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which one of us takes you?"
    The look of panic in his eyes was more of an answer than his whispered "No."
    Step came back into the kitchen, carrying his attache case -- his jail- in-a-box, he called it.
    "Step," said DeAnne, "I think Stevie was expecting you to take him to school this morning."
    "Oh, man," he said, "I didn't think." His face got that look of inward anger that DeAnne knew all too well.
    "Isn't it great that I've got this job so I can't even take my kid to school on his first day."
    "It's your first day, too."
    He knelt down beside Stevie's chair. Stevie was looking down into his mush. "Stevie, I should've planned it better. But I didn't, and now I've got this guy outside waiting for me and ..."
    The doorbell rang.
    "Geez louise," said Step.
    "You've got to go," said DeAnne. "Stevie'll be all right, you'll see. Right, Stevie?"
    "Right," said Stevie softly.
    Step kissed Stevie on the cheek and then Betsy was saying "Me too me too" and he kissed both the other kids and then grabbed his case and headed for the front door.
    DeAnne tried to reassure Stevie. "I'm sorry, but this is how your dad is earning the money we live on now, and he can't very well ..."
    "I know, Mom," said Stevie.
    "We'll head for school and you'll meet the principal and ..."
    Step strode back into the kitchen. "I explained to him that we had a crisis and tomorrow he'll find me waiting on the curb for him, but today I'm going to be late. Got to take my son to second grade."
    DeAnne was half delighted, half appalled. She knew perfectly well that in his own way, Step dreaded going back to an eight-to-five job as much as Stevie dreaded starting a new school. "This'll really impress 'em, Junk Man," she said, smiling grimly. "Missing your car pool and showing up late on your first day."
    "Might as well get used to the idea that I'm a father first and a computer manual writer eighth."
    "What comes between first and eighth?" asked Stevie, who was obviously delighted.
    "Everything else," said Step.
    "You'd better call," said DeAnne.
    Step got on the phone and she knew at once that it wasn't working the way he had so glibly assumed it would.
    "Bad," he said when he was done. "They have a staff meeting at eight-thirty and they were planning to introduce me there and everybody has sort of scheduled everything around my being there on time this morning."
    "But now your ride is gone," DeAnne pointed out, trying not to be mean about it.
    Step was kneeling by Stevie's chair again. "I can't help it, Door Man."
    "I know," said Stevie.
    "I tried," said Step. "But the family really needs me to keep this job, especially since we moved all the way to North Carolina so I could get it."
    Stevie nodded, trying to look game about the whole thing.
    "I do my job for the family," said Step, "and you do yours."
    "What's mine?" asked Stevie. He looked hopeful.
    "Toughing it out and going to school," said Step.
    Apparently he had been hoping for an alternate assignment. But he swallowed hard and nodded again. Then he thought of something. "How will you get there now that your ride is gone?"
    "He'll fly," offered Robbie.
    "No," said DeAnne, "that's your mother the witch who knows how to fly."
    "I guess we'll all pile into the car together and you'll take me to work on the way to taking you to school."
    "Couldn't you take me to school on the way to taking you to work?" asked Stevie.
    "Sorry, Door Man," said Step. "That would be backtracking. Geography is against it. The clock is against it.
    All of time and space are against it. Einstein is against it."
    When they got to Eight Bits Inc., Step leaned into the back seat and kissed Stevie good-bye, and even though Stevie was well into the age where parents' kisses aren't welcome, this time he made no fuss. While Step was giving Robbie and Elizabeth the traditional noisy smack, DeAnne looked over the one-story red-brick building where Step was going to be spending his time.
    It was one of those ugly flat-roofed things that