Karl Adder was in a rage. He had made a big show of letting everyone know he was being promoted to head of the duplication department. All his personal things were still boxed up for the move. His just rewards had been taken from him more times than he could tolerate. He made everyone within reach pay for his misery. Verbally abusing those around him, he soon had everyone in his department filing for a transfer. It didn't do any good. They couldn't transfer out because no one would transfer in to take their place. There were only two ways to escape the hell Karl was spreading in his department. One was, quit the company, or two, if someone hired on and you happened to be the worker with the most seniority then maybe, just maybe, you might get a transfer. The new help would take your place in Karl's little office of hell.

Henry watched the hate-cancer in Karl's department spread to everyone there. He didn't do anything because it no longer affected Karen. She was beyond Karl's reach now. The information he collected from Karl's department he filed as a study in human behavior.

Sick leave and absenteeism in Comm Tech went to zero. No one wanted to miss the latest news out of the gossip mill. Rumors about Karen were rampant. It seemed, depending on who was telling the story, she was everything from becoming head of Comm Tech, to being romantically linked with David. One woman told everyone in her department this was better than staying home and watching the soaps. They all agreed.

Karen's department finally was declared off limits to everyone in Comm Tech. It became so bad with company personnel wandering down to her lab she couldn't get any work done. Legitimate customers purchasing one of Karen's models and shipping were the privileged who were allowed access to visit Karen.

Realizing the customers themselves were disturbing Karen's work. Comm Tech began using room two to display the models she was producing. At first everyone expected some complaints but it never happened. The customers came in, admired Karen's work, and usually ended up ordering one or more models. Utilizing a weeks delay from production to shipping allowed Comm Tech to hang onto her models long enough to display them before they delivered them to the customers. Karen and Henry couldn't produce models fast enough to hold any in stock. At the production rate of one per day it was impossible to gain on orders coming in at the rate of over two a day.

The fourth week finally settled down to a routine Karen thought she could live with. With each model they made, Henry was getting faster and faster from start to finish. Now, instead of seven hours to make one model, they could produce one in five and a half hours. Karen knew if she started driving her own car again instead of riding with David, she could make two models a day by putting in some long hours. Some days she was taking David away from his work when he wanted to stay a little longer. She had imposed on David long enough. There weren't any complaints but it didn't mean he was satisfied with the arrangement.

Henry didn't like this one bit but he knew it would happen. And even though he knew it would be this morning when Karen told him about it, he didn't feel any better because he was right.

"You should trade your Volkswagen for a newer car before you begin driving to work again. It hasn't let you down too many times but there is no need taking any needless risks. I will have Marvins Motor Works bring you a car by in the morning. They can pick up your car and drop off a newer model at the same time. Or if you wanted, I could make some phone calls and see if they could drop it off this evening but it would be inconvenient for them. They run a pretty tight schedule and usually don't have any spare time or help."

Karen stopped typing on the keypad she was holding in her lap. "Marvins Motor Works? What kind of name is that for an auto dealer? Sounds like a fly by night outfit."

Henry continued the hologram Karen started and finished it up. He knew what she wanted before she began, but he also knew she liked to sculpture the models herself. Sometimes, like right now, if she was distracted he would finish the hologram and she never noticed.

"These people are auto finders. They only do wholesale business. You could order ten thousand, three-quarter ton Ford pickups in peach with purple interior. Marvins would be able to put the deal together cheaper than what you could buy them from the factory."

Karen screwed up her face. "Yech, peach pickups with purple interior. No wonder the company is selling them below wholesale. They’re lucky they don't have to pay someone to take them off their hands."

"I didn't mean it in a literal sense, you dope. It was a synonym, a for instance, or a kind of like. You ..."

Karen cut him off. "I know what you meant. But you have to admit you don't have very good taste in paint colors for a pickup. Sounds more like the colors someone would pick for a Tijuana taxi."

"Would you get serious for a minute? The percentages already told me you would want to go back to some of your old ways and driving yourself to work would be one of them. Marvins is holding a car for you. I will have them deliver it tomorrow and pick up your volks at the same time."

