"More Cement, More Everything!"
By Sopranos Blueprint
Meadow's Dream - A Mix of "Meadowlands" and "The Blue Comet"
Doctor: When we had to stop at the end of last session, you were about to start talking about your father’s friend asking you for help with his property issue. This was while you were still working at Grubman, Grubman, & Curcio, right? Why don’t we pick up from there?
Meadow Helps Her Uncle
Meadow: Okay, well, I met up with my father’s friend again. Let’s just call him my uncle.
(Uncle Paulie speaking here): There are just some things money can’t buy, end of story! This is the only real connection to them that I’ve got left. What kind of snake sells out their family like that?!
Doctor: So, when your uncle was telling you this, what did you recommend?
Meadow: Well, never underestimate the lengths some people will go when they’re not getting what they want. Particularly when they have deep pockets and millions of dollars are at stake. In this case, it means having their own lawyers, and guess which firm they hired?
(DRUMROLL)Â
Grubman, Grubman, & Curcio, of course!
Doctor: Did your boss know what was going on or that you were helping this man on the other side?
Meadow: Well, it wasn’t something where I was like, his official attorney on the record. It was more like informal advice. I guess he’s always been like an uncle to me.
Doctor: And how long was it before your firm found out about the advice you were giving to your uh, uncle?
Meadow: They never found out anything for sure. The closest I ever came to getting caught was when Patrick came home early one day and saw Paulie and me chatting in the backyard. I mean, my uncle.
Doctor: Was Patrick still working at Grubman, Grubman, & Curcio at the time?
Meadow: No, by that point he was working somewhere else doing personal injury work. But he’s also Bitcoin and all that stuff.
Doctor: So, tell me more about your relationship with your husband.Â
Meadow: Are we happy, you mean?
Doctor: I know you said you were engaged before but that things didn’t work out?
Meadow: It’s kind of hard to explain, but the guy that I was engaged to, Finn, at a certain point he started just, like, slamming my family.
Sometimes, We’re All Hypocrites
Everyone’s a hypocrite, but I accept that. I just wish other people would, too. Like, take my ex, Finn. when he lectured me about my father and his friends taking justice into their own hands when they found out a guy they were working with was gay, Finn’s giving me all this sh*t, but meanwhile, he’s the one who went and told them in the first place, after he told me. (What I left out here for the doctor is that I slipped and said something, too. (See, told ya. We’re all hypocrites.)Â
Meadow Soprano and Patrick Parisi - A Match Made in Heaven?
(Meadow continues on) But with Patrick, it was just, easy. And safe. He understood how things worked. There wasn’t the big Inquisition about what my father did for a living and if I was worried my family was going to get caught up in violence.
Doctor: But then something changed on that day that he saw you talking to your uncle?
Meadow: To this day, I don’t know if Patrick told them about what was going on. But I knew something was different after that in the office. I can sense when something’s off, it’s just this intuition I have.
Doctor: Did anyone at your office ever speak to you about it or confront you?
Meadow: Not directly, but whenever they talked about anything related to that, they made sure I wasn’t there.
Doctor: So, you felt like there was a possibility that Patrick ratted on you?
Meadow: Well, it sucks to say it, but yeah.
Doctor: And I know you said when you ran into your uncle at the coffee shop, that was about a year ago. So, at this point when Patrick saw you, when was that approximately?
Meadow: That was about seven months ago.
Doctor: Okay, I see. And then a few weeks ago is when you got let go?
Meadow: Correct.
"More Cement, More Everything!"
Doctor: Besides this thing with your uncle, were there any similar issues that came up related to your work?
Meadow: No, not really. but from then on I just felt like I always had eyes on me like I was under investigation or something. Like walking on eggshells but no one else sees the eggs, or they pretend not to anyway.
Doctor: So, what ended up happening with your uncle’s home and the development? Was there any official hearing on the issue?
A Little Problem With More Cement, More Everything!
Meadow: Well, turns out that land’s not good anyway. Close by where other construction was already underway, it was discovered that the soil was contaminated with asbestos and some other toxins. Another one of my father’s old friends used to say, “More cement, more everything! I guess that includes toxins, too.
Doctor: And your new office space, where was that again?
Meadow: The Bada Bing.
Doctor: And when you told your uncle about the asbestos, how did he react?
Meadow: He said, “I feel like I’ve been stabbed in the heart! If I woulda known about this sh*t, I woulda high-tailed it outta there a long time ago! How much more betrayal can I take?”
Doctor: And where did he go?
Paulie Checks in
Meadow: He’s been staying in the guest house. When the whole asbestos thing happened, that was when things blew up and the whole development thing became moot. So I told him he could stay with us for a bit. Patrick wasn’t too happy. Sometimes I think he forgets where he comes from. Patsy, my father-in-law, used to be a business associate of my father’s. But now Patrick claims his father “has retired.”
(flashback to conversation with Patrick about Paulie staying there temporarily)
“Patrick, are you really questioning me right now? Would you like me to write you a memo? He’s family. When your family needs you, you don’t start analyzing the logistics and diving into all the scenarios. You just help, whatever “help” means at that moment. Since when have you asked so many questions?”
(Back to present conversation with the doctor)
Meadow: He’s going to be leaving soon, anyway.
