Altarboy novel · Chapter 22 of 24
Chapter 22: Midnight Mass
Kaz didn't stop to think.
He ran down the side aisle past the confessional, through the sacristy, and out the little door that opened into the cold.
The statue of St. Joseph stood by the step where it always stood.
He lifted the plaster base with both hands and the key was under it, black with age.
His mother had shown it to him at ten.
He ran around the corner of the church into the glare of the television lights.
The woman in the red coat stood on the steps with a cameraman, filming live.
At her back, a big man in a clean jacket was trying to get into a red truck.
Two of the hardware man's sons had him by the arms.
"Get off me!"
"We saw you," one of them said. "We all saw you."
"It's a safety matter, I was protecting my son..."
"With a padlock?" the reporter said sweetly into her microphone.
Kaz did not look at his father.
He went straight past him to the side door, unlocked it, and shouted into the dark of the vestibule.
"This way! Everybody through the side!"
They came in a flood, coats and children and old men on canes, around the corner and through the sacristy.
The reporter followed them in with the camera on her shoulder.
Inside the nave, the crowd that had been trapped by the chain turned in their pews to watch the people pour in.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of Altarboy are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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