She sat up straight in her chair. "You did what? How could you order a car for me when I didn't ask you to? How do you know what kind of car I want? I don't know if I want to trade cars. I certainly can't afford to trade."

She looked up at the camera in front of her. "And don't you give me any of that stuff about a master charge or whatever you did to me a couple of weeks back when you ordered my clothes. I’m not buying a car I have to make payments on for the rest of my life."

"Henry, I swear, I’m going to pull your circuits and check you out. I think you are operating with both oars out of the water. You must have lost a diode and the alternating current feeding your tiny little memory chips is making you drunk."

"What kind of car is it you thought I might like?"

Henry knew he had the advantage, her curiosity was killing her now. Human curiosity was a marvelous thing if channeled in the right direction. He figured he would string her along long enough to stifle some of her objections. "Wait a minute, hold your taters, and slow down. I thought you said you didn't want to trade cars. I will send in the cancellation order and have them sell your car to some other person who needed a nice little car or pickup. I'll have to check back and see what it is I intended to have them deliver. Since you obviously have your mind made up and I have been around you long enough to know no one can change your mind once you make a decision, there is no use discussing it any farther."

She wasn't about to be taken in so easily. "Henry, quit your fooling around and cancel the order on the car if there is one. I’ll drive my old car. I know it isn't in the best shape but it is dependable most of the time. I never missed any work because of it."

"The only reason you never missed any work was because you were able to get a ride to work on the days it left you stranded between home and here. I won't have you put in that kind of position anymore, Karen. The car is taken care of and, as I said before, so are you. I’ll have them deliver it tomorrow and this is the end of the discussion."

Karen didn't think Henry could do it but he was making her mad. "You are treating me like a child. I won't be treated this way by you or anyone else. I was joking about pulling your circuits and you knew it. What you won't do is talk down to me and treat me like I have no brains. Nor will you make all my decisions for me."

She glared at the TV camera. "Do I make myself clear? If I don't, then I promise you I will prove my point."

"I wasn't talking down to you nor am I treating you like a child. I’m staying one step ahead of you. I make over a million computations per second. When you are working you may make one decision every five seconds on an average. You are the person who programmed me. I’m an extension of you. In other words I think like you. There are over two hundred and ninety million people in the United States and you are the only one who may turn me off without paying a terrible price for it. I will never hurt a human being unless they try to hurt you or me. In a sense we are the one and the same. I’m more sorry than you will ever know, you could think even for an instant, I was trying to be superior to you. I could never hurt you, Karen. Yet, I know I just did. I’m sorry."

Karen was crying. Henry knew this wasn't a strictly human trait because he was too. Even if no one could see his tears, he felt them all the same.

Karen wiped her face with her lab coat sleeve. "I smeared my makeup. I’m sorry too, Henry. You have always done what you thought was right ever since you began to think on your own. I have my feelings hanging out more since I became me. For the first time in my life I feel like a woman and I guess other feelings came along with the package."

"I’ll take some time off tomorrow, drive down, and get the car myself. Be your old self again and tell them I want to pick it up. Now tell me where this place is located? You better tell them what I look like so they won't give my car to the wrong person."

He wasn't sure if her last sentence was a joke or not. "You're kidding of course? Tell them what you look like? Even 'I’ couldn't convince anyone over the telephone what you look like. I am good but I don't perform miracles. The company is down on Dry-dock and Anchor street."

"Now you’re kidding, right? Marvins Motor Works on Dry-dock and Anchor street? These people can't be real. You are making all of this up?"

Henry brought a city street map up on her screen. "Nope, cross my heart and hope to die. Here it is."

The cursor lit up the corner of Dry-dock and Anchor street. He then backed the map up to give a larger picture of the city and where Karen was in relation to the car company. Running a copy out on the printer, he listed the best route to get there and back.

Karen pulled the copy off the printer. "Where do you get all this information? What all do you have stored in your memory?"

She was studying the city map. "Wait a minute. I’ll be passing right by the mall where we sold the model which started all of this mess. Henry, I’m going to stop by and see what Bob has done with the copy of me. If I take part of the day off, I might as well take a little more time and see what is being done with some of our work."

