nd it came to Mrs. Wladek
all at once that her boy was a man.

"What is it?" she demanded. "Tell me at once."

"Sure I will. Ma," Rudi said. "I got a job. I start tomorrow. In an
office, wrapping things. The mail room, they call it."

Silence descended on the little room.

"Ma," Rudi said at last. "Ma, what's wrong?"

"Wrong?" Mrs. Wladek said. "What should be wrong? Nothing at all is
wrong. You have a job, very well, you have a job."

"You're not happy about it, Ma?"

Mrs. Wladek gave a short bark. "Happy? Indeed I should be happy? My son
goes to work, like a dog, and I should be--" She paused and gasped
suddenly. "Why did you go to work?"

"You mean why did I get a job, Ma?" Rudi said. "Listen, let's have
supper and we'll talk about it, huh?"

"Supper?" Mrs. Wladek snorted. "Supper we will have when I find out what
I need to know. Not before."

"But I'm hungry, Ma, and ... oh, all right." Rudi sat down on the old
brown couch and sighed. "I just thought it would be a good idea to get a
job, bring some bread into the house, you know? So I went down to the
agency, and they had this application waiting, and I went down and got
the job, and I start tomorrow. That's all. Now let's eat."

"You got the idea to have a job?" Mrs. Wladek said. "Fine. Fine. Just
fine. And when did you get this idea?"

"I don't know," Rudi said, and shrugged. "Some time. This morning,
maybe. Look, what difference does it make? I thought you'd like the
idea, Ma. Some more dough coming in ... you know."

"This morning." Mrs. Wladek raised clenched fists over her head.
"Cossacks!" she screamed. "Monsters! Witches!"

Lunchtime.

Gloria looked up and smiled sweetly and distantly as Harold Meedy
appeared at her desk. "Got any special place to go?" he said.

"As a matter of fact--" she began, but he was too quick for her.

"It's always 'as a matter of fact,'" he said. "What's the matter--you
got another boy friend or something? You don't like poor Harold? Look,
Gloria, if you want to avoid me, then you go ahead and avoid me. But--"

"It's nothing like that," Gloria said.

"So come on," Harold said. "Listen, I'm really a sweet guy when you get
to know me. You'd like me. Sure you would."

"I'm sure," Gloria said. "But I really do have something to take care
of."

"Can't you take care of it later?"

She shook her head.

"Well ... all right, if you want me to grow up all frustrated." He
grinned at her and moved away.

When the