Chapter 19: The Brass Bell

The owner's wife called me on Monday afternoon, while I was pinning a sleeve in the back room.

"I wanted you to hear it from me," she said.

"My husband took Brad's keys on Friday night. Brad cleaned out his desk on Saturday."

"And the promotion?"

"It went to a woman in receiving who has never once lied to him about a truck."

I thanked her.

I did not feel what I had expected to.

I felt tired, and a little sick, and I went on pinning.

At half past five the sky was already dark.

Nolan was sweeping up the front room.

Junie sat on a stool at the end of the cutting table, sorting buttons into her egg cartons.

The bell on the door rang.

It rang twice, hard, because someone had shoved the door.

Brad stood in the doorway with no coat on.

He had no truck at the curb, either.

His eyes were red and his tie was gone, and I smelled the whiskey from across the room.

"Lana," he said.

Nolan put down the broom.

"Brad, you need to leave."

"I need to talk to my wife."

"Not like this."

Brad did not look at him.

He looked past me at the table.

"Junie," he said, in the warm voice. "Daddy came to take you home, sweetheart."

Junie's hand closed around a button.

"I'm not going home," she said.

"Honey, your room's all ready."

"Eli sleeps in it."

I saw Brad's face change.

"I lost my job," he said, to me, and not to her. "I lost my truck. You did that to me."

"You did that, Brad."

"I gave you everything."