Implied Consent: Act I, Scene II

This is a part of Mr. Stolyarov's play, Implied Consent. To navigate through the various parts of the play, go here.

(Scene opens with EDWARD MARK and RAYMOND NEVILLE at bargaining table)

MARK: Then, it is agreed, Mr. Neville. (They shake hands.)

NEVILLE: Mr. Mark, I am pleased that the Estate of Grummond's offer for acquiring your company was to your liking. We understand that this business was your life's work, and we are naturally willing to give you a lifetime's worth of profit for it. In short, you need never again worry about your financial state.

MARK: And yet, I wonder, who shall operate the business; who shall now be the beneficiary of the profits?

NEVILLE: We are satisfied with your current business model and will keep it as is. Your employees will keep receiving their salaries, just as I, the Executor of the Grummond Estate, will keep getting mine. However, all the excess earnings shall be deposited into the Estate itself.

MARK: So, the Estate is, in this regard, like a corporation, a legal and financial entity in itself?
NEVILLE: Not quite like a corporation, though. There are no shareholders, and there is no board of directors. The Estate is a proprietorship, owned in whole by Quintus Grummond.

MARK (surprised): The same Quintus Grummond who is currently maintained on life support?
NEVILLE: The very same. All the permissible functions of the Estate are laid out in Mr. Grummond's will. He has determined in advance the Estate's operating budget, the salaries of its employees, its acquisition policy, its research and development track, its marketing policy, everything right down to the employee dress code. It is as if he himself were here to oversee its daily functions.

MARK: And, how long is this arrangement to last?
NEVILLE: Indefinitely. A good way, though not the best way, to make a man live forever is to have his accomplishments perpetuate themselves as if his mind were still somehow at work within them.

MARK: Then, what is the best way?

NEVILLE: That, Mr. Mark, is your question to figure out. You have years and decades to do it, and you might come to a consistent understanding before your time runs out. I have no doubt, however, that Mr. Grummond knew the answer, and that the Estate, this acquisition, and even our very conversation here, are all part of his design, clues he left here for the perceptive to assemble into a consistent story. But the answer itself is more than what you see before you.

MARK: But does he have any heirs?
NEVILLE: Two. One is a son who cannot be more different from him. While his father had devoted his life to living forever, this one is guided only by living for today. The other is a great-niece from his older brother's line, a young lady of considerable wealth in her own right, who, if I may recall correctly, did not know Mr. Grummond except through a few reunions scattered across the years. Yet, unbeknownst to them, neither of them is in line for any sort of inheritance while the Estate contract still stands.

MARK: And what says the government? For years, many of my most original, efficient, and innovative business contracts have... come to the attention of those bureaucratic watchdogs. I even had to fight several battles in court just to prevent them from running my business for me with their restrictions, mandates, and policy guidelines.

NEVILLE: The government says nothing, for Mr. Grummond still lives. While this is so, his will is tantamount to a memo or a letter of instruction a businessman would write to his subordinates. Twist and turn out of this as the bureaucrats might, matters of that category do not fall under their jurisdiction. Hmmm... I see that you are most interested in this situation, and that you now possess the leisure time to understand it in necessary depth.

MARK: Indeed. This case has somewhat of a curious flavor to it, one I had not encountered in my everyday business dealings. It is as if there is more to it than the typical questions of business: what to produce, how to market, how to transport, how to manage, how to profit. It is mostly in those questions that I have dwelled for as long as I have worked, but there are others to explore, questions that lie at the core of the fundamental mysteries of life, without answering which there is left within the mind a certain void that no amount of business as usual can fill.

NEVILLE: Very well, then, you would do well to accompany me for a cup of tea, and I shall disclose to you the more sensitive information regarding the situation, as well as give you some indication as to where to go should you desire to learn more. My staff shall arrange for all the promised money to be transferred to your account. (They stand and begin to walk toward the side of the stage.) By the way, a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Your practical expertise applied over many years has made you a wealthy man and an interesting one to do business with. If you show success in the world of the abstract, you might make a good friend as well. (They leave.)

To read other parts of Implied Consent, go here.