“James and Grim and the Ethical Dilemma”On the afternoon of Jerry’s 99th day, as he is painting, he starts to feel lightheaded.
He pleads for a little more time, but Grim is unmoved.
James runs after Grim to talk to him before he disappears back to the netherworld.
James: Well Grim, my old nemesis, you’ve taken another one of my family.
Grim: Number seven! You so-called Immortals certainly send a lot of business my way.
James: Aye, you’re gloating now. But Jerry was the last of the Mortals. There’ll be no more business for you here.
Grim: I’ll get you all eventually. It’s just a matter of time.
James: Forget that. You’ll never get me or my children. Now, you evil old buzzard, leave! We don’t want your kind here.
Grim: Evil, is it? Well, Mr High-and-Mighty, you and I are more alike than you’d care to admit.
Grim continues: You think because everyone but you has died, that nobody remembers how you stole all the cars when you came to live here. But I remember. And I know that you still haven’t returned Agnes Crumplebottom’s car, even though you have enough money to buy hundreds of cars. So who’s the bad boy, James?
With that parting shot, Grim (who always likes to have the last word) vanishes.
James is left pondering their conversation. Much as he hates to admit it, Grim had a point. James always sends someone else out to pick up the mail because he hates seeing the “return car” reminder on the mailbox every time. And he certainly could afford a new car. But he wonders, who would he return the car to? Agnes died with no children. Agnes’s sister, Cornelia Goth, was the mother of Mortimer who married Wimsey. So the only people in any way related to Agnes at this point are the members of James’s family. He wonders what he should do.
He decides to go fishing and contemplate the matter.
