— I'm not asleep!
— Or had one of those seizures you talk about, how are you Oscar. Blow your little horn will you? I really need a cup of tea.
— It's broken, the rubber bulb's worn out and…
— Well then call her. Ilse? Where is she. Ilse!
— She's in the Bronx Christina, her sister has a cataract and…
— And whose old car is that out there, don't things look shabby enough around here? She picked up the torn streamer of the paper with a glance at the flaming effigy there before she crushed it again, — disgraceful. It's all simply disgraceful.
— Listen I've got to talk to you I, where's Harry I thought he was coming out with you.
— He's getting my sweater from the car, the house is cold as a tomb. And will you turn that thing off!
— Turn it up then, turn up the heat listen, there's something terribly wrong Christina. In the paper there, did you see it? where it says I lost this lawsuit against the…
— Why do you think we broke our necks getting out here, of course we saw it. He's got some rather upsetting news.
— Well so have I! Something that was on television, I haven't been able to get it out of my mind. I tried to tell you about it on the phone and you wouldn't listen, I've been trying to reach Basic day after day and I can't get him they ask me to leave my number they have my number don't they? Nobody calls me back they don't even, Harry? Harry listen. There's something wrong.
— Rotten luck Oscar. The chance you take though isn't it, we said at the start you can always lose a lawsuit didn't we, even when you're right you can't always…
— Yes well maybe, it barely mentioned that in passing they got everything else wrong didn't they? No there's something terribly wrong I know it, I…
— Afraid not no, the one damn thing they got right, we said you probably should have…
— That's not what I mean, I…
— Harry will you simply tell him what's happened?
— Said you probably should have taken their settlement didn't we…
— Well he didn't Harry! Now will you…
— Will you listen to me both of you! Listen. This actor named Button something, this black actor who plays the head house slave in the movie he was on television, I just happened to see him being interviewed on television he'd been in prison, that's where he discovered acting, where he learned to act in some acting therapy workshop they had acting out their hostilities and the more he talked. The more he talked about how he discovered himself there, best thing that ever happened to him he said how he'd found his true vocation, acting, The Emperor Jones they did The Emperor Jones and when he heard the applause and then he talked about another prisoner who was kind of a jailhouse lawyer told him if you're black in America you're always playing a part, just find the right one so you don't end up taking your bows in a cell block in there for something that would curl your hair and I've kept thinking of Basic, he showed me a scar once from his collarbone right down to the groin when they had these drinks in the Beverly Wilshire? this old buddy from back in his little theatre days? And that just sounds like him, being black in America you're always playing a part that just sounds like Basic, like something he'd say and, yes she saw it too. Lily? You remember the…
— No go ahead Oscar, I didn't mean to bother you, I was just in the kitchen making something Mrs Lutz. Can I get you anything?
— I'd be eternally grateful for a cup of tea Lily, now…
— Hard as hell to second guess a judge Oscar, a wild card like this one no track record it's practically impossible to…
— It's not that no, no it's just this feeling something's terribly wrong about the whole…
— Well there is Oscar! There is something terribly wrong my God Harry if you won't tell him I will! Our friend Mister Basic's a fraud Oscar, he never went to law school he lied on his bar exam and every place else and he's going right back to prison where he came from!
— But, but he, but…
— That's why you haven't heard from him, going on about his little theatre days his little theatre was the Federal prison where his buddy found his true vocation as the Emperor Jones while he sat in the prison library looking for ways to get them all out, finding his own true vocation buying drinks for his cellmates with your money in the…
— No but how could, how do you know!
— Harry just told me in the car driving out here, he…
— But he, Harry? is it true? What she just said is it true?
— Not, no, no not what she…
— Well what is then!
— He didn't lie on his bar exam Oscar, took the New York bars and passed on his second try but he'd falsified his application, falsified the document affirming he had a degree from an approved law school, he may have altered some inadmissible correspondence school diploma in the same state where the prison was and falsified the affidavits they require attesting to his good moral character all adds up to a Class A misdemeanor, a fine or a year in prison and they revoke his license to…
— To what! What about me why didn't you tell me! If you knew all this Harry why didn't you tell me!
— Haven't known it that long Oscar, look. If you'd won there'd be no problem over whether you'd been represented by a properly accredited attorney or not so why give you a few sleepless nights making the wrong move by dismissing him and throwing away your chances before we heard the decision, just seemed for your own good to wait and…
— But, for my own good! what do you…
— Look, once you'd turned down their settlement offer there was no place to go, a judge like this one with no track record so your remedies the way it stands now, if you've got any remedies they'll just spring from the fact that you lost.
— Well my God Harry he did lose, that's why we're sitting here! Sleepless nights, what do you mean if he's got any remedies of course he's got remedies, a new trial he can certainly get a new trial.
— Have to check it out Christina, a civil case like this one. If it was a criminal case and his lawyer hadn't been admitted to practice there'd be grounds to have a conviction vacated but of course there you've got a lot more protection under the Constitution than you do in a…
— Well he's not a criminal! If there's a criminal it's, where is he. Mister Basic, where is he.
— He'll turn up sooner or later, back in county jail or someplace else, a man like that can't stay out of trouble. He'll turn up.
— Why should he turn up if nobody turns him up, what about your friend Sam. Aren't they after him?
— Don't know what he'll decide to do Christina. If Basic was a partner at Lepidus, Shea they could sue to make him sell his partnership share if they could lay their hands on him, in fact under the disciplinary rules they'd have to but just an associate they put on the case that's not their, not up to them it's the State, up to the State to chase him down if they want to bother. Take the volume of cases we handle or Lepidus, Shea for that matter, the size of our staffs there's always the chance of a slip somewhere, try to help out these minorities give them a leg up you get some smooth laid back ex-con like Basic slips through the cracks just a stroke of luck that we…