Wheels (71 page)

Chapter
thirty-one

"It's your life, not mine," Adam told Brett DeLosanto. "But I wouldn't be a
friend if I didn't say that I think you're being hasty, and making an
enormous mistake
.”

It was close to midnight, and the
five of them -Adam
and Erica, Barbara
and Brett, and Leonard Wingate-were in the Country Club Manor apartment.
Brett and Wingate had joined the others half an hour ago, having driven
from the inner city. The conversation had been gloomy. When they had
exhausted all that could be said about Rollie Knight, Brett announced his
intention to leave the automobile industry and to submit a letter of
resignation tomorrow.
Adam persisted, "In another five years you could be heading up
Design-Styling
.”

"There was a time," Brett said, "when that was the only dream I had-to be
a Harley Earl, or a Bill Mitchell, or Gene Bordinat, or an Elwood Engel.
Don't misunderstand me-I think they've all been great; some are still. But
it isn't for me, that's all
.”

Leonard Wingate said, "There are other reasons, though, aren't there
.”

"Yes, there are. I don't think car manufacturers, who do so much
long-range planning for themselves, have done more than a thimbleful of
planning and service for the community they live in
.”

Adam objected, "That may have been true once; it isn't any more.
Eve
rything's changed or changing f
ast. We see it every day-in management
attitudes, community responsibility, the kind of cars we're building,
relations with government,
acknowledgment of consumers. This isn't the same business it was even two or
three years ago
.”

"I'd like to believe it," Brett said, "if only because obviously you do.
But I can't, and I'm not alone. Anyway, from now on I'll be working on the
outside
.”

Erica asked, "What will you do
.”

"If you want the truth," Brett told her, "I
’
ll be damned if I know
.”

"It wouldn't surprise me," Adam said, "if you got into politics. I
’
d like
you to know that if you do, I'll not only vote for you, I'll contribute
to your campaign
.”

Wingate said, "Me, too
.”

It was strange, he thought, that only this
evening he had sensed Brett's leadership and wondered how long he would
stay in design.
Brett grinned. "One of these days that may cost you both. I'll remember
.”

"One thing he's going to do," Barbara told the others, "is paint. If I
have to chain him to an easel and bring his meals. If I have to support
the two of us
.”

"Speaking of support," Brett said, "I've thought of starting a small
design business of my own
.”

. If you do," Adam predicted, "it won't stay small because you can't help
being a success. Also, you'll work harder than you ever did
.”

Brett sighed. 'That's what I'm afraid of
.”

But even if it happened, he thought, he would be his own man, would speak
with an independent voice. That was what he wanted most, and so did
Barbara. Brett glanced at her with a love which seemed to increase day by
day. Whatever unknown quantities were coming, he knew that they would
share them.
'There were rumors," Barbara said to Adam, "that you might leave the
company too
.”

"Where did you hear that
.”

"Oh, around
.”

Adam thought: It was hard to keep any secret in Detroit. He supposed Perce
Stuyvesant, or someone close to him, had talked.
Barbara pressed him. "Well, are you leaving
.”

"An offer was made to me," Adam said. "I thought about it seriously for
a while. I decided against it
.”

He had telephoned Perce Stuyvesant a day or two ago and explained: There
would be no point in going to San Francisco to speak of terms and details;
Adam was an automobile man and would remain one.
As Adam saw it, a good deal was wrong with the auto industry, but there
was a great deal more that, overwhelmingly, was right. The miracle of the
modern automobile was not that it sometimes failed, but that it mostly
didn't; not that it was costly, but that-for the marvels of design and
engineering it embodied-it cost so little; not that it cluttered highways
and polluted air, but that it gave free men and women what, through
history, they had mostly craved-a personal mobility.
Nor, for an executive to spend his working life, was there any more
exciting milieu.
"All of us see things in different ways," Adam told Barbara. "I guess you
could say I voted for Detroit
.”

Soon afterward they said goodnight. On the short drive from Maple and Telegraph to Quarton Lake, Adam said,
"You didn't say much tonight
.”

"I was listening," Erica answered. "And thinking. Besides, I wanted you
to myself, to tell you something
.”

"Tell me now
.”

'Well, it rather looks as if I'm pregnant. Look outl-don't swerve like
thatl"
"Just be glad," he said, as he pulled into a driveway, "you didn't tell
me on the Lodge at rush hour
.”

"Whose driveway is this
.”

"Who the hell cares
.”

He put out his arms, held her, and kissed her
tenderly.
Erica was half laughing, half crying. "You were such a tiger in Nassau.
It must have happened there
.”

He whispered, "I'm glad I was," then thought: It could be the very best
thing for them both.
Later, when they were driving again, Erica said, "I've been wondering
how Greg and Kirk will feel. You've two grown sons, then suddenly a baby
in the family
.”

"They'll love it. Because they love you. Just as I do
.”

He reached for
her hand. "I'll phone and tell them tomorrow
.”

'Well," she said, "between us we seem to be creating things
.”

It was true, he thought happily. And his life was full.
Tonight he had Erica, and this.
Tomorrow, and in days beyond, there would be Farstar.

A
bout the author
:

Born In Luton, England, in 1920, Arthur Hailey was educated in English
schools until age 14. He joined the British Royal Air Force in 1939 and
served as a pilot and flight lieutenant during World War If and in the
Middle and Far East. In 1947 Mr. Hailey emigrated to Canada, where he was
a real estate salesman, a business paper editor, and then a sales and
advertising executive. In 1956 he scored his first writing success with
a TV drama, "Flight Into Danger," which was subsequently a movie and a
novel, RUNWAY ZERO-EIGHT. Mr. Hailey, one of the great storytellers of our time, has millions of
devoted readers, and his novels are published in every major language. His
sensational bestsellers include HOTEL, AIRPORT, THE FINAL DIAGNOSIS, IN
HIGH PLACES-and his newest one, WHEELS. Mr. Hailey lives in the Bahamas with his wife Sheila and their teen-age
children: Jane, Steven, and Diane. Arthur Hailey cherishes his family
privacy, avoiding publicity except-as he puts it-"when a new book comes
out, and my publishers insist I do my duty
.”