The Diviners (73 page)

The distinguished jurist, having drained his goblet, looks to the special chum, who holds aloft the bottle. In the middle of the room they meet, and each glass is refilled. The special chum looks as if he has just witnessed a faith healing, or perhaps this is how the distinguished jurist perceives it, that the jurist has healed. No matter if the people do not understand, because they will understand one day.

“Squash Maiser like a bug,” the distinguished jurist says. And then: “Let me walk you out.”

In the corridors of power, two old friends. The report of their heels the only sound of their progress, a progress that with each pace brings closer the end of a long day’s labors. When they have come near to the back entrance to the Supreme Court of the United States, the distinguished jurist asks what has been on his mind for most of an hour: “Naz, you know, I have half a mind to try a screenplay myself. Something with patriotic themes. Perhaps one day. What do you think?”

“I think it’s a brilliant idea.”

“How do you end a story about God and country, though? That’s potentially a problem.”

“That’s easy. A story about God and country ends the way all good stories end.”

Availing himself of a theatrical pause, the special chum goes through the doors to where the limousine waits for him in the distance. Then the special chum’s voice sings out as he disappears into the night: “All good stories end with a fireball in the sky.”

About the Author

Rick Moody is the author of the novels
Garden State,
which won the Pushcart Press Editors’ Book Award,
The Ice Storm,
and
Purple America;
two collections of stories,
The Ring of Brightest Angels Around Heaven
and
Demonology;
and a memoir,
The Black Veil,
winner of the PEN / Martha Albrand Award. He has also received the Addison Metcalf Award, the
Paris Review’
s Aga Khan Prize, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.