Six Degrees of Separation

Trent Conway appears on stage and Tess comments on his “beady little eyes staring out at [her]” (75). She tells the audience that she went to him at MIT with “a tape recorder strapped to me” and “just pressed him and pressed him and pressed him” (75). Trent appears on stage with Paul, who is dressed in “jeans and a tank top, high-top sneakers” (76). There is “Rain. Distant thunder. Jazz playing somewhere off” (76).

Trent tells Paul that, “This is the way you must speak. Hear my accent” (76). He proceeds to coach Paul on what words he should use and tells him “you say bodd-ill. It’s bottle. Say bottle of beer” (76). Paul says, “Bodd-ill a bee-ya” (76).

Paul finds Trent’s address book and tells him to “tell me about these people” (77). Trent tries to get him to “come to bed” but Paul is “hypnotized by the address book” (77). After learning that all the people in the book are rich, he comments that it “[m]ust be very hard to be with rich people […] You have to give them presents” (77). Trent tells him, “Not at all.