Altarboy novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Slippers

They split up at the bottom of the stairs.

Fintan took the church and the cellar.

Kaz took the yard, the street, and the dark.

The snow came down in big wet flakes that melted on his cheeks.

He ran down the block calling Father Cyril's name, past the closed bakery and the corner bar.

A man in the bar window raised his glass to him, thinking it was a joke.

No old man in a cassock.

No plaid slippers, either, because the slippers were upstairs.

That scared him more than anything.

If Father had put on his outdoor shoes, he'd had a plan.

If he'd put on his outdoor shoes, he was still thinking like himself.

Kaz stopped under a streetlight with his hands on his knees.

He thought of the first funeral he ever served, at ten years old.

Father Cyril had taken him by the shoulder and shown him where the old priests were buried, behind the church, under the pines.

"They like to hear the bells," Father had said.

Kaz turned around and ran back.

He cut through the yard, over the low iron fence, between the dark pines.

The old cemetery was the size of a tennis court, with a few dozen leaning stones and a stone angel that had lost its nose.

A small figure knelt in the snow at the foot of the last grave in the row.

"Father!"

The old man looked up.

He had no hat.

His glasses were fogged white, and snow had settled on his bald head.

"Kasimir," he said calmly. "Is it late?"

"It's very late." Kaz dropped to his knees beside him and grabbed his freezing hands. "Why are you out here?"

"I came to tell the monsignor about the roof."

Kaz looked at the stone.

The stone said PASTOR OF ST. HEDWIG'S 1961 TO 1988, and nothing else but a cross.

"He's been dead a long time, Father."

"I know that." The old man gave him a patient look. "I'm not a fool, Kasimir. I know what I forget. I always know it afterward."

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