Union Atlantic Page 0,30

I've filed. There's going to be a hearing soon and it turns out that the case has been assigned to the perfect judge. You noticed, I'm sure, that enormous house next to mine."

"Yeah. It's pretty impressive."

Her head recoiled, as if he'd tossed a rat onto the table.

"Of course," she said, slowly gaining hold of herself, "there's no reason you should understand. I forget so easily - the ignorance of the young. How would you know these things? No one's taught you." She put down her menu and leant across the table toward him. "In which case, allow me. That house," she said, her voice dropping, "that house is an abomination!"

"It was just an opinion," he said.

"No!" she cried. "That's precisely what it isn't! That's precisely what's become so endemic. That cheap, mindless relativism. You're all awash in it. Of course it's a pluralist society. So we're modest. In the big things: religion, metaphysics. We're non-absolutists. That's secularism. That's maturity. That's what the zealots can't abide. But this business of opinions. As if the world had no discernible qualities. As if there were no history. It's a disaster. It's an abandonment of the Enlightenment. All in the name of individualism. And they expect people to just stand by and watch. I was run out of my job on this sort of hogwash. The whole four-hundred-year effort sacrificed on the altar of the inoffensive. It's unspeakable."

"Right," Nate said, afraid of the woman for the first time.

"But that's just it!" she exclaimed, thrusting her hands out to her side, knocking Sam in the face. "You're agreeing with me because you think that's what I want. That's the problem. Do you think I was the one who brought The Autobiography of Malcolm X into the classroom? No. That's what they forget. It was students, black students God forbid, bused out from the city, who told me they'd stop coming to class if I didn't assign it as a counterpoint to King and the nonviolent wing of the movement. And more power to them. They were right. But by the time the authorities got rid of me those children were swallowing that book down like just one more palliative drop of minor guilt and minor catharsis, one more petty event in their two-bit little moral Olympiad, where everyone always wins gold. The young limbs of the body politic cleansing themselves for future efficiency. I played them the tapes of his speeches, and even met them halfway by showing the damn movie. But it was all just one big entertainment to them."

The waiter had come over to take their order but in her enthusiasm Ms. Graves failed to notice him.

"However, I digress. The point is, that house, you mark my words, it'll be gone. This town, those selectmen - they broke the law."

Nate glanced at the idling waiter, trying to clue his tutor to his presence.

"Oh, hello there," she said, reaching into the pocket of her cardigan, from where she produced a faded newspaper coupon advertising a two-for-one entree special. "We were wondering," she said, handing it to the waiter, "which of your dishes qualify?"

The man's already sagging countenance drooped. He took the worn clipping from her and turned it back and forth a few times, as if delay might save him from this final indignity.

"This is no good," he said. "It expired. Three years ago."

"Well that's rather silly. It certainly succeeded in luring us in here. Are you saying you have no special offers at all?"

"Oh, no. We got specials. We introduced pad thai. It's right up there on the board. Special. Seven ninety-nine."

"But this is a Chinese restaurant."

"Not next week it won't be," he said. "We're closing."

The Doberman had spotted a cat on a windowsill across the room and begun to snarl.

"I agree, Wilkie," Ms. Graves said, "this is ridiculous. We came in here with the perfectly reasonable expectation of a discount. But never mind. On we go."

When the moo shu arrived, she barely touched it, pouring herself a cup of tea instead.

"So. Tell me. Why is the world a problem for you?"

"How do you mean?" Nate asked.

"Well, for some people the world is a more or less obvious place. It's transparent to them. It isn't, in itself, a conundrum to be overcome. Which means their interests are simply tastes or preferences. But if the world's a problem to you, your interests are different. You're conscripted by them. You know what conscription means, don't you?"

"I think I'm registered for it."

"You understand my question. What