He Gave Me $18, So I Left Him with Nothing novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Sunday in Church

I went down to the curb in my robe, with Clark two steps behind me.

Constance did not get out of the car.

"Good morning, Katherine."

"What do you want?"

"Church is at ten." She looked at Clark, and then away. "The whole congregation will be there. It would look strange if Walt Brandt's daughter wasn't."

"I'm not going to church with you."

"You will bring the child, and you will sit in your father's pew." She smoothed her glove. "Or I will stand up and tell them why you aren't there."

She started the engine.

"I've been very patient with you. Wear the blue dress."

The sedan pulled away, and I stood on the sidewalk with my fists tight.

"You don't have to go," Clark said.

"Yes, I do."

I said it before I knew why.

Then I did.

My father had sat in that pew every Sunday of my life.

She had been standing in front of his church for five years, telling them who I was.

I wore the blue dress.

Poppy wore her yellow raincoat over her best tights, because she said God liked a hat.

My father's pew was the fourth from the front on the left, with a small brass plate on the end that read BRANDT.

Nobody had taken the plate down.

Constance sat across the aisle with Dean, his face washed and shaved and tired.

I slid in with Poppy on my knee.

Behind us, the doors opened, and the whole crew from the yard filed in, in clean shirts, and sat in the three back rows.

The old foreman nodded at me.

Clark came last and took the aisle seat in the very back.

The hymns went by.

The pastor read from the Gospel, and Poppy whispered, "Why is he reading so slowly?"

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