A few months ago I received a call from an out of town attorney that came in on a referral – I love referrals. She asked if I would be available to handle a service on the Friday or Saturday to follow. When I assured her that would be no problem, she explained that she and her client had been trying to serve a man for many of months, but as a carnival worker he was difficult to catch up to.
The attorney informed me that his carnival was due to be in Austin the following week, and this may be the last realistic attempt to get him served, and that there was a lot at stake in the case and we couldn’t afford to miss. I assured her I was up to the job. She was able to provide me the name of the carnival manager and a photograph, but little else.
When I got to the carnival entrance that Friday, I asked for the carnival manager by name. The old man in the booth had a puzzled look on his face and paused. “Oh, you mean Boss Man.” He kind of pointed back over his shoulder with some vague directions. A couple of more questions along the way to Boss Man’s office got me where I was going. It was a small accumulations of trailers surrounded by carnival booths and rides.
There were a few men standing around while another was counting coins. I approached the one with the radio in his hand.
“Are you Boss Man?”
“No”, he replied. “What do you need?”
“I’d like to speak with Boss Man, if you can get him.”
“He’s busy. What do you need?”
“I have some paper work from the Galveston County Courts that I need to deliver to one of your employees.”
He stared at me for a long minute, then called into the radio over the din of the coin counter as he walked away from me. Interestingly, the noise from the coin counting machine stopped right before radio guy loudly says, “There’s a guy here with an arrest warrant for someone.”
One quick moment later, radio guy, coin counter man and the other three or four that were standing around chatting disappeared. I mean – best I could tell – literally disappeared, as in "X-Files". They were there, and then they weren’t. I didn’t even have time to explain it wasn’t an arrest warrant. There was no one to explain to. Gone.
Boss Man arrived a few minutes later, and was quite relieved that my visit wasn’t going to mess up the work schedule for his weekend. He located our target for the citation and had him there within about 20 minutes. The paperwork was delivered without complications, and my client and her client were both relieved that they were now able to move forward in their quest for the justice they sought.
I had a date for Chuy's coming up, so skipped the rides and funnel cakes, and made the walk out to search for my car in the big parking lot.
The attorney informed me that his carnival was due to be in Austin the following week, and this may be the last realistic attempt to get him served, and that there was a lot at stake in the case and we couldn’t afford to miss. I assured her I was up to the job. She was able to provide me the name of the carnival manager and a photograph, but little else.
When I got to the carnival entrance that Friday, I asked for the carnival manager by name. The old man in the booth had a puzzled look on his face and paused. “Oh, you mean Boss Man.” He kind of pointed back over his shoulder with some vague directions. A couple of more questions along the way to Boss Man’s office got me where I was going. It was a small accumulations of trailers surrounded by carnival booths and rides.
There were a few men standing around while another was counting coins. I approached the one with the radio in his hand.
“Are you Boss Man?”
“No”, he replied. “What do you need?”
“I’d like to speak with Boss Man, if you can get him.”
“He’s busy. What do you need?”
“I have some paper work from the Galveston County Courts that I need to deliver to one of your employees.”
He stared at me for a long minute, then called into the radio over the din of the coin counter as he walked away from me. Interestingly, the noise from the coin counting machine stopped right before radio guy loudly says, “There’s a guy here with an arrest warrant for someone.”
One quick moment later, radio guy, coin counter man and the other three or four that were standing around chatting disappeared. I mean – best I could tell – literally disappeared, as in "X-Files". They were there, and then they weren’t. I didn’t even have time to explain it wasn’t an arrest warrant. There was no one to explain to. Gone.
Boss Man arrived a few minutes later, and was quite relieved that my visit wasn’t going to mess up the work schedule for his weekend. He located our target for the citation and had him there within about 20 minutes. The paperwork was delivered without complications, and my client and her client were both relieved that they were now able to move forward in their quest for the justice they sought.
I had a date for Chuy's coming up, so skipped the rides and funnel cakes, and made the walk out to search for my car in the big parking lot.