— Off the top Oscar, I said off the top, they have gross participation deals, percentage of the gross cash receipts that come in from the movie theatres, networks, cable, home video, foreign exhibitors, net they figure on an accrual basis after their negative costs and distribution, advertising the rest of…
— Harry?
— where a little of their creative accounting comes in like their twenty percent royalty to the distributor who's already their subsidiary and the interest on…
— Harry listen!
— Fine but, running dry here just give me a minute? and he was gone rattling the ice cubes, safely afloat again when he came back to stand over the gasping figure on the sofa with almost a sigh, — now what.
— On this decree, right here on the decree it says Bone, Judge Bone he's the one who granted my appeal isn't he? giving me all the profits and now he's turned it upside down with this one fifth of the…
— Put it in the hands of the master to come up with the accounting Oscar, what we've just been talking about here, they moved to reduce your award with all these exhibits separating their contribution from yours and Bone's court reversed the decree that was based on the assumption that, look. You sued for infringement because they stole your play for their movie, that your entire play was your contribution to their gross receipts, but they…
— But they did! It's right there in that original opinion isn't it? tracking the play and the movie scene for scene and the…
— They stole your play but they didn't use all of it, that's what this business of apportioning these contributions is all about can't you understand! He drank off half the glass with one hand, waving the other — have to go through it all again? separating the material they pirated from what they mixed with it from the public domain in the whole development process, ten or twenty script rewrites and your last act, they claim they didn't use anything from your last act at all and there's a third of your contribution gone right there.
— Well at least, Father's seen it and at least he'll have the chance to finally see the real thing if I can manage it, even if it takes all of this fifth of what's left of their plunder because that's the thing, that's really the important thing.
— Maybe he will, Oscar… and his hand came down gently on the shoulder sagging before him there on the sofa, resting there and suddenly squeezing it tightly before he stood away and finished his drink as the doors clattered open up the hall, — maybe he will.
— Harry you're here! Will you come and help Lily with these bundles? and as he came near, prolonging their close embrace — have you talked to him?
— Just this decision in his lawsuit, I…
— Oh. I thought maybe you'd get it over with while we were gone. Oscar? she broke away, — how do you feel.
— Didn't think it was my place to dive right into it without…
— I feel fine Christina. You took my car. Why did you take my car without telling me, without even asking me.
— My God Oscar, there are worse things believe me. Get him some more tissues will you Lily? and do something about that quilt? He looks like one of those homeless out sleeping on the grates, maybe you can finally shave off that ghastly excuse for a beard now and make a fresh start. Harry hasn't done much to cheer you up has he, you look like the wrath of God. I got you some ice cream.
— Harry has not cheered me up Christina. Do you want to hear what he's told me?
— No. I mean look at him, he hasn't got much to cheer about himself, you look exhausted Harry, have Bill Peyton and his gang finally turned loose what's left of you to live like a human being?
— Whole case is pretty well cleaned up yes, still some dickering going on between the accountants but my end of it's finished until the…
— Well thank God, have you had anything to eat? She was half out of her coat and suddenly pulled it on as though a chill had come over her, — Oscar? looking down on him there, — you haven't eaten have you?
pulling her coat off again slowly — I thought, before we talk I thought you might, I thought we all might want something to eat I mean I'm famished, I haven't had a thing since that tea this morning do you, can I fix you an omelette or, or a…
— Ice cream.
— But just ice cream? Don't you want, where are you going? as he stood up unsteadily, dragging the quilt toward the hall, — don't you want some…
— Ice cream! I'm going to the bathroom and then I'm going in there and lie down.
— Yes well, Lily can bring it in to you yes, Lily? watching him out of sight — my God, I don't know how to, it's going to be so difficult Harry I don't…
— And you, and you Christina! his arm suddenly round her holding her close — God, it's not easy for you here, here let me get a tissue just, you're marvelous it's just as bad for you.
— Oh, I'm sorry I didn't mean to…
— No come in Lily, come in, take him some ice cream in there will you? wiping her eyes, stepping free to blow her nose hard — and then we, and then you can help me fix something to, in the kitchen you can help me in the kitchen and, what time is it. I think I'll have a drink.
At the time of his death, Judge Crease had only the night before handed down his last decision in a First Amendment case dealing with the notorious outdoor steel sculpture known as — you've read all this, Christina? he said when she reappeared and sat down beside him, her face fallen over the glass she held in both her hands.
— I don't know, I read part of it I don't know what I read.
— First chance I've had to read through it myself, didn't think I should dive right into it with Oscar before we had a chance to sit down and…
— Well we're sitting down Harry, I mean he'll have to hear about it sooner or later won't he? I wish you'd eat something, and she was as abruptly back up on her feet, — I'm going upstairs and lie down, leaving him sitting there staring at the drink she'd left behind untouched, eat something? but what, struggling to restore a day that was completely losing its shape and even the sun itself, already dislocated by the season, coming and going in the clouds out there losing track of it as he reached for the glass and settled back in the cushions, broke his neck getting out here and everybody simply disappears as he tipped the glass up to his lips simply because it was here in his hand, trapped by the words in the obituary column demanding to be read simply because here they were propped up before him, according to his law clerk who was with him at the time. As highly regarded by his colleagues for his wide grasp and strict application of constitutional law as for the elaborate language with which he framed his judicial decrees, Judge Crease was a jurist in the tradition of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr, whom he frequently quoted in his legal opinions, and with whom his father had served on the Supreme Court where the two were often in conflict over demands for justice by the elder Crease confronted by Holmes' dedication to the reason and practicality of the common law in its lack of sentimentality in applying rules of conduct regardless of hardship. Their differences, however, took second place to the bond forged between them by their service in the Civil War, which has recently formed the backdrop for a popular motion picture said to be drawn on the youthful adventures of Justice Crease in that historic conflict. At the time of his death, raising the glass for another deep swallow, silence infringing the shadows around him like the burden placed on the infringer to separate his contribution from the public domain in this enfeebled effort to disentangle the words floating before his eyes from the sensuous warmth lapping at his dwindling concentration At the time of his death…
— He looks real young doesn't he.
— What! he started almost upright, splashing the drink on his hand, on the crease in his trousers.
— Oh I'm sorry! I didn't know you were sleeping I'm sorry, wait a second, and before he could finish off the drink if simply to get rid of it she was down beside him with a tissue dabbing at the back of his hand. — I know it's this old picture of him, they probably took it before I was even born, she came on, setting the emptied glass aside to dab at his wrist, the warmth of her knee pressing carelessly against his — I'm always amazed when somebody dies like that how the newspaper can sit down and write this long story with everything about him practically overnight, it would take me a month.