahead and Nathan as always had been on fire, showing the judge the law surrounding the working time directive and its documents and how the employer had been breaching those directives and how they had been pushing the worker to work outside those regulated hours. The young girl's case was won and she received a healthy amount of compensation and her job was retained.

Nathan sat at his desk in his large executive black leather chair. He gazed up at the large digital clock hanging on the far wall of his office. His office was large and was one of the largest in the firm. He had a large dark walnut desk with an expensive apple Macintosh computer. On the walls, other than the clock, he had hung up some expensive artwork, not that he liked art, but it gave the office a nice professional look.

It was only Fifteen minutes until he could pack up his briefcase and go home to Sarah. He turned around laying back in his chair, staring out the window at the world below. It was a surprisingly hot day, especially since it hadn't been that long since the massive amounts of fallout storms that the welsh coast had been subjected to.

He could see the streets below, swarming with people like little ants swarming around their nests. The town was a well-known tourist attraction for the elderly. It was a seaside town and offered beautiful views of the bay and nice local shops. Many of the locals, however, would be frustrated by a large amount of traffic invading the small town, causing massive delays getting in and out.

He watched as couples sat on the number of wooden benches situated along the prom overlooking the sea and the old pier. They sat there eating chips from a cone of a newspaper which they had bought from the local five-star fish and chip shop while enjoying the beautiful views. Nathan laughed, as he watched a brave seagull land on the shoulders of a rather large built middle-aged man eating what looked like a burger.

The seagull naughtily took the burger right out of the man's hands and flew away with it. He continued to snicker as the man stood up and appeared to be screaming up at the seagull as it flew away like it could understand him. He soon, however, returned back to the burger van and bought himself another.

Nathan began to think to himself as he gazed out, he thought about Sarah being back at home all alone. What a tough couple of weeks she had, had. And she was still suffering from the crash. He thought back to the morning's events: finding the bed covered in sweat, and the tale of the nightmare that she had, had that night.

He had been thinking about that nightmare all day. It sounded to him that the dream was some sort of after effect of the experience of being in the crash. This brought him round to thoughts of his poor old mother. It has not been long his mother who was aged sixty-seven had been sent to a dementia care home which was not far from where they lived. She often said she had been seeing things that weren't really there and her memory had completely gone.

Before being placed into the care home, his mother had lived alone. Her husband, Nathan's father had died of cancer some years ago. Due to her condition, she had completely forgotten about her husband's death and believed heart and soul that he was still with her. She had begun contacting the local police, reporting that her husband was missing as she could not find him anywhere in the house.

Nathan remembered all too well, the numerous calls the police had made to him over the past few months, the last being just before Nathan decided it was time to send her to the home.

"Hello."

"Mr Willows?" a strong male voice asked.

"Speaking," Nathan replied. "Who's calling?"

"It's Sergeant Baldwin from Conwy Police control room. I'm sorry to call you at home, but we have had another call from you mother Mrs Willows."

"Oh my god, I am so, so sorry. What has she reported today?" Nathan asked.

"The usual I am afraid sir; she has tried to report your late father disappearance," The Sergeant replied.

"Sergeant, I really do apologise. I will go and see her now."

"I have dispatched a local community support officer who knows her well, just to pop round and check she is ok," Sergeant Baldwin started. "However Mr Willows, I think it would be best that you have a serious discussion with the local social services, your mother needs to be cared for twenty-four hours a day. I think it is best that she be placed in a care home," Sergeant Baldwin ended softly.

Nathan had been thinking about doing that for some time, however, he never had the stomach to do it to his mother. She loved living in her house, she had lived in it most of her life. She had given birth to her children in that house. But now, it was time enough was enough. "Sergeant, I will speak with social services this week, and please send my thanks to the community support officer and I thank you in the control room for dealing with her calls so professionally."

"Just doing our job sir, enjoy the rest of your evening."

Nathan looked out across the bay, seeing small oil ships sailing past, going toward foreign shores. He felt slightly down by the thoughts about his mother and how his wife was going through some rough times. He looked up at the clock and it was time to go home. He pulled on his suit jacket and smiled to himself. He would go to the local flouriest on the way home and pick up a beautiful bouquet of flowers, maybe they would cheer Sarah up. He would also get some flowers for his mum, and go and see her on his way home.