The commercial lease would keep the theater solvent.
It would also quietly make the most useful room harder for ordinary people to use.
I called Harlan.
It was 11:08 p.m.
He answered after two rings.
“Rue?”
“Page fifty-eight.”
Silence.
Then paper moved.
“You have the agreement?”
“Yes.”
“I’m looking.”
“Section fourteen.”
More silence.
Then, “I see it.”
“You knew?”
“I knew about priority scheduling.”
“Did you know how broad it was?”
A longer silence.
“No.”
I believed him.
That surprised me.
“What do you want?” he asked.
“For the commercial partner to get priority only in its contracted event spaces.”
“That reduces the lease value.”
“Yes.”
“Possibly significantly.”
“Yes.”
“And you still want it.”
“My mother helped create the community covenant because she was angry about ticket prices. What do you think she’d say if I handed the largest community room to corporate events every Saturday?”
Harlan exhaled.
