— No, no he doesn’t know anyone no, she should be down in a moment Mister Bast and I think she, I think you should be prepared for the fact that this ordeal has taken quite a toll. Her deeply exaggerated feelings of responsibility that led her to insist on being held by the police are not entirely dissipated, her appearance of cold calm I think may be deceptive and her reactions to certain situations are liable to be somewhat, somewhat erratic, especially concerning these unresolved aspects of your family situation as they relate to her father’s estate. The sooner your own position is clarified and your aunts’ situation more clearly resolved…
— No but wait they, what happened where are they…
— Yes I was about to say, I was finally able to learn they seem to have somehow managed to return to that town in Indiana where they’ve entered a nursing home. I tried to call them there earlier in fact, but was told they’d just been temporarily evacuated when a small fire broke out in the upper story and I do owe you an apology Mister Bast. That was indeed your house we saw that night you became so understandably distraught. It now appears that when the property was condemned, the advertisement for the auction of the house itself appeared only in a newspaper in Poughkeepsie, when the auction was held in Albany by the State Department of Public Works the only bid submitted came from a Mister Cibo who heads the Catania Paving Company I believe it’s called. On further inquiry his one dollar bid appears to have been submitted on behalf of a Father Haight with the understanding of a substantial fee for moving it down next to the church where we saw it that night, to serve as a teen center for…
— But no how could…
— I know it’s not precisely what your aunts might have wished Mister Bast but you, they may be pleased to know it’s been preserved…
— No but a dollar! how could…
— It does seem rather inequitable yes I agree, however in such cases the state feels it comes off well with any bid over a penny since the purchaser is obliged to remove the structure from the condemned property saving the state the costs of demolition, as occurred with the barn studio building there to the rear of the property where, oh Mrs, Mrs Angel come in I’m sorry, I didn’t see you standing there please come in and, and sit down yes Mister Bast and I were just discussing…
— Hello Edward. I heard what you were discussing Mister Coen, please go on.
— There’s really no more to it aside from the, the somewhat ironic circumstances of my discovery. The details just came to light when a woman of some means whose philanthropies include the preservation of the studios of prominent American artists learned inadvertently that the Bast property was razed to make way for a Cultural Center project of which she is also a sponsor, as a trustee of the Philharmonic her abrupt interest in James Bast seems to have been provoked by their decision to plead for his return from what I see referred to as his self-imposed exile as the only conductor capable of rescuing them from the severe difficulties into which they have recently…
— Excuse me Mister Coen, where shall I put all this music Mister Bast. Mister Bast…?
— What.
— All this music you wrote here, where shall I…
— Just, just throw it away it’s, throw it away.
— But the way you worked on it, I’d hate to just throw it away after how hard you…
— I said throw it, here! give it to me I’ll throw it away! it’s, it’s…
— But you worked so hard remember how proud Mister Dune…
— Look he didn’t even, I told him this morning I don’t have to anymore I don’t have to try to write music… he had a foot up jamming the pages into the wastebasket — I never had to, it was just something I’d never questioned before I thought it was all I was here for and he, everybody thought that they thought I was doing something worth doing he did too but he, nothing’s worth doing he told me nothing’s worth doing till you’ve done it and then it was worth doing even if it wasn’t because that’s all you…
— Mister Bast please, you…
— There’s no please no there’s no please left! the, the damage I’ve caused because they all thought what I tried to do was worth doing and I haven’t even done it…! he was down picking up pages his foot had brought out of the basket with it, jamming them back in with his fist — I, I should have just done what you wanted me to in the first place Mister Coen that, signed that waiver or whatever it is for my claim to half the estate and just let everything…
— No but Mister Bast you, I’m afraid you mistake the purpose of a waiver it was simply, at this point the question is really irrelevant of course but if you do now intend to claim…
— Excuse me is, Mrs Angel…?
— Yes I, I am doctor what…
— It’s your husband in intensive care? Yes, I have a…
— But what is it what’s happened!
