I heard this said to me: ``Watch how you pass;It was easy to become the head of the family firm. My father is now safely in retirement, out of harm's way. True, he doesn't really want to be there, but it's for his own good.
walk so that you not trample with your soles
the heads of you exhauseted, wretched brothers.''At this I turned and saw in front of me,
beneath my feet, a lake that, frozen fast,
had lost the look of water and seemed glass.--Dante Inferno
My partner in business was a trusted friend of my father's. I'm not so sure about him now, but there's nothing to be done about it, he's got as tight a grip on me as he did on my father. I suspect that he is richer than he says he is, but I guess we all take our cut.
I'm a little bothered by this end of the world thing. My partner keeps pointing me towards business opportunities out of it, but I might as well invest in that nutcase down the road who wants to make plutonium out of it as anything else. I wonder sometimes about the lonely old guy not far away. He seems sane enough, but sometimes he looks at me as if we have something in common. If the world doesn't end, maybe I'll try to get to know him.