— Joubert, yes, Mrs Joubert… Whiteback’s hands clasped over the nested telephones ranting at each other in the small under his tented sleeves, — she’s taking a few days’ sick leave she…
— Do you hear what he’s saying? Like putting the fox to guard the henhouse, right? Sounds like every crazy radical in town got in on that field trip.
— that shy little church squatting on millions of tax-free dollars’ worth of real estate from a land grant made by…
— Mister Gibbs usually teaches physics Mister Stye, he’s ahm, just filling in here that is to say…
— Squatting, what’s he want to do, offend the religious sensibilities of every parent in the district? He shifted, waved off by a flurry intent over the telephones nested mouth- to ear-piece in the desk. — A church, squatting…?
— to go piss in her hat, that car she was in pulled out right in front of one of my trucks, she wants to sue me for losing her laugh you can tell her for me I’d rather hear a fat boy fart…
Uncoupling the phones, Whiteback raised one to his ear reflecting its vacancy in a rimless gaze. — Hung up, he said finally, restoring it to its cradle as the other continued to rant into his sleeve. — Apparently Miss Flesch is suing the Catania Paving Company too I, I happened to overhear Mister Parentucelli discussing it with his attorneys here he ahm, seems rather upset…
— Why shouldn’t he be? Creases intact, the herringbone massed to standing — thinks she can sue the school and anybody else for getting her smile knocked sideways and ruining a promising career in television, she was employed here as a teacher she wasn’t hired as an entertainer, the only people who thought she was a star were all your jobless, old, retired, shut-in, welfare, Stye here sees plenty of it in his…
— As a matter of fact he, that’s why Mister Stye is here yes, the insurance aspect of the ahm, insurance that is to say…
— This ah, yes he shouldn’t have any trouble smoothing this over, probably sees little lawsuits like this all the time at his level Whiteback, suing the school because she was on school property, is that about it?
— She’s ahm, yes suing the school, the Catania Paving Company, the Ford Motor Company, and Skinner. Catania, Parentucelli that is to say, he’s suing her, Skinner, and the school, and Skinner is suing…
— Who the hell is this Skinner?
— The textbook salesman who was riding her over, he’s su…
— Yes well I’m sure Mister Stye here is a busy man Whiteback, we’ve taken up a lot of his time, his company’s time that is, he’ll ah, as soon as he gets this situation smoothed out we should get together again and kick around this school board idea Mister Stye. It can be a pretty rewarding experience, see it pay off at the community level and the corporate level and these little headaches that come up now and then, helps you get a consensus, see things our way…
— like, so that means like if we paid twenty-two dollars and ninety cents for this share of America then we already lost over four dollars so what good is…
Billowing to a rise, blue fought blue to free a cuff of the ranting telephone and seek mid-air for a handshake — when you have some more time Mister Stye, we’re always on the lookout for ahm, for experienced knowhow in terms of implementing our efforts activitywise down to the bank that is to say, housing, small business applications, potentiating some of our ahm unadvantaged citizens here…
— Out this way Mister Stye, I have to stick around a little longer stop off over at the Holy Name of, Holy Name school there see how they’re coming setting up their closed-circuit facility, they ought to stop lifting your lessons off the air for free any day now Whiteback, worth stopping in there sometime just to see Sister Agnes cut up a frog… His energy pitted against the apparent weight of the door as though for the first time almost flung it off its hinges, — and I mentioned our Assemblyman Pecci to Mister Stye here, a good man for him to know, we ought to get them together as soon as he’s straightened this little situation out so nobody’s embarrassed. Pecci’s a good friend of the district of course, we wouldn’t want to see him embarrassed right now, Mister Stye knows what I mean…
— by what you call a paper loss, boys and girls. On paper you’ve lost four dollars, but…
— If you can stay with us a minute longer Dan, we just want to discuss, you awake, Dan?
— I don’t like it. Hyde massed against the door as though it were being assaulted from the other side. — Notice the way he just sat here and took everything in? And what’s this about him running for the school board.
— He ahm, before you came in, he mentioned it before you came in, he ahm, I think he said Vern had sugges…
