“But in the end it doesn’t matter. Most of your clients hate you because you’re just part of the system that’s snared them. And a good percentage are guilty as charged. And the case loads…” The plastic cracking, it really seems like something in him must be breaking. “In the end it doesn’t make any difference. Someone else would have done it, yes they would! Just as well. I should have been a tax lawyer, investment counselor. Then I’d have enough money now to be in some villa somewhere. Private nurse and secretary.…”

Jim shivers. Tom knows just exactly what he’s living in, he’s perfectly aware of it. Who better? It’s despair making all those Q’s and O’s, in this old folks’ mental ward.…

“But you did some good! I’m sure you did.” Doubtfully: “You saved some people from jail who were grateful for it.…”

“Maybe.” Crack crack crack. “I remember … I got this one Russian immigrant who could barely speak English. He’d only been in the country a month or two. He was lonely and went into one of the porno theaters in Santa Ana. The police were trying to close those places down at the time. They made a sweep and arrested everyone they could catch. So they got this Russian and he was charged with public indecency. Because they said he was masturbating in there. If you can believe that. When I first saw him he was really scared. I mean he was used to the Soviet system where if you’re arrested then you’re a goner. Guilty as charged. And he didn’t understand the charges and I mean he was scared. So I took it to trial and just massacred the assistant D.A.’s case, which was bullshit to begin with. I mean how can you prove something like that? So the judge dismissed it. And the look on that Russian’s face when they let him out…” Crack! Crack! “Oh, that might have been worth a few days in this hole, I guess. A few days.”

“So…” Jim is thinking of his own problems, his own choices. “So what would you do today, Tom? I mean, if you wanted to resist the injustices, the people who run it all … what would you do?”

“I don’t know. Nothing seems to work. I guess I would teach. Except that’s useless too. Write, maybe. Or practice law at a higher level. Affect the laws themselves somehow. That’s where it all rests, boy. This whole edifice of privilege and exploitation. It’s all firmly grounded in the law of the land. That’s what’s got to change.”

“But how? Would you resist actively? Like … go out at night and sabotage a space weapons factory, or something like that?”