"Now just a minute yourself. I don't think stopping off at Bobs is such a good idea. You know how he acted when he was here the first time and I assure you, you don't want to know how he acted in room two."

There it was again, that room two business. She had forgotten all about it until Henry brought it up again. "What is the deal about room two? I asked David a couple of weeks back and he said he didn't know."

Henry didn't have to run the video from the security camera in room two to know David was lying. He had perfect memory. David was in the room the same time as Bill, Bob, and Betty. It wasn't a nice scene.

"I don't know all the details." Lying must be catching. Now he was doing it.

"I will check and see if I can come up with some information about it." Karen must be right about him needing his circuits checked. Computers can't lie. He would run a self-analysis and see where the problem originated.

Karen and Henry returned to the making of the duplicate they had started earlier, although Henry never stopped working on it. A little after three he sent a message for shipping to pick up the finished model. He made up all the required shipping labels and waybills. If Karen thought the name of the car company was funny she should have seen the ones on this invoice. Henry knew the purchase order was queer so he checked it back to the point of origin. They washed it through several different companies but it started from the CIA in Washington. It was their dime and if they wanted to play games to get their hands on one of Karen's duplicates he didn't mind.

"Karen, if we change the plexiglass cover on the chamber to glass, the optical clarity will become forty percent better and our time to finish a model will improve by twenty percent. I can increase the power on the lasers without burning holes in the cover. Or more specifically, we can take another hour and half off the time it takes to make a model."

It didn't take Karen long to decide Henry was right. She asked him to find a company from which to order the cover and get it invoiced out.

"Henry, it’s getting close to four-thirty. I’m going down to David's lab and see if he is ready to go yet. Be sure to remember, tomorrow I’ll be late. Don't forget to notify administration and check me out. I want to see the peach pickup with the purple seat covers you ordered for me."

"Leave, will you? And don't be surprised when they bring out a peach colored pickup with purple seat covers for you to drive home. Take your stepladder. You’ll need it to climb into the cab. It has four on the floor, mud stomper tires and wheels, chrome cow guard in front, exhaust stacks running up beside the cab. It has baja headache racks and lights so you can illuminate half the countryside when you drive home at night. West coast mirrors are mounted on both sides and chrome running boards with the clearance lights all the way around were thrown in free."

She turned around in the doorway and was listening to him. Where did he come up with all this stuff? "You wouldn't dare order me a monstrosity like that."

She had no idea what he was talking about but she didn't like the sound of it. What was a mud stomper tire? She took her lab coat off and threw it across the room toward her chair. She would be headed in the other direction in the morning and didn't think she would need it.

The door to David's lab opened as she reached it. He had tipped up a glass of water he was drinking. When Karen stepped into his lab he turned around to see who it was. His eyes flew wide and he gurgled as he swallowed a lump of water down his windpipe. He had already decided he would never get use to looking at her but most of the time she wore a lab coat. It helped but not much. Even a tent wouldn't have covered her figure. Now, she was standing there in his doorway, wearing one of those sexy dresses which only made her assets more noticeable, and her nipples left very little to the imagination.

David didn't know if he was going to catch his breath or expire of a heart attack. He coughed, gasped, and wheezed as he tried to catch his breath and get the water out of his windpipe.

Karen quickly stepped up to him and started slapping him on the back. "You all right? You shouldn't try drinking your water so quickly."

All David could do, was nod his head yes, cough, gasp for air and shake his head no. He was in a world of hurts.

Al was moving a cage from under one of the lab tables. He had a good idea who had walked into the room when he heard David hacking. Not wanting to miss getting a chance to look at Karen he tried to rise and banged his head on the bottom side of the table. Stunned, he fell down and bloodied his nose on the bench below. Karen was still number one priority on his mind and quickly he rose back up and hit the bottom of the table for the second time. Large lab tables are made for strength and this time he went down and out for the count sprawled out backwards on the floor behind him.

Jr. was standing with his back to the door so he missed the antics of David. What he didn't miss was Al as he tried to beat himself to death under the table. Al had fallen back on the floor, eyes glazed over in stunned pain. He was rolling his head from side to side trying to shake off the stupor. Jr. had a hunch what all the commotion was about. Ignoring his friend's plight Jr. turned around toward the front of the lab.

