Nobody's Fool

“I’m hearing you went back to work.”
    Sully pushed his plate toward the center of the table. “I didn’t do toobad either, you’ll be pleased to know. I enjoy it more than talking to judges.”
    Wirf made a face. “Yesterday was no good,” he admitted, in reference to their most recent day in court, “but we’ll wear the bastards down. There’s a zillion things we haven’t even tried yet, and one of these days we’re going to get a judge who’s actually done an honest day’s work at some point in his worthless life. Then we’re home free.”
    â€œBy then I’ll be seventy and already dead for five years.”
    â€œSee,” Wirf pointed the fork again. “These are black thoughts. I thought we’d agreed you’d stay in school and wait this out. Be smart for once. Bide your time. They ever find out you’re working, and we’re
really
fucked.”
    â€œThat’s a black thought, Wirf,” Sully pointed out.
    Wirf sighed, shook his head. “Why do I even try with you?”
    â€œNow
there’s
a question. Go home and think about that.”
    They were grinning at each other now. “Jesus,” Wirf said.
    â€œRight,” Sully agreed.
    â€œCarl paying you under the table?”
    â€œYou have to ask?”
    â€œJust don’t go on the fucking books. Anywhere,” Wirf advised solemnly.
    â€œlisten. You don’t have to tell me to work under the table,” Sully reminded him. “The only time I ever worked on the up and up I got hurt.”
    This was not literally true, but pretty near. One of Sully’s myriad financial headaches was that he’d done so little work on the books and paid so little FICA that his Social Security at retirement was going to be a drop in the bucket. His service pension was going to be the other drop. Which meant he’d be eligible for welfare and food stamps. The trouble with that was that he knew too many people on the public dole and he didn’t want to be one of them. You had to stand in too many lines and fill out too many forms, and Sully had a low opinion of both. He’d made up his mind in the army that if he ever lived through the war he’d never stand in another line. That was one of the reasons he’d returned to Bath, a town pretty much devoid of queues. Besides, welfare was begging, and he’d been saying for years that when the time came that he couldn’t be useful enough to earn what little he needed to live on he’d shoot himself, a promise two or three people he could think of would hold him to if they could.
    â€œWork a little if you gotta, but remember our strategy,” Wirf was saying. “Keep ’em busy with paperwork, keep documenting the deteriorationof that knee. Sooner or later they’ll see it’s costing them by not settling one or two of these claims. The court’s already starting to get pissed. You hear the judge yesterday?”
    â€œHe sounded pissed at
you
, Wirf.”
    â€œOnly ’cause he knows I won’t go away,” Wirf explained.
    â€œI know how he feels,” Sully said.
    Wirf didn’t rise to the bait. He pushed his salad bowl to the center of the table. “When they start getting bent out of shape, then you know you’re getting somewhere. Intro Law 101.”
    â€œYou ever take 102?”
    Wirf dropped his fork, looked hurt.
    â€œI just wondered,” Sully grinned.
    â€œI can’t do this without you,” Wirf implored. “I’m way the fuck out on a limb here, and all I can hear is you sawing away.”
    â€œI been telling you to quit for months,” Sully reminded him. “I’m tired of watching you get beat up. I can’t pay you what I owe you now.”
    â€œHave I asked you for anything?”
    â€œYes. Just now. You ate half my linguine.”
    â€œI never asked for that. You offered.”
    â€œI can’t stand to see you look starved. I wish you’d go away and do something profitable. If guys like you and me could beat insurance companies there wouldn’t be any insurance companies. Common Sense 101.”
    Wirf waved his hand at Sully in disgust, then picked up the clam in the center of the table and made a pretense of braining Sully with it. “I guess it’s true,” he said. “A little knowledge is a dangerous fucking thing. Who’d have guessed you could learn