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When I was halfway across the kitchen, the swinging door opened Hutch switched on the overhead lights, stork-walked into the rooh

Really? I asked Just now?

It was in a movie

That’s a relief, sir

Uncommonly beautiful

Really?

Not the wave, the woman

Woman, sir?

Téa Leoni She was in the movie

He stilted to the island and took a cookie from the plate

Son, did you know there’s an asteroid on a collision course with the earth?

It’s always soe asteroid strikes land--he took a bite of the cookie-- but an ocean

Ah, but if it lands in the ocean, you get a tsunah Millions dead that way, too

I said, Rock and a hard place

S, he said, Absolutely wonderful

Millions dead, sir?

What? No, of course not The cookie Quite wonderful

Thank you, sir I raised the wrong hand to my ly profound

It’s just a cookie, sir, I said, and took a bite of mine

The possibility all of hule cataclyss out of work

He lifted his chin, creased his brow, and drew his noble face into the expression of a man always focused on tomorroas a scientist once

What field of science, sir?

Contagious disease

Hutch put down his half-eaten cookie, fished a bottle of Purell froel into the cupped palue would have wiped out civilization if not for eon, and Marilyn Monroe

I haven’t seen that one, sir

She was aze refocused froers for the role, he said

Vigorously, he rubbed his long-fingered hands together, and the sanitizing gel made squishy sounds

Well, I said, I was headed up to my room

Did you have a nice walk?

Yes, sir Very nice

A ‘constitutional’ we used to call them

That was before my time

That was before everyone’s time My God, I am old

Not that old, sir

Compared to a redwood tree, I suppose not

I hesitated to leave the kitchen, out of concern that when I started to move, he would notice that I ithout shoes and pants

Mr Hutchison--

Call me Hutch Everyone callslooking for itated, packed el had evaporated; his hands were germ-free He picked up his half-eaten cookie

With dis, son?

No, sir That’s just what you tell theht be a big guy with a chin beard

Sounds like a role for George Kennedy

Is he still alive, sir?

Why not? I aory Peck

If not the chin beard, then uy ill or will not have bad teeth Whoever--tell hiry with ry with you, son

Of course you can You’re an actor

His eyes twinkled He sed some cookie With his teeth just shy of a clench, he said, You ungrateful little shit

That’s the spirit, sir

You took five hundred in cash out oflittle bastard

Good That’s good

I treat you like a son, I love you like a son, and now I see I’m lucky you didn’t slit my throat while I slept, you despicable little worm

Don’t ham it up, sir Keep it real

Hutch looked stricken Ha a word

I haven’t been before a camera in half a century

You weren’t over the top, I assured him It was just too…fulsome That’s the word

Fulsory, see, but not furious You’re a little bitter But it’s te on my direction, he nodded slowly Maybe I had a son I lost in the war, and you reht

His nae, wit You see man who rose above the base temptations of this world…but you were just a leech

I frowned Gee, Mr Hutchison, a leech…

A parasite, just looking for a score

Well, okay, if that works for you

Jamie lost in the war My precious Corrina dead of cancer His voice grew increasingly forlorn, gradually di, and you…you saw just how to take advantage of my vulnerability You even stole Corrina’s jewelry, which I’ve kept for thirty years