Chapter 16

Norbert N.

It's Sunday evening in April 2022 and the lawyer is on his way to his gym on G. Straße in the north of Essen.

He has made a habit of getting out of the car as soon as he parks it and walking briskly towards the studio (Chapter 17).

The week is packed with sporting events, outdoor workouts, gym sessions, court appearances and office assignments. Various negative behavioral patterns (a life in the"hamster wheel") have long since crept back in through the back door. As far as possible, there have been no more time-outs recently. The cell phone stays on all the time and is not even switched off at lunch.

He decides not to change these - albeit negative - new/old attitudes, because what happens when the hamster stops running in its wheel?

Exactly. His own shit falls on his head. So onwards and upwards.

In the studio, he looks forward to using the leg press and two machines to strengthen his back muscles.

He is loading the leg press with 20 kg plates when an inner hand lands with a crash between his shoulder blades. A voice from behind:"Listen, you're a lawyer, aren't you?"

He turns around slowly. Behind him, a mountain of a guy, upper arms like lampposts. Tattoos from top to bottom, bald, but warm, friendly eyes.

"Yes, but not really now," replies the lawyer.

"Never mind, it'll only take a minute." He gets straight to the point. He explains that he runs a so-called distribution company for insolvency goods and has 400 customers and a lot of outstanding debts.

He speaks in a friendly, chummy manner, immediately lapses into"du" - which, however, is so common in this gym - and also shows a rather distant demeanor in other respects, including his continuous patting on the back, with which he garnishes his request as to what the legal representation of his company should look like.

"Team up with me. You can become filthy rich by my side ..."

For the time being, both remain so that the training colleague who introduced himself as Norbert N. wants to come to the o