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.Or maybe Canada would be the best bet.What he needed to know was which border would be the easiest to cross.Why had those fainthearted draft dodgers fled to Canada instead of old Mexico is what he wanted to know.Ralph, Alice Ann said, and stubbed out her cigarette, only to light another.—You’re not going anywhere.We are in this together, both our marriage and the criminal matter.We have had this date with the music from the beginning, Ralph, and we are going to simply face up to it finally.Sure, Ralph said, that’s easy for you to say.You’re not the one who’s going to get their brains buggered out.You aren’t going to jail, Ralph.I’ve sold the house.In all honesty I planned upon selling the house, which was bought with my inheritance, if you recall, out from under you and pocketing the proceeds to finance a new life for the kids and me.But I’ve changed my mind.Your worthless attorney-of-record informed me that if restitution is made to the state for the funds you stole by fraud and malice aforethought, and if you throw yourself upon the mercy of the court, you’ll get off with a white-collar criminal slap on the wrist.Probation and maybe some community service.What sort of community service? You mean things like road work?What does it matter? The important thing here, Ralph, is that I’m coming to your rescue again.And, Ralph, I am going to ask you for only one thing in return.What one thing?You must give me my just due.Ralph, in any success you may have in the future, you must not forget what I’ve done for you.You must not forget the hopes and dreams we have shared.Over the long course, Ralph, everything but hope lets you go.Then even that, I suppose, finally loosens its grip.Ralph, why hasn’t there ever been enough of anything in all the long years we’ve shared together? But we have had some sweetness and light in our lives, haven’t we? Ralph? Haven’t we?I guess.You once swore you would love only me forever, Ralph.You once gave me a ring and asked for me to come along with you in your life’s journey.You told me I could trust you forever.Things to that effect.You once quoted me something, Ralph.You quoted somebody who said, The world is the world, and it writes no histories that end in love.Do you remember that?Not really.Well, anyway, happy birthday, you son-of-a-bitch.Let’s just get this over with, Alice Ann said, and she walked over to Ralph and began to beat on his chest and shoulders with her clenched fists, which Ralph let her do, not even grabbing her wrists or flinching away, until her arms grew weary.And then Ralph had simply stood there, his arms hanging at his sides, as Alice Ann sunk onto her knees in front of him and unzipped his trousers.3Jim enlisted the aid of Max Carver, a mutual friend of his and Ralph’s who was this big, burly, red-neck, rhinestone Commie from Texas, to help drag Ralph down the stairs early the next morning and then shove him into the backseat, where they lodged Ralph between them, so that Ralph could not leap from the moving vehicle or make a frantic grab for the wheel as Alice Ann drove, and they set out through the foggy morning south for San Jose and the Superior Court Building for Ralph to face the music.Ralph alternately whined and mumbled incoherently.What, Ralph? Jim said.What? When he was a little kid, Ralph mumbled, a little, rambunctious boy true, but not evil, his mom had hooked him up into one of those barbaric kiddie-harness affairs, and she had fastened it to a clothesline out in the back yard, where she had left Ralph to spend most of his formative years, a little, lonely fat boy, trotting a trench beneath that clothesline, up and back, up and back, until he was exhausted sometimes with all that effort of running nowhere with all his heart.But by the time that trench was waist-high, Ralph had felt a fierce pride in it, that wonderful hole that held the perfect shape of his determined escape to nowhere but deeper.Well, Jim said, Momma tried.Ashen, shaking, his trembling legs buckling at every other step, his heart beating visibly beneath his shirt, Ralph still found the strength to resist, and he had to be manhandled into the courthouse by his snickering buddies.Ralph’s oily attorney-of- record took one look at Ralph and strongly recommended again that Ralph simply plead guilty and throw himself upon the mercy of the court.When it became apparent from his opening comments the avenger-asshole of an assistant district attorney had his flinty heart set upon making a white-collar-criminal example out of Ralph, Alice Ann insisted upon taking the stand in a last-ditch effort to save Ralph’s bacon.Your Honor, sir, Alice Ann said to the judge, a white-haired man who looked like God, let me say first of all that I am prepared to write the court a check on the spot to cover all fines and to make full restitution for the monies my husband in his drunken stupor falsely received from the state.Let me say also that my husband, Mr.Crawford, has two wonderful children at home, who need and love him very much, in spite of all the pain and hardship and general humiliation he has caused them over the years.Please don’t let those wonderful children go through this incarnation with the onus of having a jailbird for a father, I beseech you.Let me say also, sir, that my husband intends to join AA tomorrow, and I will drive him personally to and from meetings.Your Honor, sir, I am not up here to praise my husband, for I am not that foolish, but simply to attempt to save his bacon.I have always believed, sir, that what good one possesses was enough to merit one’s salvation.In spite of all the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, sir, there is some good in my husband, Mr.Crawford.Things I will have to relate to you, sir, are very painful for me.Mr.Crawford would probably prefer I bite my tongue.But no matter how painful, I cannot bite my tongue.To talk about the tragic events of Mr [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.Or maybe Canada would be the best bet.What he needed to know was which border would be the easiest to cross.Why had those fainthearted draft dodgers fled to Canada instead of old Mexico is what he wanted to know.Ralph, Alice Ann said, and stubbed out her cigarette, only to light another.