Review: Don't Let Anyone Harsh Your Mellow
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 2, 2013
The author poses an interesting question in his introduction to this fast paced short story of one days catastrophic events in the life of attorney Michael Mitchell.What is the difference between ANGER, WRATH,and RAGE?Is it a strong feeling feeling of annoyance, displeasure or hostility? Or is it all those feelings pushed to an extreme level,(WRATH.) Could it be WRATH compounded to violent uncontrollable anger or aggression associated with conflict arising from a particular situation (RAGE.)Michael Mitchell is divorced, an ex-alcoholic, working in a law firm for the young son of the deceased founder who he admired. His nemesis is the college roommate of the young boss. Mitchell is running late, gets a disturbing call from his ex-wife wanting money so her unemployed husband can take Mitchell's sons to an amusement park on the same weekend Mitchell had planned to take them to a Yankees base ball game.They end up arguing.Mitchell enters rush hour traffic and gets rear ended by an uninsured motorist who leaves the scene of the accident. He is late to work, gets chewed out by the young boss and is ordered to raise all his clients hourly rates $75 immediately.  Mitchell leaves his office to give the bad news to one of his long time elderly clients. He stops in at a bar to have a beer and gets harassed by a fat slob who taints his beer nd snags his pretzels. Michael leaves only to find his rental car smashed and his brief case stolen. The cop is late arriving and won't take a report. He loses his Yankee tickets , his laptop and his PDA and court documents. Then his ex-wife calls again to give him another phone beating over money. Finally, he gets a call from his secretary with more bad news. She just found that he is due in court in fifteen minutes on a Motion to Dismiss hearing. He needs to get there quickly but again he is late and gets a warning from the judge, He has no paper work and asks for a continuance. Instead gets a denial and the judge approves the Motion to dismiss causing his clients to threaten to sue Michael and his law firm for malpractice.Michael finds his car wedged in behind a Burrito truck and has to go up on the sidewalk to get back to his office. Once there he finds that he has no sour cream for his burrito. His secretary says that she only found the Notice of the hearing in her IN box just that morning. About that time the young boss and his friend are overheard discussing their plans to continue the harassment of Mitchell so that they can fire him for just cause over the Motion to Dismiss fiasco.How do you think Mitchell reacted considering the events of his day?The answer is in the ending which means you will enjoy reading this intriguing short story.I rate this 5 Star story.