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learn.”
    “You keep making it sound like I’ll be here a while,” said Warren.
    “Why not?” said Bridget, realizing all at once that she was doing what she’d just told herself she wouldn’t.  Taking in strays.  At least this one seemed to deserve it somehow.  Besides, all she was really doing was giving him advice.  The rest was up to him.

Chapter Five
     
    As the day grew long and a cool ocean breeze beat back the afternoon heat, the extras lined up at a table just outside the soundstage to have their pay slips signed.  Behind the table sat Kevin, barking directions to those in line as he examined each slip one at a time and scrawled his signature across the bottom.  “Lunch from twelve to twelve-thirty, out time five forty-five!” he shouted.
    Warren stood next to Bridget in the line, somewhat doubtful that he’d be able to pull one over on them.  Why should they pay him?  He was merely an interloper, after all.  Besides, he didn’t consider what he’d done that afternoon to actually be work.  It was all just a lark, but he might as well see it through.  Bridget leaned close and whispered in his ear, “Let me do the talking.”  Warren wasn’t about to argue.  He was happy to leave things in her hands. 
    “Vouchers?” Kevin demanded when they got to the front. 
    “He lost his,” Bridget replied.
    Kevin looked at them both suspiciously.  “What do you mean lost it?”   Kevin didn’t have time for this.  It was mucking up the works.  Thirty people still stood in line behind them, all wanting to go home.
    “He lost it, is all,” said Bridget.
    “I think maybe it fell in that garbage can.  With the fire,” said Warren. “Burned up.”
    “Come on, let’s go!” came a voice from further back in the line.  “We haven’t got all day!”  The voice belonged to Charles, ratcheting up the pressure on the First AD.
    “Who did you sign in with?” Kevin asked Warren, annoyed.
    “The same as me,” Bridget answered, placing her voucher on the table.
    Kevin looked hers over.  He pursed his lips, signed Bridget’s voucher, and then pulled a blank voucher from a manila folder.  He handed the blank voucher to Warren.  “Fill this in with your social security number and address.”
    “What if I don’t have an address?” said Warren.
    “What do you mean you don’t have an address?  You have to live somewhere.  Where are we supposed to send your check?” said Kevin.
    “Can you pay me in cash?” Warren asked.
    Kevin narrowed his eyes.  He just wanted this man and all of his problems to go away and leave him alone.  “Take your signed voucher to payroll between 9 and 5,” he said.  He wrote the in and out times on the form, signed it, and handed it to Warren.  “Eight a.m. tomorrow, right here.  Be sure you’re in the same wardrobe.”
    “No problem, it’s all I’ve got,” said Warren.
    Kevin looked him over quizzically and then turned away.  “Next!” he shouted.
    Warren smiled to himself as he and Bridget moved off.  That went pretty well, he thought.  He owed it all to Bridget, his new friend and protector.  “Thanks,” he said, chuckling lightly as they moved off.
    “Any time,” she replied with a smile.
    “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then,” he said and then headed back in the direction of the cement wall he’d hopped over that morning.
    “Where are you going?” Bridget called out after him.
    “I came in over here,” Warren answered.
    “You can go out the gate,” Bridget laughed.  “You’re one of us now, for better or for worse.”
    Warren shrugged sheepishly.  “All right.”  He followed Bridget through the lot and out past a guard gate. 
    “Goodnight Warren.  I’ll see you tomorrow,” said Bridget once they’d reached the sidewalk.
    “Sure thing,” Warren answered cagily.  It wasn’t like he owed them anything.  He could always just spend another day on the street, playing his sax and hanging out with his