I Died Afraid My Broken Arm Burdened Them novel · Chapter 15 of 24
Chapter 15: The Gate
My father's black car turned in at the gate at seven.
Two security men rode in the front. A woman from his press office sat in the back with a tablet.
Plant 4's workers were already standing in the lot.
Nobody had gone home. Nobody had gone to the machines.
They stood in loose rows with their arms crossed and their breath smoking in the cold, and they watched the car come.
It stopped ten feet from my mother.
She stood on the loading ramp with the urn, and Dale stood on one side of her and Bram on the other.
My father got out and buttoned his overcoat.
He looked at the crowd, and he smiled for them.
"Good morning," he said. "I understand there has been a misunderstanding."
Nobody laughed.
"Paula, please come down. We'll go inside and talk to these people together."
"No."
"You're upset. You've been up all night. You're not yourself."
"I am exactly myself."
He turned to the crowd.
"My wife is grieving. She has lost a child. She is saying things she doesn't mean. I ask you all to go back to work, and I promise there will be a full review."
A man in the second row called out.
"What about the memo?"
"What memo?"
"The one with your name on it."
My father's smile stayed on his face a moment too long.
"I'll look into it."
"You signed it!"
"Policies are written by many hands."
My mother took out her phone.
She held it up, and I saw her thumb shake over the screen.
"I have a message for you, Lyle," she said. "It came in at three this morning. It's from a man you pay."
My father's face changed.
"Paula, don't."
"He's sorry," my mother said. "He said so."
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