"She bought four pieces. Six stores. They're calling it the Night Bus Collection."
"Theda!" He lifted her clean off the sidewalk, tape and all, in one big swinging bear hug, and set her down again just as abruptly and stepped back, as if he had surprised himself. "That's—that's great. That's terrific. You did it."
"We'll see," she said, "what Mrs. Teixeira does to us."
Filomena Teixeira, as it happened, did nothing at first. She took the cassette from Nicky across the counter, held it up to the light, and turned it. She examined each of the five tiny screws. She pressed her nose almost to the little window in the top of the case, where you could see the tape wound around the spools, and she squinted at it for so long that the rewinding machine behind her finished its tape and clicked off and sat in silence.
"There's Scotch tape," she said.
"Yes," said Theda.
"On my baby."
"Yes. I'm very sorry. The VCR ate it. It was a top-loader. We lost nine inches. It plays. It plays perfectly. You lose about a second right before the trumpet, that's all."
Filomena put down the cassette. She took off her half-glasses and let them drop on their chain. She looked at Theda and then at Nicky.
"A tape that has been spliced," she said, "is a damaged tape. I can't rent a damaged tape to the public. Amadeu would never forgive me. Replacement cost, seventy-nine ninety-five." She turned to Nicky. "It's on your card."
"Half," said Theda.
"I'll take care of it," said Nicky.
"Half," said Theda again, more loudly, and took out her checkbook, and wrote out a check for thirty-nine dollars and ninety-eight cents, and then paused, and tore it out, and wrote out a second one for fourteen dollars and fifty cents, and laid them both on the counter. Filomena looked at the second check and her eyebrows went up. Then she turned around, licked her thumb, and with one long, slow, ceremonious stroke wiped T. DUARTE — TOOTSIE — $14.50 off the chalkboard on the wall.
"Thirty-nine ninety-seven," said Nicky, laying down two twenties. "I'll take the odd penny."