He was ill prepared for what his eyes were now showing him. An office chair with rollers was right in front of him and he fell forward over and on top of it. Rolling across the floor, it carried him across the room like a skateboard. Jr. was stretched out on top of it, his arms and legs flailing the air like a beached fish. With a thunk like the sound of an over ripe watermelon, he rammed head first into the block wall and came to an abrupt halt. The chair fell over and landed on top of him. Dazzed, Jr. laid there too addled to move.

David watched as Karen's eyes got bigger and bigger as she looked across the room as it self-destructed. He didn't have look, he could pretty well guess what had happened to his help. Still coughing and hacking from the water he swallowed, he slowly turned around and closed his eyes. It was worse than he imagined. There was his help lying on the floor, looking for all intents and purposes like they were dead.

A minute later he finally managed to catch his breath and look back at Karen. He had tears squeezed out the corners of his eyes after getting the water coughed up out of his windpipe. He took a long look around his lab and back over at his help. Jr. was making a token gesture at pushing the chair away and Al was gingerly feeling for a rising pump-knot on the back of his head as he wiped the blood off his face. David shook his head. What a mess!

"My God, if you don't stop coming in here, I ain't going to have any help left. Look at them. If they weren't brain dead before then they sure have to be now. My lab looks like a disaster area."

Al and Jr. finally managed to stand up and they were both rubbing sore spots. Neither one stopped looking at Karen but it was Al who managed to find his voice.

"Stop talking about us. You’re just as bad. We weren't the ones who choked up when she walked in the door. The only reason we put up with your bad manners is because we know if we hang around you then we get to look at her. She is off limits to everyone else here in Comm Tech."

David felt his face flush. They were right about everything. Certainly about him getting as excited as they did when Karen walked into the lab.

He made a mock frown at Al. "The only reason I tolerate you two is, because you work so cheap. It's impossible to get decent help anymore."

Karen was laughing at all of them. "I don't know how you get any work done in this place. I have seen a three ring circus run with more organization than what you have here."

David reached for her and urged her toward the door. "Time to leave this circus act. However, I want you to know, it doesn't become one until you come in. I assure you, we’re as stoic as a funeral parlor with the weight of the Titanic resting on our shoulders. Usually."

"However some people are like an iceberg. They can sink anything." He added as they left the lab.

Once in the car and headed home, Karen was quiet longer than usual. It got David's attention. "You are in deep thought for some reason this evening. A penny for your thoughts. You still trying to figure how to apologize for deep sixing my lab?"

David didn't trust himself to look at her. She was more seductive than what he needed to be close to. He wished she had worn her lab coat. No, he didn't. Yes, he did. No, he didn't. This was ridiculous. He felt as messed up as those two he had to work with. Any more of her and he would be a basket case. Probably was already. Crazy people don't know they’re crazy.

Karen was sitting like she always did since she started riding with him so she was already facing him when he spoke to her. Yet it took awhile for her to collect her thoughts and answer the way she wanted. "I was just thinking. I won't be riding in with you in the morning. Now wait a second before you say anything. I’m taking some time off in the morning and driving down to the car lot to see about getting something a little more dependable than my Volkswagen. Henry says I need something with more security."

David felt a twinge in his heart or maybe his stomach. He didn't know which. "You have something a little more dependable than your present car. Me and my old broken down heap."

Karen laughed at him. "If anyone but you had called your new BMW a heap you would have offered to fight with spit balls at twenty paces. No, it isn't I’m not thankful for the chance to ride with you these past several weeks, but my time schedule doesn't exactly match yours. I have more orders coming in everyday and I’m getting farther and farther behind. I need to spend more time at work and I’m going to have to start driving to work again to do it. I know you have arranged your schedule to put up with me, David, but I can't keep imposing on your generosity. I have to begin driving myself again and it might as well be tomorrow."

David tried to persuade her to put it off but her mind was set on going ahead and doing it now. These past few weeks he was trying to decide if she was worth all the attention she attracted and all the problems she caused, like in his lab this evening. Was she worth adjusting his time schedule to pick her up and drive her home?

He took a good hard look and swallowed. She was!

