PARTIE 2 · LEÇON 17 SUR 30 · 33 MINUTES

Business Is Business

Friday the twenty-fifth of July, twenty thirty-one, Porto Alegre. At ten, Gilmar's table, where the tea goes round first and a contract is read out loud, two copies, one for each party, initials on twelve pages, the clause about the deadline read twice, two signatures and a handshake, and then a present from the man who taught Daniel when to say thank you. At three, his wife lands, her first time in the South, and is called a girl by a man who gets away with it. At six, a hotel room with no cot, and a message from Rio in which a grandmother changes a bedtime. Say "two copies, one copy for each party", "initial every page", "as agreed, the contract comes into force in August", "clause five, the deadline", "so that you never say thank you too early again", "business is business, but a friend is a friend" and "a rule is a rule, but a grandmother is a grandmother".

Langue des explications audio : anglais