The Imperfect Marriage novel · Chapter 19 of 24
Chapter 19: The Launch
The Haas Marine launch took place on a long concrete slip in grey November light.
A new ore carrier sat above the water on its cradle, painted black and red, with a ribbon strung across its bow.
Two hundred Haas workers stood in hard hats in front of the hull.
Behind them, a hundred more people crowded the slip: reporters, bankers, wives, and the whole Stenbeck Marine crew.
The crew chief had brought every one of them in buses.
They stood at the back with their arms folded.
My father sat in the front row in a folding chair, in a suit, with his pump bag on his lap.
Pru held one of his arms and her son held the other.
"Is the boat going to fall?" her son asked.
"Yes," said Arne. "Sit tight."
Ross stood beside me.
He did not take my hand.
I took his, and his fingers closed around mine so hard it hurt.
On the little stage by the bow, the executor stood in her plum suit with a bottle of champagne tied to a rope.
Lowell's father stepped to the microphone in his camel coat and put his hands together.
"Friends, colleagues, family of Haas Marine," he said. "This is a proud day for the waterfront."
He had a good voice for a platform.
He spoke for four minutes about ninety years of steel and honest work.
Then he lowered his eyes, in a sorrowful way, to the executor.
"Before we christen her, there's an unpleasant matter. My son has brought a petition before our honored guest. It concerns the Stenbeck family, and a marriage that was never real."
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