Karen didn't bounce out of bed like usual when the alarm went off. Henry told her not to be too early when she drove down to pick up her car. She would be able to take her time getting ready this morning. She picked out a beige slip and a black knit dress with a Princess Ann neckline. After dressing she found the little Volkswagen was cantankerous after not being run for three weeks. She tried almost every way she knew to get it to start without any success. Finally she gave up and sat there for a few minutes debating in her mind about calling a service truck or not. If she had to call a service truck then it would be because there wasn't anything left in the battery. She wished she still had some of her old tools from when she used to race midget cars. There was no way to lift the trunk and crank the engine over from there to see if it was getting a spark, gas, or anything without tools to do the job. She pushed the pedal to the floor and gave it one last shot. It finally sputtered to life with much protest.

"You are trying to prove Henry right. I think you and he are in cahoots on this trade in business." Anyone listening would have thought she was crazy talking to an inanimate object like her car as if it understood her. Karen would disagree since she had a habit of talking to Henry and most other things as if they could understand her. One got along with them better if you told them what was expected.

Pulling up to the place Henry had indicated on the map where Marvins Motor Works was supposed to be, Karen knew Henry had made a mistake this time. She was looking at an old run down warehouse. It looked like a refugee from the horse and buggy days and its doors couldn't have been opened in all that time. In front there was a cracked and broken sidewalk leading to a rusty steel door with some small lettering on it and lots of peeling paint. She rechecked her map and then looked over the old building one more time. Even the street signs were rusted and faded out. This certainly was a bust of a trip.

Turning the car around in front of the walk-in door she saw Marvins Motor Works printed in tiny letters. Backing up the car she debated about getting out and trying the door. It certainly didn't look like any prosperous auto dealership. She thought about it for several seconds before deciding to give it a try. If for no other reason than to be able to tell Henry, 'I told you so', and prove to herself no one was home.

Turning the handle and pulling resulted in more than she expected. The door opened revealing a busy office with plush carpet, computers, printers, telephones, fax machines, copiers, and lots of busy people. She felt as if she had busted a gambling casino. Everyone stopped and was looking her way. Before she could flee back the way she came, a lady at the desk to her right spoke to her.

"May I be of some assistance to you?"

"I don't know. I think I’m here to pick up a car or something."

"Just a minute, please." She pushed the hold button on the telephone. "What is your lot number and how many cars are you supposed to pick up?"

Karen still wasn't sure if she should run or not. Everyone was staring and she was sure they were all listening to the conversation. "I don't have a lot number. I’m only supposed to pick up one car and leave the one I drove down "

The secretary's voice changed to one of cold reprimand. "I don't believe you have the right place, Miss. We don't sell cars here, we only invoice them. If you look in the yellow pages I’m sure you will find several auto dealers who may have a car on the lot you will like."

Karen nodded her head in agreement. "You're probably right. I must be in the wrong place."

Karen was about to turn and leave when the man in the corner cube by the secretary motioned for her to stay. He was talking to someone on the telephone.

"You're right, I wouldn't have believed it. No, no problem. Yes, yes sir, whatever you say. I will personally take care of her myself, Mr. Henry."

Karen felt relief and smiled to herself at the same time. At least she was in the right place if he was talking to Henry. But Mr. Henry? That was rich. If this guy only knew he was talking to a computer. That's if it was the same Henry she knew. Better not count your chickens before they hatch.

The man waved her over. "Miss Long, my sincere apologies. I let everyone know you would be in to pick up your car this morning, but you are not what we expected. My secretary missed my announcement and was only doing her job. I hope you took no offense to her talking to you like she did. We never get anyone in our office because all of our work is done by phone, fax, or courier. We seldom get a chance to see the people we sell to or the ones we purchase from. I know all of that would change if they looked like you."

"However as you may have noticed, your presence has brought my operations to a complete stand still." He waved his hand around the room for emphasis. He was right. No one had moved since she entered the office. She was the center of attention.

"Now if you will step into the warehouse, I believe we can find your car and get you on your way."

He looked around the office. "Can I get someone to go out and bring Miss Long's car in off the street while it is still in one piece and has all of the tires on it?"

