Page 77 - The Myth and the Moment

Evening

“Taking care of business, same as always. You get your problem
straightened out with Comrade Kolpak?’
“Not quite. Not really. I mean, not at all. He’s a tough nut to crack,
that bastard. Aestheria helped me once already today, so I thought
she might do it again.”
“Don’t push your luck, Nate. She’s not in a position to do that
man any harm.”
“You mean they have some business connections; I know about
that, but I think it could help me. She wouldn’t want to see her buddy
get into hot water over my property, would she?”
“Beats me. I ain’t a lawyer.”
“Nor am I; nor do I particularly want to spend the money to get
one. I’m not sure Phil takes this seriously enough. I’ve talked with
him, talked as tough as I could; begged and pleaded, too; tried to
appeal to whatever’s left of his human decency and sense of fair play,
and so forth. In the end, I freaked out, thought he was going to kill
me to cover his tracks. So I’m back where I started.”
“You want some advice?”
“Yes and no.”
“Now, you say you’ve been lying low all these years, tucked away in
the woodshed perfecting your manifesto or whatever it is. And now
it’s gone, and you’ve got nothing left, and you want to get it back or
else you’ll go crazy; is that it?”
“More or less.”
“So, these people you want to go up against, Phil Kolpak and all
his friends and all their money, you’ve got to realize they’ve ripped
off lots of guys like you, man. They won’t put up with you making
waves. And don’t think they’ll give you what you want just because
you’ve been a pest: I’m sure plenty of punks have tried to blackmail
them, and they won’t go for it. Maybe you think they have a lot to
lose, and you have nothing, so you’ve got an advantage there? That’s
wrong, too, man. What you have to lose is very close to the bone:
your health, your liberty, maybe your life. Phil and his mob can lose a
lot before they get anywhere near that basic a level. So, what I’m
saying is: forget it, go home, start over on something else; consider it
a bad break, chalk it up to experience. Take out your frustration on
someone weaker: that’s the way the world goes round and round.”
Do I need to hear this?

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