JENNIFER: It’s the Harriman Leavey syndrome. It’s an irreversible and degenerative nerve disease. Do you have a hilarious punchline for that?

JOHN: No. Actually, wait. (He may have thought of a punchline) No, that wouldn’t work. (Very brief pause) I’m sorry, go ahead. I’ll listen.

JENNIFER: I don’t talk to anybody about this. (Very brief pause) So, yeah, now he’s doing this treatment, which is, just, the AMA doesn’t recognize it because there isn’t a whole protocol, yet. It’s hard, because he never . . . I mean, Bob doesn’t want to know anything about any of it. He keeps saying, “Just tell me where to be and what to take.”

JOHN: I could understand that.

JENNIFER: I don’t know if you could.

JOHN: Probably not. Did you hear me listening, just then?

JENNIFER: Oh, is that what that was.

JOHN: The secret is not saying anything.

JENNIFER: That’s, yeah, that’s actually pretty good advice about listening. The doctor says it’s probably good for us to keep it simple and just have a positive attitude. (Referring to the bag) This is supposed to reduce the copper uptake. It builds up in the brain. Mainly in the language centers.

JOHN: The language centers— yowza. Watch out for oysters and liver.

JENNIFER: I know. They’re really high in copper. Why do you know that?

JOHN: I do work for a lot of hospitals and clinics. On my breaks, I usually read those medical journals. Just to see what’s out there.

JENNIFER: What else have you read? What do they say about treatments?

JOHN: I stopped reading. At a certain point you just stop and say— I don’t know, probably different people stop and say different things.

JENNIFER: This all started when Bob was filling out something for a raffle to win a trip to Canada. I thought he was having a stroke. He kept saying, “How do you say our address?”

JOHN: Oww.

JENNIFER: We used to travel. I have a picture of us on camels. Just in Texas, but still.

JOHN (Very brief pause): So is he taking other stuff, other than the stuff for copper?

JENNIFER: Oh, God, the drugs are a whole other thing. Some people have a negative reaction that seems like a positive change. So it’s just all these different levels of not knowing anything.

JOHN: There’s a lot to not know, isn’t there.

JENNIFER: Yeah, there is.

JOHN: You have a lot of composure.

JENNIFER: Thank you.

JOHN: Oh, you took that as a compliment— okay.

JENNIFER: How did you mean it?

JOHN: Like you took it, however you took it.

JENNIFER: You seem kind of committed to not being sympathetic.

JOHN: That isn’t what I’m trying not to be.

JENNIFER: If you say so. There’s a guy I always see at the clinic.

JOHN: The albino guy.

JENNIFER: I told you this.

JOHN: No.