Part 8 (1/2)

She crossed to the office and tried the shelter again. ”Please, please answer,” she said, and when they did, she was so surprised, she forgot to tell them the couple would be inside.

”It'll be at least half an hour,” the man said. ”Or forty-five minutes.””Forty-five minutes?”

”It's like this whenever it gets below zero,” the man said. ”We'll try to make it sooner.”

At least she'd done the right thing-they couldn't possibly stand out in that snow for forty-five minutes. The right thing, she thought ruefully, sticking them in the furnace room.

Rut at least it was warm in there and out of the snow. And they were safe, as long as n.o.body came out to see what had happened to her.

”Dee,” she said suddenly. Sharon was supposed to have come out to get her some cough drops.

They were lying on the desk where she'd laid them while she phoned. She s.n.a.t.c.hed them up and took off down the hall and into the sanctuary.

The angel was on the chancel steps, exhorting the shepherds not to be afraid. Sharon threaded her way through them up to the chancel and sat down between Dee and Virginia.

She handed the cough drops to Dee, who said, ”What took you so long?”

”I had to make a phone call. What did I miss?” ”Not a thing. We're still on the shepherds.

One of the palm trees fell over and had to be fixed, and then Reverend Farrison stopped the rehearsal to tell everybody not to let homeless people into the church, that Holy Trinity had had its sanctuary vandalized.”

”Oh,” she said. She gazed out over the sanctuary, looking for Reverend Farrison.

”All right, now, after the angel makes her speech,” Rose said, ”she's joined by a mult.i.tude of angels. That's you, junior choir. No. Line up on the steps. Organ?”

The organ struck up ”Hark, the Herald Angels Sing,” and the junior choir began singing in piping, nearly inaudible voices.

Sharon couldn't see Reverend Farrison anywhere. ”Do you know where Reverend Farrison went?” she whispered to Dee.

”She went out just as you came in. She had to get something from the office.”

The office. What if she heard them in the furnace room and opened the door and found them in there? She half stood.

”Choir,” Rose said, glaring directly at Sharon. ”Will you help the junior choir by humming along with them?”

Sharon sat back down, and after a minute Reverend Farrison came in from the back, carrying a pair of scissors.

” 'Late in time, behold Him come,'” the junior choir sang, and Miriam stood up and went out.

”Where's Miriam going?” Sharon whispered.

”How would I know?” Dee said, looking curiously at her. ”To get the refreshments ready, probably. Is something the matter?”

”No,” she said.

Rose was glaring at Sharon again. Sharon hummed, ” 'Light and life to all He brings,'”

willing the song to be over so she could go out, but as soon as it was over, Rose said, ”All right, wise men,” and a sixth-grader carrying a jewelry box started down the center aisle.

”Choir, 'We Three Kings.' Organ?”

There were four long verses to ”We Three Kings of Orient Are.” Sharon couldn't wait.

”I have to go to the bathroom,” she said. She set her folder on her chair and ducked down the stairs behind the chancel and through the narrow room that led to the side aisle. The choir called it the flower room because that was where they stored the out-of-season altar arrangements. They used it for sneaking out when they needed to leave church early, but right now there was barely room to squeeze through. The floor was covered with music stands and pots of silk Easter lilies, and a huge spray of red roses stood in front of the door to the sanctuary.Sharon shoved it into the corner, stepping gingerly among the lilies, and opened the door.

”Balthazar, lay the gold in front of the manger, don't drop it. Mary, you're the Mother of G.o.d. Try not to look so scared,” Rose said.

Sharon hurried down the side aisle and out into the hall, where the other two kings were waiting, holding perfume bottles.

” 'Westward leading, still proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light,' ” the choir sang.

The hall and office lights were still off, but light was spilling out of the adult Sunday school room all the way to the end of the hall. She could see that the furnace-room door was still shut.

I'll call the shelter again, she thought, and see if I can hurry them up, and if I can't, 111 take them downstairs till everybody's gone, and then take them to the shelter myself.

She tiptoed past the open door of the adult Sunday school room so Miriam wouldn't see her, and then half-sprinted down to the office and opened the door.

”Hi,” Miriam said, looking up from the desk. She had an aluminum pitcher in one hand and was rummaging in the top drawer with the other. ”Do you know where the secretary keeps the key to the kitchen? It's locked, and I can't get in.” ”No,” Sharon said, her heart still pounding. ”I need a spoon to stir the Kool-Aid,” Miriam said, opening and shutting the side drawers of the desk. ”She must have taken them home with her. I don't blame her. First Baptist had theirs stolen last month. They had to change all the locks.”

Sharon glanced uneasily at the furnace-room door.

”Oh, well,” Miriam said, opening the top drawer again. ”I'll have to make do with this.” She pulled out a plastic ruler. ”The kids won't care.”

She started out and then stopped. ”They're not done in there yet, are they?”

”No,” Sharon said. ”They're still on the wise men. I needed to call my husband to tell him to take the turkey out of the freezer.”

”I've got to do that when I get home,” Miriam said. She went across the hall and into the library, leaving the door open. Sharon waited a minute and then called the shelter. It was busy.

She held her watch to the light from the hall. They'd said half an hour to forty-five minutes.

By that time the rehearsal would be over and the hall would be full of people.

Less than half an hour. They were already singing ”Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume.” All that was left was ”Silent Night” and then ”Joy to the World,” and the angels would come streaming out for cookies and Kool-Aid.

She went over to the front door and peered out. Below zero, the woman at the shelter had said, and now there was sleet, slanting sharply across the parking lot.

She couldn't send them out in that without any shoes. And she couldn't keep them up here, not with the kids right next door. She was going to have to move them downstairs.

But where? Not the choir room. The choir would be taking their folders and robes back down there, and the pageant kids would be getting their coats out of the Sunday school rooms. And the kitchen was locked.

The nursery? That might work. It was at the other end of the hall from the choir room, but she would have to take them past the adult Sunday school room to the stairs, and the door was open.

” 'Si-i-lent night, ho-oh-ly night,'” came drifting out of the sanctuary, and then was cut off, and she could hear Reverend Farrison's voice lecturing, probably about the dangers of letting the homeless into the church.

She glanced again at the furnace-room door and then went into the adult Sunday school room. Miriam was setting out the paper cups on the table. She looked up. ”Did you get through to your husband?”

”Yes,” Sharon said. Miriam looked expectant. ”Can I have a cookie?” Sharon said at random. ”Take one of the stars. The kids like the Santas and the Christmas trees thebest.”

She grabbed up a bright yellow-frosted star. ”Thanks,” she said, and went out, pulling the door shut behind her.