August 11, 2005
Week 15 - Bad Judgment
Episode 4
Agent Pace and Agent Bilkey surprise Celeste at home.
"This is a lovely apartment, Ms. Weiss," says Agent Pace, looking around, "simply lovely."
Celeste stares at her with bloodshot eyes, but says nothing.
Agent Bilkey steps toward a disorderly stack of books. He picks the top one up and shows it to Agent Pace. "Descartes: The Meditations," she reads. Agent Bilkey tosses it aside and grabs several others. "John Stuart Mill," reads Agent Pace, "Heidegger, Sartre... Interesting choices..."
"What do you want from me?" Celeste asks, in a husky voice.
"Want?" Agent Pace says. "We don't want anything, do we Agent Bilkey?" Her partner shakes his head. "This is simply a friendly call," she continues. "We're just here to get to know you. After all... You're one of our best customers... You've run up quite a dental bill these past few weeks, Ms. Weiss... quite a dental bill."
Celeste glares at her. Agent Bilkey taps Agent Pace on the shoulder and cocks his head toward a table by the kitchen area. On it rests a hammer and a half empty bottle of vodka. Agent Bilkey points to a dark red stain on the floor nearby.
"For instance," Agent Pace says, "we just today received a quite large claim for the reconstruction of your front teeth. Apparently, they were both completely shattered. How did that happen, by the way?"
Celeste looks down. "I fell," she says softly.
"Ah, you fell!" Agent Pace says. "Of course..." Her eyes rest on a pile of bound note books, stacked in the corner of the room. She nods toward Agent Bilkey who picks one up.
"Hey!" Celeste yells. "Leave those alone! They're private!"
Agent Bilkey ignores her. He thumbs through one of the notebooks, displaying the contents to Agent Pace. Each page is covered, on both sides, with tiny, neat penmanship.
"You keep a journal, we see," says Agent Pace. "That's good, that's admirable... A place to record your thoughts, to muse on great issues, correct?"
"Maybe..." Celeste shrugs.
Agent Pace steps toward the table and picks up the hammer. It is also stained with red. "Ms. Weiss," she says. "Let's stop pretending, shall we? You're not really having a bizarre series of dental incidents, are you? You're purposely abusing your teeth..." She throws the hammer down. "For philosophical reasons!"