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had been driving the Ford since the day he had joined Centurion as its security chief in 1939. It had been garaged at the motor pool while he was in the navy and used in an occasional film, and when he got home, it was returned to him. No civilian cars had been built during the war years, and he went back to driving it as soon as his knee wound had healed enough to allow him to bend his leg. When Eddie Harris had tired of his 1940 Continental convertible, Rick had taken it and passed on the Ford to Glenna. Now new cars were coming out of Detroit again, and the Cadillac seemed the best of the lot.
    He got into the car, fiddled with knobs to see what they were for, tried raising and lowering the top, then snapped down the tonneau cover. He drove out of the studio and headed for Beverly Hills, driving slowly. His enjoyment was tempered by his bafflement over the receipt of a Communist Party card with Glenna's original name on it. Not that he cared whether Glenna was a Communist or not, but he had thought she was a Roosevelt Democrat, as he was, and there was a nagging worry attached to Eddie's view of the upcoming HUAC hearings.
    He parked the new convertible in the circular driveway and went inside, finding Glenna on the back terrace feeding the baby Glenn her bottle while little Louise, or Lou, as they called her, watched.
    "Hi, there," she said, offering her lips for a kiss.
    He accepted the offer, then sat down next to her. "Good news and bad news," he said.
    "Good news first," she said.
    "Vance Calder's screen test was outstanding; I signed him to a three-picture deal this afternoon. He's going to play the lead in Bitter Creek ."
    "Wow! That's moving fast."
    "I'm just glad you spotted him before another studio did."
    "What's the bad news?"
    "I gave him your car."
    "What?"
    "It's your own fault; you discovered him."
    "But I love that car."
    "The poor guy was riding around town on a motorbike. We couldn't have that, could we?"
    "But my car?"
    "Don't worry; Eddie found you something to drive. It's sitting outside." He gave her the keys.
    Glenna got up, handed him the baby and the bottle and left. A moment later Rick heard a shriek from the front of the house, then the sound of running feet in the hallway.
    "A Cadillac!" she screamed, as she made it back to the rear terrace.
    "I believe that's what it is. And it's yours, not the studio's. The registration is on the steering column, and it's in your name, a gift from Eddie for discovering Vance Calder."
    "Can we go for a drive after the baby's fed?"
    "We can after I'm fed."
    The children's nurse, an Irish girl named Rosie, joined them. "All done?" she asked.
    "Yes, Rosie, you can tuck them in, if you will, and will you let Hannah know we'll dine as soon as she's ready?"
    "Yes, ma'am." Rosie left with the two girls.
    Glenna took Rick's hand. "Why is it that life just gets better and better? What have we done to deserve all this?"
    "Hard work and clean living, I guess."
    "Do you know how many people in this country have nothing?" she asked.
    "A lot fewer than had nothing ten years ago," Rick replied. "We're in a postwar boom, and things are looking pretty rosy."
    "Well, we've defeated facism," she said, "and that's something, too. Now we can look forward to a better world."
    "What's your idea of a better world?"
    "When everybody has as much as we do."
    "In order for that to happen, we'd have to have a lot less."
    "Wouldn't you settle for a lot less, if everybody could have a lot more?"
    "You mean like in Russia?"
    "Well, not as long as Stalin is in charge, but when he's gone things will improve."
    "Glenna, my darling, the rewards of our work are not preventing anyone else from getting ahead, except the people who would like to have our jobs. What the Communists do is drag everybody down without elevating anybody, except their party elite." He thought now would be a good time to ask her about the party card, but then they were called to dinner, and later, when they were driving