Altarboy novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: Christmas Morning

The carriage house was warm and gray with early snow light.

Fintan sat on the edge of the bed with the phone in both hands.

Kaz sat beside him, wrapped in the blanket, and did not say a word.

"I thought I'd play it at the grave," Fintan said. "Then I thought, in the church. Then I thought, never."

He pressed the screen.

It crackled once, and a voice came out of it, an old man's voice, hoarse and cheerful, with a clatter of tools somewhere behind it.

"Fintan, it's your father. Don't ring back tonight if you're working late."

Fintan didn't breathe.

"I just wanted to say I changed the furnace filters, and the bell rope's good till spring."

"And you were right about the new hinge on the sacristy door. I'd have fought you on it, but you were right."

A small, pleased laugh.

"Come when the job's done, no hurry. Ring me Sunday."

"I'm proud of you, son. Good night."

The recording ended.

The room was silent except for the stove.

Fintan sat there for a long time with the dark phone in his hands.

Then his shoulders began to shake.

He made no sound at all at first.

Kaz dropped the blanket and put both arms around him, and the big body folded into his and wept.

"He wasn't angry," Fintan managed.

"No."

"He fixed the hinge. I told him in September. He fixed it, Kaz."

"I know."

"I spent two years..."

"I know."

Kaz held on, and kept holding on, and kissed his hair, his temple, his wet jaw.

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