vehicle and pulled out onto Christiana Avenue.
âHe wants a copyright lawyer, heâs willing to pay travel time for house calls a hundred miles from Milwaukee, and the check he sent me for the retainer cleared on the first try. The check was drawn on the account of something called the Paper Valley Political Education and Values Fund, so I figure heâs involved in politics. What else should I know?â
ââInvolved in politicsâ is a world-class understatement. He called the presidential vote right in every county in Wisconsin to within one percentage point in last monthâs election. Look closely at the pictures on the walls when he takes you into the club room. Youâll recognize a lot of the faces. But at the moment the main thing you need to know is this.â
Reaching across to Repâs side, Carlsen punched a button on a DVD player mounted next to the glove compartment on the ample dashboard. The tiny screen filled with an array of freshly-scrubbed, bright-eyed teenagers on risers, their faces beaming with earnest, up-with-people expressions. Mostly white but with a handful of black, Hispanic, and Asian faces sprinkled in. A simple, catchy tune began playing on a piano off-screen. Rep recognized a folk melody, Shaker perhaps, that he knew under the title
âTis a Gift to be Simple
. After eight bars and a brisk arpeggio, the piano stopped briefly. When it resumed, the adolescents started singing in unison, their clear, innocent voices and the upbeat tune clashing with stridently muscular lyrics:
Come now you people who are bold and are free!
We can make our lives the way we know they ought to be!
We can decide for ourselves without some plutocratâs decree!
We can live in a world that is peaceful and free!
Speak now, and let your voice be heard!
Children yet unborn will be grateful for our words!
We are the future and we will not be deterred!
We will speak now, and make our voices heard!
We dream for tomorrow while we work for today!
We are not afraid to fight and we are not ashamed to say
That we know where weâre going and rejoice along the way!
âCause the whole world is listening to what we have to say.
Letâs speak now, and make our voices heard!
Children yet unborn will be grateful for our words!
We are the future and we will not be deterred!
We will speak now and make our voices heard!
âOkay,â Rep said as the screen went blank.
âOle wants to talk to you about copyrighting those lyrics. More important, he wants you ready to sail into court on a momentâs notice the second someone infringes.â
âFair enough. Iâm not sure the lyrics say âplatinumâ to me, but Iâm just the lawyer. You donât need a hit to register a copyright.â
âSelling CDs is the last thing Ole is worried about.â
âWhatâs the first thing?â Rep asked.
âThe Attorney General of Wisconsin. Heâs a Republican.â
âNobodyâs perfect.â
âIt gets better. Heâs the
only
Republican in the United States to win a statewide election for a Democrat-held office in 2006. In-the-United-States. Take a second and think about that.â
âImpressive.â
âImpressive cubed,â Carlsen said. âRepublicans are hungry for winners these days, so the odds are heâll be running for something else soon. Maybe as early as 2010.â
âMaking Attorney General an open office.â
âRight. Now skip to the next track on that DVD.â
Rep obeyed. The screen this time showed a woman at a podium. She looked like she was in her mid- to late thirties. By squinting Rep could make out something about Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations on a banner stretched across the wall behind her. The woman seemed to be finishing up a presentation. After thanking the audience and the organizers on behalf of the Institute for Cultural and Artistic Liberty, she
Patrick Modiano, Daniel Weissbort