The Closing Argument

Terrence fiddled around with his papers; he had been taken by surprise as the criminal he was prosecuting had barged into his office. The guy; Snake Graves was guilty and Terrence’s client was adamant about sending him to jail and was paying Terrence a handsome fee to make sure he went down.  The young punk had been arrested numerous times for a variety of minor offences, but this time it just happened that he stole the wallet of a very important businessman who was pushing for the harshest of sentences. Snake was now in front of Terrence but he wasn’t angry or remorseful in fact it seemed like he didn’t have a care in the world even though after tomorrow he could be spending ten years in prison. Snake would be in his late thirties when he finally would be free, his youth wasted in a cell yet he stood with a cocky arrogance in front of Terrence, waiting for the lawyer to speak. Terrence had only known the man for a few days but he already had a deep loathing for him. The thug was dressed inappropriately, had tattoos and piercings and didn’t seem to care about anything, not even himself. Terrence hated people who had all the ridiculous ink and metal across their body, it was as if they had to be the centre of attention, they had to be different and they couldn’t just fit into society. It was probably the reason why Terrence had become so interested in law, the order and structure was something Terrence enjoyed enforcing and why he hated people like the man in front of him. Snake had made his way in life by mooching off others mostly through crime or manipulation, unlike Terrence who had worked hard to be successful. Snake was everything Terrence despised and staring at the punk now Terrence was glad that a waste of space like him would be locked away. Terrence shuffled his papers again trying to hide his brutal, destructive and hateful closing argument that was sure to extinguish any hope left that this thug should be allowed to go free.