— Yes I should, I mean I'd better be off yes, it's been a pleasure meeting you both with the opportunity to serve you in the best traditions of Ace Worldwide where our clients always, I didn't bring a hat did I?
— Wait a second.
— But, no but please I think we've cleared everything up haven't we? jamming the papers he'd retrieved back where they'd come from, — the claims are pouring in from that holocaust on the highway near the airport and I'm far behind schedule, you have my phone num…
— It's just this one question, where my brother got killed in this car crash?
— Oh I, I see and, and he was a client of ours too?
— No it's just this question, he got killed in this car my daddy gave him the money to buy it with so then when tragedy strikes there's this religious reverend that steps right in there calling it the death instrument and he talks Daddy into giving all this insurance money from Bobbie to the Lord to cleanse it to make sure him and Mama will get to join Bobbie on the other side when they get there too where it should be mine right here on this side where I need it, I mean I'm his daughter aren't I?
— I see yes, but of course it's your daddy's prerogative to leave his money as he sees fit, that is to say if you were his wife you would be entitled to one third, in some states even half but…
— How could I be his wife, he's already got Mama doesn't he? So I want to sue him.
— But I don't think that would succeed is what I meant to say, unless you could have him declared incompetent, it's not at all uncommon for children to be cut out of their parents' wills and of course his will wouldn't even take effect until he'd passed on because he…
— I don't mean sue Daddy I mean suing this reverend! Daddy's going in for this big operation and if the Lord calls him right in the middle of it then what. If he shows up over there and can't join Bobbie or maybe can't even find him in the crowd then what.
— I think what she's talking about is something in the line of a malpractice suit Mister Gribble.
— But, I see. Might I suggest another approach? his voice abruptly taking a softer, almost intimate tone — if I may take a few more moments of your valuable time? as he sat down again peeling open a separate pocket of the portfolio on his lap. — Of course your feelings are quite understandable, but have you considered weighing them against the spiritual comfort you might enjoy by yielding these funds to the Lord's service in an unselfish gesture of love for your departed brother?
— Are you kidding? and I mean look, suppose Daddy is incontinent but he never gets there anyway because when he gets there he finds out there is no other side then what, where he already paid off this reverend didn't he? and you don't call that malpractice?
— But in such a suit there might be a, as I say I'm not an expert in the law but I think as the plaintiff your daddy's suit from the other side against the reverend would face the problem of jurisdiction, and…
— I'm talking about me suing him right here on this side where he's taking this money that ought to be mine for something he doesn't come through with.
— But you couldn't really prove that he doesn't come through. — Could he prove that he did?
— Sounds more like breach of contract now, doesn't it Gribble? and the glass came down emptied. — Is this all the wine? — It's right there by your foot Oscar. Could he?
— Well but first Miss ah, Lily if I may? He was pulling forth booklets and pamphlets ablaze with flaming colour, radiant with cerulean blues — at least from my long experience with automobile liability policy, the credibility of the parties to the contract in such an action is of primary importance. Of course we have God's own unimpeachable word for the existence of the heavenly realm you refer to as the other side, and in the words of third John sixteen which I'm sure you have known by heart since childhood, where is it now, yes here. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. In other words assuming that your daddy…
— You're not a Mormon there are you Gribble? They stack them up like cordwood there on the other side, talk about finding a face in the crowd they've hollowed out a mountain out west somewhere full of genealogies that go right back to Methus…
— I'm not no, I'm not a Mormon Mister Crease but I do belong to a serious Pentecostal Bible study group in fact I was about to ask you both to join us some evening, I think your contributions to the discussion would be greatly…
— Having our discussion right here, find another glass for Mister Gribble will you Lily? Preaching the inerrancy of scripture I think he'll take a little wine for his stomach's sake?
— No thank you no, no we never preach I'm only suggesting that if her daddy has stood up before witnesses to the truth and declared his faith in the belief so beautifully expressed in the simple words of this gospel and he should, in the course of events he does arrive on the other side unable to find her brother there? he came on turning to her with growing appetite licking his lips as his eyes dropped slightly from hers — isn't it very possible that not having made a similar avowal of faith Bobbie may have gone elsewhere?
— Very good Mister Gribble, even though of course we're both aware that John is generally regarded as the least reliable of the gospels?
— Perhaps in certain minor historical details, but…
— But here he is with his contract for everlasting life, we'd call him an interested party? promising in the Lord's name this immunity from death unless Bobbie here has failed to live up to this provision of belief and his immune system breaks down, he's nonsuited I think it's called and he's tossed out of court.
— Put in these terms I think he's made my point nicely, don't you? looking back at her eyes glittering with satisfaction, even cunning, taken up in a tone almost patronizing in its strained levity with — after all you could hardly bring your breach of contract suit against God naming him as an artificial person with his only begotten son as a necessary party now, could you? and he was suddenly busied unfurling a folder overflowing with stick figures tumbling into a blazing abyss — let me show you an artist's rendering of…
— Right here on earth Mister Gribble, she's talking about suing this slippery reverend in Federal court under diversity of citizenship right there in a neighboring jurisdiction and it's just a damned shame my father's not still on the bench, sue him as a public official and his church would be held liable wouldn't it? filling his glass again, — if you want a nice parallel to your scripture there right here on earth just take AIDS.
— But that's not, I think you're straying a little far afield, people dying of AIDS aren't…
— That's what it's all about Gribble they don't die of AIDS, they die from some regular old fashioned germ like pneumonia or tuberculosis because their immune system's broken down like this lack of belief or the loss of it, same thing isn't it? Acquired immune deficiency syndrome and they both end in death, your immune system collapses and some germ like this reverend steps in and finishes the job.
— I really think your ah, your parallel is quite far fetched, people dying of terrible diseases like cancer and…
— It's all metaphor Gribble, it's all metaphor! There's no cancer germ is there? No, no cancer's it's an expression of life gone wild, these exuberant living cells suddenly cutting loose, multiplying all over the place having a grand time they're all metaphors for reality right here on earth, people who've outlived it roaming around with what we used to call old timers' disease and…
— My God, what's going on.
— Christina! I didn't hear you come in where have you been, sit down and join us we're talking about whether Lily's daddy will bump into Bobbie when he gets to the other side and…
— If he bumps into Harry that will straighten him out, Lily will you take this package? Be careful, it can spill.