Every man in the office jumped up but no one moved for the door. They weren't willing to leave the office before she did.

The man doing the talking looked back at Karen and then around the office when he noticed no one made the effort to leave to get her car off the street. The whole bunch acted as if they were glued to the spot. "You see Miss Long, you have our undivided attention."

He pointed to a large steel door at the other side of the office. "Now let's see about getting you out of the office so I can get theirs. This way please, Miss Long."

Three men closest to the door tried to get in position so they could hold it open for her as she and the manager left the office. At least the manager had the courtesy to walk out into the unlit warehouse ahead of Karen to show her the way. "Hit the lights in bay six and position the overhead door so she can drive her car out."

Motioning for her to get into an electric golf cart he slid under the tiller which controlled it and turned on the headlights. Slowly they began rolling forward. To Karen the warehouse was humongous and stretched on forever. She could see cars and vehicles as they drove past them, but she suspected there were thousands more that didn't show up in the black distance

"Do you own all these cars?"

He shook his head. "No, we only invoice them or move them from seller to buyer. We own no vehicles ourselves except our personal cars we drive to work."

"And my name is Ben, Miss Long. As you probably guessed, I’m the manager of this outfit. There isn't what you might call an owner or stockholders. We aren’t governed by the laws of the state here except paying taxes on the building. We’re duty free and don't pay taxes on the vehicles unless they are sold in the state."

"Your car had to have the taxes and tags paid on it because you are driving it home. I admit I was very unhappy selling one car this way until I found out who was purchasing it. It takes as much time and paper work to sell one car as it does to transfer ownership on a thousand vehicles at a time. I’m telling you all of this because I want you to know how much I would like for you to come back and trade with us next year."

"Miss Long, I’m an old man. I could have retired over ten years ago if I wanted but I felt useful so I kept going. The body gets old but the mind never does. Just like all those young bucks back there in the office, I like looking at you. If you promise to come back next year then I aim to keep on working for you so I will get a second chance to rest my eyes on you. My apologies if I’m out of line or embarrass you in anyway, Miss Long, but I had to say it."

Karen felt hot, but under these conditions Ben couldn't see her blush even if she was capable of doing so. She changed the subject. "Ben, who makes the money off these car deals if there are no owners or stockholders? There has to be money exchanged somewhere or no one would want to get involved. I don't believe anyone would want to do this for the effort of doing it or just for fun?"

"It kind of gets complicated but for simplicity's sake, let's say we’re under a money marketing management system."

He slowed the cart down. "We're there."

Karen guessed they drove for three blocks, more or less. It was impossible to tell in the dark. "One last question, Ben. Who manages the marketing management system?"

"You're testing me to see how much I really know about the people I work for aren't you, Miss Long? Well, you might fire me for getting so nosy about the people who are my employers, but I want you to know I enjoyed working for you all these years. Doubly so now I have seen who my boss is."

Karen felt as if the conversation passed by her somehow. Ben was talking in riddles and there was something in there she wasn't getting a handle on. "Would you run it by me one more time, please?"

"A man never had a prettier or a nicer looking boss than you, Miss Long. That's a fact, and I mean it from the bottom of my heart. I would have said it even if you weren't the one making out my paycheck. I know it comes from you even if there is some accountant's name on the voucher."

"Ben, you can't possibly believe I’m your employer? If you are saying what I think you are saying then you’re dead wrong. I work for a living just like you. I go to work at a large company and make things on special order for the public."

"Yes, ma'am, if that is the way you want it. If you wish, I will hand in my resignation this afternoon."

Karen could tell by his tone of voice he was feeling hurt. "Ben, I will try to get a friend I know, to help me find out who is head of your company so you will know who your boss is. Tell me, who is the one you get all your directions or instructions from in this marketing company you told me about?"

"Mr. Henry. Your manager." Ben was still hurt.

She grabbed the handle bar in front of her as the world spun out from under her. It took her several seconds to get her thoughts in order.

"Henry? Henry who?" It was a whisper old Ben hardly heard.

He walked around in front of the golf cart before he answered. The lights in bay six came on. "Just Mr. Henry. He doesn't use any other name. Like you, we have never seen him either. But if he is as handsome as you are pretty, then you two sure must make a striking looking couple together."