—You’re not going anywhere.We are in this together, both our marriage and the criminal matter.We have had this date with the music from the beginning, Ralph, and we are going to simply face up to it finally.Sure, Ralph said, that’s easy for you to say.You’re not the one who’s going to get their brains buggered out.You aren’t going to jail, Ralph.I’ve sold the house.In all honesty I planned upon selling the house, which was bought with my inheritance, if you recall, out from under you and pocketing the proceeds to finance a new life for the kids and me.But I’ve changed my mind.Your worthless attorney-of-record informed me that if restitution is made to the state for the funds you stole by fraud and malice aforethought, and if you throw yourself upon the mercy of the court, you’ll get off with a white-collar criminal slap on the wrist.Probation and maybe some community service.What sort of community service? You mean things like road work?What does it matter? The important thing here, Ralph, is that I’m coming to your rescue again.And, Ralph, I am going to ask you for only one thing in return.What one thing?You must give me my just due.Ralph, in any success you may have in the future, you must not forget what I’ve done for you.You must not forget the hopes and dreams we have shared.Over the long course, Ralph, everything but hope lets you go.Then even that, I suppose, finally loosens its grip.Ralph, why hasn’t there ever been enough of anything in all the long years we’ve shared together? But we have had some sweetness and light in our lives, haven’t we? Ralph? Haven’t we?I guess.You once swore you would love only me forever, Ralph.You once gave me a ring and asked for me to come along with you in your life’s journey.You told me I could trust you forever.Things to that effect.You once quoted me something, Ralph.You quoted somebody who said, The world is the world, and it writes no histories that end in love.Do you remember that?Not really.Well, anyway, happy birthday, you son-of-a-bitch.Let’s just get this over with, Alice Ann said, and she walked over to Ralph and began to beat on his chest and shoulders with her clenched fists, which Ralph let her do, not even grabbing her wrists or flinching away, until her arms grew weary.And then Ralph had simply stood there, his arms hanging at his sides, as Alice Ann sunk onto her knees in front of him and unzipped his trousers.3Jim enlisted the aid of Max Carver, a mutual friend of his and Ralph’s who was this big, burly, red-neck, rhinestone Commie from Texas, to help drag Ralph down the stairs early the next morning and then shove him into the backseat, where they lodged Ralph between them, so that Ralph could not leap from the moving vehicle or make a frantic grab for the wheel as Alice Ann drove, and they set out through the foggy morning south for San Jose and the Superior Court Building for Ralph to face the music.Ralph alternately whined and mumbled incoherently.What, Ralph? Jim said.What? When he was a little kid, Ralph mumbled, a little, rambunctious boy true, but not evil, his mom had hooked him up into one of those barbaric kiddie-harness affairs, and she had fastened it to a clothesline out in the back yard, where she had left Ralph to spend most of his formative years, a little, lonely fat boy, trotting a trench beneath that clothesline, up and back, up and back, until he was exhausted sometimes with all that effort of running nowhere with all his heart.But by the time that trench was waist-high, Ralph had felt a fierce pride in it, that wonderful hole that held the perfect shape of his determined escape to nowhere but deeper.Well, Jim said, Momma tried.Ashen, shaking, his trembling legs buckling at every other step, his heart beating visibly beneath his shirt, Ralph still found the strength to resist, and he had to be manhandled into the courthouse by his snickering buddies.Ralph’s oily attorney-of- record took one look at Ralph and strongly recommended again that Ralph simply plead guilty and throw himself upon the mercy of the court.When it became apparent from his opening comments the avenger-asshole of an assistant district attorney had his flinty heart set upon making a white-collar-criminal example out of Ralph, Alice Ann insisted upon taking the stand in a last-ditch effort to save Ralph’s bacon.Your Honor, sir, Alice Ann said to the judge, a white-haired man who looked like God, let me say first of all that I am prepared to write the court a check on the spot to cover all fines and to make full restitution for the monies my husband in his drunken stupor falsely received from the state.Let me say also that my husband, Mr.Crawford, has two wonderful children at home, who need and love him very much, in spite of all the pain and hardship and general humiliation he has caused them over the years.Please don’t let those wonderful children go through this incarnation with the onus of having a jailbird for a father, I beseech you.Let me say also, sir, that my husband intends to join AA tomorrow, and I will drive him personally to and from meetings.Your Honor, sir, I am not up here to praise my husband, for I am not that foolish, but simply to attempt to save his bacon.I have always believed, sir, that what good one possesses was enough to merit one’s salvation.In spite of all the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, sir, there is some good in my husband, Mr.Crawford.Things I will have to relate to you, sir, are very painful for me.Mr.Crawford would probably prefer I bite my tongue.But no matter how painful, I cannot bite my tongue.To talk about the tragic events of Mr [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]