The cars were four abreast on the outbound lanes of the freeway, big cars, little cars, station wagons filled with children, most of them headed for the sea, the mountains or the desert. It was one of the advantages of living in Los Angeles. If you could afford it, you had such a wide variety of places in which you could spend your weekends. You could even combine them. During the first year that he and Paquita had been married, he had proved to her on a dare that they could swim in the ocean in the morning, have lunch in the desert, get in a little skiing in the mountains in the afternoon and still drive back to Los Angeles in time to dress and catch the second show at the world famous Cocoanut Grove. It had been nice to have money, Laredo reflected. He meant to have money again, a lot of money. If he could just get past the next few weeks, he might make it. Any number of successful showmen had founded their fortunes on a lot less than a kiddy carousel, a Ferris wheel and a miniature train.
