Page 23 of Working for Keeps

I could keep the decision.

It’s what I’m good at.

Three years ago, Mick would have built me a house with his own two hands if I’d only given him a chance.

But I never gave him a choice.

And that’s the whole crime.

It wasn’t the leaving.

It was making the decision meant for two people all by myself.

I take a deep breath and pick up the encrypted drive.

I print the letter of intent, all eleven pages, on the wheezing office laser printer.

I print Section 14, Clause B.

I print the demolition line item with the dollar figure on it.

I fold the pages into a manila folder and put it under my arm and walk out past the receptionist who does not look up, and I get in my car.

I pull in behind a truck on Third Street that I would know anywhere, in front of a cinderblock box with a hand-painted sign over the door.

My hands are shaking on the wheel. I let them until the shaking dissipates. Then I get out.

Inside, the folding chairs are stacked against the wall, and Mick is at the dented steel desk at the back with a stack of grievance forms before him. When he sees me, his whole face opens, and it’s that warmth—unguarded, undefended, there since Saturday night—that becomes the worst thing I’ve ever had to look at.

“Ms. Warden,” he says, a smile reaching his eyes.

“Mick.” My voice cracks on his name. “Lock the door.”

The smile goes out.

He stands up, his gaze moving to the folder under my arm.

“Vera.” He has gone very still. “What is it?”

I set the folder on the steel desk between us and put my hand flat on it for the last second before the world changes, because I want to remember his face the way it is right now.

“They’re not cutting jobs,” I say. “They’re leveling the plant. It was signed on Friday afternoon. I found out at seven-forty this morning and I drove straight here, and I’m not going to tell you what to do about it.”

I take my hand off the folder.

“You are. Read it.”

Ten

Mick

Iread it twice.

The first time, the words come at me like sparks off a grinder and none of them stick. The second time I read it line by line, with my finger on the paper, because if a man is going to be executed he can at least be accurate about the charge.

Complete liquidation of the existing local workforce no later than August 15. Demolition of the primary brick structures to commence immediately following.

August. Twelve weeks.