Joe sighed. He lifted a shirt from a chair and under it found part of the costume he had worn in last night’s high-school play. He opened the door.
“Did Dad leave the Journal, Mother?”
“It’s here.”
Joe came downstairs. “What kind of press did we get?”
“Fancy Dan Carlin speaking,” Kate Carlin said plaintively. Suddenly she began to laugh. There was something so rich, so special in her laughter that, somehow, the boy laughed, too.
“That’s show business talk, Mother. A show gets a good press or a bad press.”
“You’re not in show business, Joe. Or must I remind you?”
The boy caught himself in time. He had almost blurted that he intended to go into show business.
A headline in the Journal said:
Joe Carlin Stars in Annual Hi Show