It’s a fair offer Joe”
Joe was standing motionless with his back to his lawyer, staring out the window. It was a fair offer but that wasn’t the point.
“How the hell can you sit there and tell me that. God Dammit! You’re supposed to be on my side.”
Joe walked around to the front of the desk, and sat down in one of the three leather chairs. They were all facing John Staller, Joe’s attorney of thirty years.
“Give me a break, huh. I’m on your side. I’m a realist. We’ve held on for a long time because you have friends in high places. You’ve got to understand, Joe, they’re gone, and now the Senator is the Valley. He owns or controls everything.”
“The Senator is not the issue here. I shouldn’t have to sell him anything.”
“Jesus Joe, will you wake up. The Senator is the issue. He takes whatever he want s because he owns the whole frigging valley, it's all gone cept you, Joe. They’ve convinced everyone you’re an eccentric old crazy fool who wants to live out his last days at the “Top of the World.”
Joe let out a chuckle.
“Sometimes I feel like I am John. I feel like I’m beating my head against an unbreakable concrete ceiling.”
“Listen! I understand what this means to you. You worked your entire life to own the Basin. It’s gone, like most of the great men of the Tenth Mountain Armor Division, you can’t fight them any longer. When that team of Corporate Whore Lawyers come back in, they will be expecting only one answer Joe.”
Joe stood up, tucked his khaki shirt into his denims and went to the window. He stood looking toward the summit of the big basin. Even from this distance it rose piercing the skies. He shook his head.
“Send them back in, he whispered, barely audible.”
The Mountain Chalisa, Krishna Das, Flow of Grace
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