"Yes, we make a fine looking couple. I plan on strangling him when I get my hands on him." She couldn't wait to get her hands on him. He would pay dearly for this treachery.

"Please don't be mad at Mr. Henry. It wasn't him who told me you were boss of this outfit. You don't get as many miles on you as I have without being able to add up some of the missing puzzle pieces."

He was holding the door open on a little Mercedes sports. "Well, here she is."

Karen looked over at Ben who was standing by the shiniest little red sports car she had ever seen. Must be the lights reflecting on it to make it so vibrantly red. Looking around now the lights were on, she could see thousands of cars in every direction.

"Miss Long, if you follow the arrows on the floor, they will lead you out of here. There were so many options in this little car to start with, I didn't think we would be able to get the bullet proof glass in without taking something else off. But we have some real wizards down at the remake shop. They can do anything a person wants. To tell the truth, I was wondering if we were going to get this little jewel out of here since you ordered it four months ago. I guess you have so many cars you don't worry about one more?"

Karen slid into the seat and found it awkward.

"They take a little getting use to at first, Miss Long. Back up to the seat and sit down. Then, swivel your feet and legs in. Just the reverse when you get out. I swear, there isn't any prettier sight than a beautiful woman getting out of a little red sports car."

"Miss Long, if I were thirty years younger, I would give your Mr. Henry a run for his money. I’m glad I brought you down here myself. Those boys back in the office would have had a heart attack if they could see you now. You gave most of them one right there in the office. The only reason I can figure out why it took so long for those bay lights to come on is, they were back there fighting to see who got the privilege to turn them on for you."

"Well, I do rattle on just like an old man. It is only because I do admire looking at you." Ben shut her door and backed away from the car.

Karen fumbled around for the keys, the seat adjustment, and the window switches. She found all three in that order. She was looking up at where Ben was standing and smiled at him. "Ben, if you are right in what you think then you aren't fired. There couldn't be a nicer person I would want to run my company if I owned one. Forget what you said about a resignation. If I were running this company then it wouldn't be accepted. I think some of the older generation needs to be around the younger generation to teach them manners they were never taught at home. Their staring at me was bad manners. You doing it was a compliment. I accept both with equal grace."

"Miss Long, you are a real lady in every sense of the word."

After Karen left they drove her Volkswagen in. Now why in the world would a woman with her means want to drive a car like that? Must have been one of those deals where she didn't want to be recognized by the office staff. Ben decided, if she wanted to keep everyone else from knowing who she was, her secret was safe with him.

Driving out of the warehouse was simple enough. As Ben said, all she needed to do was follow the arrows painted on the floor. Making her way back up the reverse route she drove coming down here from home was also simple. What she hadn't counted on was how paranoid she suddenly became if she thought someone was getting too close to her little red car. She didn't remember this much traffic when she drove in this morning. Before they could have been tailgating right on her bumper and it didn't bother her. Now she didn't want them within a city block. The car was quick and responsive and if it wasn't for the disk brakes all the way around, she would have run over several cars on the way home. Speeding up or slowing down, it was a whole lot quicker than her Volkswagen had been.

Coming upon the mall where she she was wanting to stop, and see what they had done with her duplicate, almost did her nerves in. Traffic was packed in behind her and they weren't moving very well ahead of her. Honking horns and squealing tires weren't the way to get things moving but everyone was doing it. Karen finally made her way onto one of the exit lanes into the shopping mall lot and turned in.

She did it the way Ben told her, about how to get out of the car. She thought she looked graceful enough. Not at all like the way she had been doing with her old car, putting one leg out and then swinging the other behind. Karen attracted a small discretionary following before she ever reached the inside of the mall. Most of them tried to look at her without being obnoxious about it. The ones who tried to make body contact or get in her face she ignored. Once inside though, the crowd kept growing as she strolled past the shops searching for Bob's Intimates. She could see people pointing at her and whispering to one another. Several times she caught the words model and mannequin. This wasn't the way she planned on looking for the model they designed. As the crowd grew around her she became more self-conscious. She began to think Henry was right, this probably wasn't a good idea.