You Fired the Backbone of Detroit novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Found Family

By noon on Christmas Day, the annex smelled like roast turkey, pierogi and hot engine oil.

Somebody had strung colored lights along the broken roll-up door.

The twins had hung a wreath on the lift, and the lift now looked like a very ugly present.

Marty's four kids ran circles around the Nine.

Their mother stood at a folding table with a ladle, giving orders to men twice her size.

"Nobody touches that car with a sticky hand," she said.

"Yes, ma'am," the welder said, and wiped his fingers on his own shirt.

The machinist sat on an upturned crate with the youngest on his knee, showing her how a micrometer worked.

The oldest girl from Marty's kitchen watched me over a paper plate.

"You're still here," she said.

"I live here, apparently."

"Dad says you're a stubborn old goat."

"Your dad says a lot of things."

"He also says you're the reason he doesn't have a boss he hates."

I didn't know what to do with that, so I gave her a pierogi.

Clifford rolled in at one, pushed by a nurse, in a Santa hat that Cleo had put on his head.

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