11:56 p.m.
The food ordered by Kold was delivered, and he took a break, shoveling down pizza and salad from a plastic container with unexpected enthusiasm. The Lawyer ate a salmon sandwich, and, as he drank coffee, asked:
“Mr. Kold, you told me about your patriotic feelings just now. Doesn’t it seem to you that your picture of the world is a little… idealistic?’
Kold wiped his oily lips with a napkin and nodded as if to say, I got your question. But he took his time with the answer. Five long minutes passed before finally he said:
“Idealism is a kind of protective reaction. That’s why so many teenagers are idealists. Cynicism comes with life experience.”
“The dispute between the physicist and the lyric poet ended with the victory of cynics,” the Lawyer smiled sadly.
“What?” Kold didn
