Epilogue
W oodrow Barret stepped out of his vehicle into the cool autumn air. The sun was bright, casting long, tangled shadows over the parking lot. The factory loomed in front of him, large and opaque, a slate grey building nestled in an industrial park. He held a hand over his eyes and scanned the picnic table area, looking at the group of employees sitting around, smoking, their industrial safety glasses stuck on their foreheads. They wore bright safety vests and cargo pants, all of them uniformly dreary, with sweaty faces despite the chilly air. They sat around smoking cigarettes and drinking red cans of coke; shooting looks at the rich man in his nice clothes.
He spotted her. He walked over to a woman sitting on top of one of the tables, smoking a cigarette with her cellphone on her knees. A football game was playing on her screen.
She recognized him.
And smiled through a dim cloud of smoke. "Hello, young man," she said. "Did you miss me?"
It had been five years. There was no one to stop him now. He could hear an echo of his father, snorting with dismissal when he tried to tell him he had a thing for one of his factory employees. "You can buy an island, boy. Date someone at your level."
That didn't matter now.
Barret bowed his head respectfully, hoping she'd have him. He could only hope.
"Yes ma'am," he said. "I missed you a lot."