"I wonder what the poor people are doing?" John asked his guests when they visited them at Sagamore and it was funny because John earned so little money as an eyeglass fitter, that you knew he felt he was living way above his means. Of course he wanted to share it with all, so they loaned the cottage out to family when they weren't there.

On this day they were in Hollis. Tina drove and Marge sat in the back with John. Although Carl had never got a license, it didn't stop him from calling out instructions and directions as she drove. As agreed, they dropped John off at the A & P Food Store. "Remember: the Columbian blend coffeee," Marge said and he nodded as they pulled away. When they left him on the curb, he seemed to be searching around in his pockets for a match, with a shark of a salesman eyeing him from the next door used car lot. John had a shopping list for food, but the salesman had him picked out. With his suit and tie and cigar, black glasses and shiny bald head, he'd attracted the salesman's attention for some reason. So the salesman straightened out his plaid suit and ran a finger across his waxed mustache before he walked out of the permanent trailer where his office was He came out and immediately took up giving John the grand tour. He'd already sized up John Wilson and planned to take him to the part of the lot where they kept the cars that those in the know called "Lemons". You didn't want to get stuck with one of them! "You should see the car I came in. It has trouble getting up a hill, It seems to drain everything out of it to get up that hill." "What hill?" "We drive up in the country with it. But mainly Hillside Avenue though." "Is it a V8?" "Yeah. Aren't they all?." The man raised an eyebrow. Shortly the short tour of used cars in the front of the lot and correctly sizing up John Wilson, Smith led him to the back part of the lot. Here were the cars that those in the know called "Lemons". You didn't want to get stuck with one of these. "You got some money in your pocket? These here are the best deals," he woved his arm across a row of well worn 40's style vehicles, all of them shiny and clean and none of them giving away their real secret of worthlessness. "The've all been run, been gone over real good in our garage," the shifty salesman explained. "Any of them have an ashtray?," John mumbled. "What?" the salesman said in surprise. "Yes! They all have an ashtray and take a look at this!" The salesman said, bending over into the car. John was still feeling around in his pockets for a light, the cigar held in the other hand. "Grandma and Grandpa had this old pontiac. I remember it these windshield wipers that used to slow down and the lights that would dim when it tried to go up a hill," said Tom. "It's a Pontiac," the salesman said, standing proudly in front of John. He was trying, but John wasn't buying, to project his most convincing attitude. The big Indian ornament on the hood looked like it was his trophy, racing forward. John gave the fancy ornament an impassive stare. "Okay. But you've got to test drive it." Said the undaunted salesman, holding out a flaming lighter for John's White Owl. So John opened the drivers side door of the car and slid into it. The first thing he did was to pull out the ashtray and sit there behind the wheel for a while smoking a cigar, then he tapped some ashes off the smoking cigar and stepped out of the car to join the salesman who decided not to get in the car with the smoking cigar. "Nice," John said. "But aren't you going to drive it?" "I don't drive. Thanks for the light," he said, exhaling a perfect smoke ring that drew just the slightest reaction. That was not the whole story though. The rest of it was: he found a business card in his pocket and it had fell out of his pocket when he pulled out his lighter to light a cigar at Carl and Christinas. Carl had found it later thought that it was a dealer that John liked and went there to buy an underpowered '53 Pontiac. But no one had specifically recommended that dealer. John had only been trying to get out another cigar.