OCR Text |
Show Acting Alone Page 384 Unearthly Good (or at least the more eternal half of it) could be carried out, after all, in these peculiar alien places, these schools. The very thought made the Elder feel strangely uncomfortable inside. However, even over his own fairly severe misgivings, the Elder's sense of responsibility to Nimrod, Jr. shone through. He composed himself as best he could and asked the old Jew to show him some of the best student writing he had (knowing, of course, that the Edwine boy, with his appropriately perverted, un-American background and high-average IQ and comparatively minimal levels of narcotic-induced brain damage, would be considered the department's "best"). Just to be on the secure side, Elder Cicerone offered up before the mighty marble beard one of Scott Meredith's plastic electro-surveilled employee identification cards, especially personalized for the occasion with the Elder's assumed Semitic name arid his likeness. (Scotty had made him a present of this valuable card in exchange for some practical, or esoteric advice on how to deal with a young hack, a former employee, who was threatening to expose some of the more, shall we say, unorthodox aspects of the internal operations of the Scott Meredith Literary Agency.) The old professor merely glanced dismissively at the card. He seemed not to care about Elder Cicerone's impeccabilities. He was interested solely in sharing some literature. He was obviously proud of his students, or certain individuals among them, as a father of sons. This frankly moved the Elder, for he was sensitive to the intensity of the father/son relationship. The old man proffered up the rough draft of his star pupil's "creative thesis" as though he were proffering up the young Isaac himself, with deep regret and also deep glory: he offered up Isaac's talent to the agent, the God |