CH. 3
A few evenings later, Will was puttering in his kitchen while Jack watched the TV. Suddenly Jack yelled, "No full moon! No full moon!"
Will looked over at his friend, puzzled. Jack clicked off the TV, sighing exasperatedly.
"What was that all about?" Will inquired.
"Oh, nothing." Jack responded rolling his eyes. "People are just so ignorant. They didn't even know on that quiz show what was unusual about February 1865!"
"There wasn't a full moon in that month?" Will incredulously asked.
"DUH, yeah!" Jack sarcastically replied, like EVERYONE should know that obscure fact.
Just than Grace entered, greeting the two men. Jack just made a half-hearted wave at her still grumbling over humanity's stupidity. Will gave her a peck on the cheek.
"How's he doing?" Grace whispered to Will when they were in the kitchen. Will and Grace had decided to keep an eye on Jack for a few days to make sure he had no recurring after-effects of his shocking experience.
"Grace, something definitely has changed about him. He's using words with three and more syllables in them. Heck, he using words I don't know the meaning of – and I'm an attorney!" Will whispered emphatically back.
They both stared at their friend who by now had turned the TV back on and was muttering, "Symbiosis …symbiosis." They stared at each other.
Later that evening, Will was doing some legal paperwork at the table. Grace had gone out on a date. Will sighed in frustration as he read and re-read a document. Jack noticed the lawyer's distraction.
"What's troubling you, my barrister friend?" Jack asked.
"Oh, it's these darn corporate tax contracts," Will griped, shoving the papers away from himself. "I can't find any way to work around them."
Jack reached over and took the documents and glanced at them. After a few seconds he said, "This balductum isn't that complicated, William. It a simple fact that a consolidated corporation must file one entry rather than separate entries. I'm referencing the 2001 case of United Dominion Industries vs. the United States. To quote in exacta: 'The product liability loss of an affiliated group of corporations electing to file a consolidated federal income tax return must be figured on a consolidated, single-entity basis, not by aggregating PLLs separately determined company by company.'"
Will hurried over to a bookshelf, scanned the rows of books there and finding the one he wanted, opened it and read briefly. His jaw dropped in astonishment. He looked dazedly at Jack who just grinned.
