Altarboy novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Dumpster

Fintan didn't ask where.

He took his keys off the hook by the sacristy door and said, "Truck's behind the rectory."

Kaz was still in the pinned alb.

He pulled it over his head, left it on the counter, and followed him out into the afternoon with his hands shaking.

The truck was a rust-colored pickup with a cracked dash and a crucifix swinging from the mirror.

"Don't touch the radio," Fintan said.

"I wasn't going to."

"Good. It only gets the polka station."

Kaz laughed, and then he stopped, because he realized Fintan had said it on purpose.

They drove across the river in silence.

Kaz gave directions in one-word bursts, left, right, the light, the bakery.

Then the street opened up on both sides, small brick houses with chain-link fences.

His father's house sat at the end, shutters peeling, with a yellow dumpster in the driveway.

A few people stood in clusters on the sidewalk.

The neighbor from across the street was on her porch again.

Gene was on the lawn, in his camo cap, with his girlfriend beside him and four of his crew leaning on the truck.

They were having a barbecue.

Kaz saw the grill smoking and the cooler on the grass.

They put my mother in a dumpster, he thought, and they're having hot dogs.

"Stay in the truck," Fintan said.

"No."

"Kaz."

"If I stay in the truck, he wins in front of everyone."

Fintan looked at him for one second.

"Then get out," he said. "Don't say anything yet. Let me look."

They crossed the lawn together.

Gene saw them coming and put down his beer.

"Well," he said, loud enough for the street. "He lives."

"I want my mother's things," Kaz said.

"They're trash."

"They're hers."

"They're in my house, so they're mine. Take it up with the dumpster."

Behind Gene, his girlfriend gave a little giggle.

Fintan said nothing.

He walked past Gene.

He put one boot on the rail of the yellow dumpster and swung himself over.

He landed with a crash of garbage.

The crew stopped laughing.

"Hey," Gene said. "Hey! That's private property!"

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