The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship

Lopez returns from New York, and he goes to a Dodgers game with Ayers. Stuart Robinson gets Ayers to sign a contract saying he will abide by the rules of the Ballington, but this makes Ayers alternate between “model citizen and unruly agitator” (253). Ayers develops an “obsession” (253) for Pam, a documentarian who visits him, and Robinson advises her to come around less. To help Ayers get over Pam, Lopez buys him a trumpet.

Because Ayers will be getting money when the book and/or movie comes out, he agrees to make his sister Jennifer in charge of his financial affairs. Jennifer arranges to travel to Los Angeles. Lopez drops off the necessary papers, and then Ayers refuses to talk to him for several days via phone. Finally, Lopez comes to see Ayers in person, but Ayers complains about the fact that he is called a schizophrenic in the legal documents. He becomes increasingly agitated and angry at Lopez because he thinks he is trying to hospitalize him: “Now he’s calling me a motherfucker and with trembling hands orders me out of his life, guaranteeing that if I ever return, my guts will be spilled on the floor of this courtyard” (259).