—Oscar listen to me! They’ve settled your damages.

—But the hospital bills and what about the car, they . . .

—I’m not talking about your car. I’m talking about your immortal soul, now sit down. Harry called. You’ve been awarded all the profits on the motion picture The Blood in the Red White and Blue.

—But that’s, Christina that’s millions.

—That’s why they’re experts Oscar look, problem’s spelled out right here. The plaintiffs, that’s you, plaintiffs called no witnesses to rebut this testimony, and if their failure to do so was because of the commanding position of the defendants in the industry, they did not prove it. We must therefore assume that the testimony represents the best opinion of the calling but look, you’ve still got an advantage under the Copyright Act, gives the court the power to award you damages in lieu of actual damages and profits as they put it. Give you the job of showing actual money damages would be hopeless, ask you to sort out who contributed what you’d be completely at sea and never recover a dime that’s why the burden falls on the infringer and that’s what this is all about, expert witnesses and all the rest of it. Stars, producers, director, supporting players, extras, scenery and locations, set designers, cinematographers, special effects, composer, costumers, it’s a costume drama isn’t it? makeup, hairdressers, point is there’s a pretty fair market value established for all these services and the story is just one more element where development may run through ten writers and twenty versions of the script and the original concept, the story idea is left in the dust. One of their experts here calls it mundane, another one says it’s frail so they try to put a price on it, on your contribution, fair market value for the . . .

—Like the hairdresser.

—Like the hairdresser, look. They see a thousand ideas a day, even good ideas don’t always make good movies, they buy one and stake millions on it hoping for some big success and that’s up to the development and execution of the final product, the rest is goods and services.

—Like the hairdresser.

—What it’s all about Christina, if everyplace you looked here wasn’t ridden with mistrust you wouldn’t have one lawyer for every five hundred people mostly can’t afford one anyway, whole country conceived in competition rivalry bugger thy neighbor, the whole society’s based on an adversary culture what America’s all about, you want to get into dialectical materialism supposed to be Marxist theory but we’re the . . .

[...] Will you tell dear Teen that’s why I haven’t called her? I’ve simply been up to my eyes with these decorators and upholsterers and God knows what since the day we were married and I hope she wasn’t annoyed at not being invited, I mean you only get married for the fourth time once but Bunker’s lawyers wanted to get it out of the way this year on account of his taxes since I’ve had these marvelous losses wherever you look, will you just hold him for a moment? and she thrust out the leash, digging in her purse.

She stood staring out over the pond for moments longer before she turned to him sitting there, his shoulders fallen, the watch closed tight in his hands. —I think, I think he was just trying to help, Oscar. He was, Harry was awfully fond of you, you knew that didn’t you? she said coming over to him, resting a hand on his fallen shoulder —trying to help you through a bad time that was all, he meant it for your own good he knew what you were going through, I think he admired you, that he really admired what you’d tried to do because he’d tried it himself that’s what he used to say, about failing at something worth doing because there was nothing worse for a man than failing at something that wasn’t worth doing in the first place simply because that’s where the money was, it was always the money . . .

—And Lily? from the kitchen, —the milk? and the butter? But she’d forgot them on this consuming mission to get his mind off things and was there another pail someplace? as the bucket brigade came about with each fresh gallon bearing a new lease of life for the goggling eyed tenants where their gigantic new landlord grudgingly restored the basic services of light and aeration, pH balance, filtration and an agreeable temperature sprinkled with krill and daphnia floating down upon them like the manna in the wilderness till another trip up the highway brought in a cohort of discus gleaming turquoise and red and cobalt blue bearing down like the Egyptians before green seafans, shaving brush and a fresh canopy of water sprite beckoned the promised land right down ten centuries to a Crusaders’ castle lofting its plastic battlements among the brown flecked young leaves of the Amazon swordplant —so they can hide in there if they want, isn’t it cute?

—Please excuse me yes how do you do, I’d just finished telling Mrs Lutz about my admiration for her husband’s handling of his last important case, I believe the only aspect that remains to be unraveled is the effect the merger may have in the Middle East markets and on cola enthusiasts of the Jewish faith but it’s hoped they’ll let bygones be bygones and feelers have already gone out to the Jews for Jesus who, but I’m afraid I could go on and on and . . .