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BRIAN<br />
I’m trying to explain so you’ll know why when an appraiser<br />
looks at this – my work – he won’t see my work. Only<br />
<strong>Strad</strong>’s.<br />
(Loud electric guitars squawk from<br />
the room below. ERICA puts down her book.)<br />
ERICA<br />
For God’s sake, please stop that unbearable racket!<br />
BRIAN<br />
(stomps on the floor)<br />
Hey, knock it off! No guitars until you’re done practicing<br />
violin.<br />
(<strong>The</strong> guitars stop. To ERICA as<br />
if to explain…)<br />
Boys.<br />
(HE applies the final brush strokes to<br />
the violin.)<br />
<strong>The</strong>re. This just needs to sit under the lamp for a bit.<br />
(HE sets it under a drying lamp.)<br />
ERICA<br />
Have I said something to upset you?<br />
BRIAN<br />
Everything you say upsets me.<br />
Something in particular?<br />
ERICA<br />
BRIAN<br />
I just finished an impossible restoration under impossible<br />
circumstances. And somebody else is going to have the<br />
benefit.<br />
ERICA<br />
You’ll be fairly compensated for your work.<br />
BRIAN<br />
I’m not talking about money. Whoever sells this will have<br />
the benefit of knowing he helped sustain the legacy of<br />
possibly the most perfect <strong>Strad</strong> in existence. <strong>The</strong> fact that<br />
there was an imperfection I made go away is a secret between<br />
you, me and <strong>Strad</strong>. I’m okay with that. I don’t know, maybe<br />
I’m tired of being such a well-kept secret.<br />
ERICA<br />
Perhaps you would have had a more artistic career without<br />
the distraction of children.<br />
BRIAN<br />
23
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