“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(However, a little thought shows that Fred’s departure may actually work to our advantage—slowing down any precipitous decision on the part of the Chemung County Infirmary to want to possibly move Jane over there; if he isn’t present to give advise, officials may not be able to reach a decision, except to leave her alone—which is what we want.

(In between those calls, Steve Blumenthal called, and I told him that Jane and I had decided not to go through with the tape deal. It was harder for me to tell him than I thought it would be, since I didn’t want to hurt anyone, etc. Steve took it well, and is going to use up the retainer he gave the Ithaca lawyer to have her ask Prentice-Hall some questions, etc. It’s a free country, I said, he can ask them anything he likes, I suppose. I turned down his request to sign a letter of authorization. I said that I didn’t want the extra stress involved with the tape deal, that we’d dealt with our publisher for many years, and that I didn’t look forward to being in an adversarial position vis-à-vis them. I’m in enough adversarial positions now, what with insurance companies, doctors, infirmaries, and so forth. Steve is to keep in touch.

(Then Pete gave me some surprising news: Jack Joyce has gone out of business in Corning, and is working for a convalescent home down in southern Pennsylvania, I think Pete said. No word on what’s happened with Graciella—I’d thought that match was one of those ideal ones. Pete is going to ask Carnevale and Niles if they’ll do our taxes. Another hassle, I told Jane.

(1:30. Jane ate a good lunch. I began to get very tired—probably, I thought, a reaction to the morning’s events. Jane said Margaret, who visited last night, is worried about Joe, and wants to get him to Florida earlier this year.