by Selena Kitt
“Are you going to Erica’s today?” Leah’s mother asked as she stopped the car close to the front entrance.
“No.” Leah grabbed her own umbrella off the floor, reaching for the Plymouth’s door handle.
“Is there something wrong, Leah?” she asked. “You haven’t gone over there all week.”
She shrugged her book bag over her shoulder, glaring at her mother. “First I’m over there too much and now I’m not over there enough—are you ever happy?” Her mother’s hurt look made Leah stop and sigh. “Thanks for the ride.”
“Stay dry,” her mother said in a small voice as Leah opened the passenger door and struggled with her umbrella.
“Bye, Mom.” She shut the door and fell in behind the rest of the girls who were trying to make it as fast as possible into the church.
It had done nothing but rain, rain, rain all week long. They were shoulder to shoulder as they moved up the steps, and she waited while the girl in front of her closed her umbrella and shook it over the railing before stepping under the eaves and doing the same.
“Leah?” The sound of Erica’s voice made her heart lurch.
She didn’t know how she’d missed her, standing to the side on the steps. Her hair was plastered to her cheeks and the make-up she had put on that morning streaked down her face in black rivers. A casual observer would have just thought she was wet from walking in the rain, but Leah knew better—Erica had been crying.
“Are you okay?” Leah asked, the girls behind her jostling and grumbling as she stopped.
Erica shook her head and Leah slipped under the railing, moving off to the side and pulling her friend with her. There was nowhere to stand but in the rain, and it was coming down so hard Leah was immediately soaked to the skin.
“He broke up with me.” Erica choked out over the downpour and her lower lip trembled under the weight of her words.
“Oh, no,” Leah breathed, moving to put her arms around her friend, and then remembering. She stopped, mid-hug, not sure how to proceed, but Erica came the rest of the way, clinging to her, and Leah felt her silent sobs.
Leah didn’t know what else to do but hold on and they rocked back and forth, their book bags and Leah’s umbrella sitting in a puddle at their feet, forgotten.
“I’m sorry,” Leah whispered, feeling her own tears mixing with the rain. “I’m so sorry, Erica. I’m so sorry.”
“Me, too.” She hugged her tighter. “I missed you so much.”
Leah nodded. From the moment Erica had screamed, “I hate you!” until this one, it had felt like things were moving in geological time. All week, Leah felt trapped in some strange ice age—it was that cold. Life without the man she loved had proved awful, but life without her best friend too? It was beyond unbearable.
“You’re shivering.” Leah realized she was too, although inside, she felt warmer than she had all week. “Let’s go in.”
“Let’s go home.” Erica pulled back to look at Leah and squeezed her hands. “I can’t face this place today.”
Leah glanced up the steps where most of the crowd of girls had already disappeared through the big double doors. Sister Abigail was still standing there, watching them like a hawk. She even looked hawkish, with her angled nose and sharp, beady eyes. Leah shivered
“Okay,” Leah agreed in a whisper, grabbing her book bag. “We’ll go in, but make a break for it out the back way.”
Erica nodded, glancing up at Sister Abigail as the girls ducked back under the railing and started up the stairs.
“Don’t lollygag, ladies,” Sister Abigail said as they reached the top. She opened the door for them, ushering them in. “You don’t want to be late for mass.”
“Thank you, Sister,” Leah murmured, crossing herself in the vestibule with holy water as they entered. Erica did the same, both of them dripping wet still.
“Off you go.” Sister Abigail waved them toward the crowd of girls entering the chapel.
Erica sighed, joining the rest of them with Sister Abigail’s gaze on them. Leah sighed too, knowing they were stuck. It looked like they were going to have to sit through mass after all. The little kids were already inside, but the older girls—they always came later, pushing the envelope—were bringing up the rear.
“Ewwwwww!” The exclamation was followed by various cries of disgust at the front of the sanctuary. Erica, ever curious, went up on her tiptoes, trying to see over the crowd to find out what was going on.
“Sister Abigail?” Father Michael’s head appeared above the rest, dodging back and forth to catch a glimpse of her. “Can you come here please?”
The old nun sighed, gathering her skirts to her as she swept past, the news already spreading like wildfire through the crowd that some kid—sounded like it was a kindergartener—had puked all over one of the pews. They parted in a sea of red, white and blue plaid for her considerable form.
Leah and Erica looked at each other, and hesitated only a moment before they both turned and bolted in the opposite direction. Erica opened the storage room and they made their way down the aisles, pulling open the door at the end of the hallway and heading down into the cool dampness of the basement.
“I thought for sure we were stuck.” Erica grinned as they made their way down in the dimness.
“Thank God for the stomach flu.”
They both froze as they heard the sound of the storage room door opening and a voice calling, “Hello? Is someone in here?”
“Sister Abigail!” Erica hissed, eyes wide with disbelief. They crept all the way down the stairs, trying to be quiet, but they heard her coming, her heavy tread unmistakable.
“If she finds us...” Leah whispered, her heart hammering, threatening to burst out of her chest. “Oh no, if she...”
“She’s not going to find us.” Erica insisted, grabbing Leah’s hand and dragging her through the basement.
“She’s coming!” Leah moaned softly, the sound of Sister Abigail on the stairs far too close. They’d never make it out in time. Never.
Erica grabbed hold of the nearest doorknob and turned. It was locked. Leah moaned again, stopping to beat her head against the door. They were going to be caught skipping. The punishment for cutting classes would be bad—likely detention with Sister Abigail, sorting seeds for the rectory garden—but her mother’s discipline would be far worse. There would be no more sleeping over at Erica’s for a long while. The last time the girls had been caught doing something they shouldn’t—they’d been on the top floor of Hudson’s throwing whole rolls of toilet paper down to the street from the window to watch them unfurl—she hadn’t seen Erica for two full months before her mother relented.
“In here!” Erica whispered, finding an open door and waving Leah forward. Sister Abigail was at the bottom of the stairs. It was too late. Too late.
Leah ran, grabbing the doorknob as Erica slipped through the door, sliding into the open space, gulping in the darkness. Erica closed them in, pulling the door slowly, turning the knob as silently as she could, only the softest of clicks as it shut.
“Shhhhh,” Erica urged as they crouched on the floor.
Leah clutched at her friend, both of them shaking, trying to calm their racing hearts, their panting breath. It was too dark to see anything at all, except the dusky line under the door. They had no idea where they were. They could only crouch and wait for the end as Sister Abigail approached.
“She saw us,” Erica whispered. She was fumbling around in her pockets and Leah jumped when something fizzed to life in front of her. Erica was holding a lighter. “Come on, we’ve got to hide.”
“Ohhh no,” Leah moaned, but Erica was moving, pulling her along. They were in a room with shelves, but they were going too fast for Leah to see what was on them. Besides, Erica had her hand on another door, pulling her through, deeper into the church basement, leading with her lighter.
“Ha, there’s a lock,” Erica murmured as she pulled Leah through, shutting the door behind them and pressing the butto
n. The lighter went out and they both stood in the darkness, listening for Sister Abigail’s footsteps.
“Hello?” The sound of the nun’s voice through the door made Leah wince. They were going to get caught, she was sure of it. She was going to get kicked out of school and her mother was going to ground her for life and just when she and Erica had finally reunited, she was never going to be allowed to see her again.
“Shhh.” Erica’s lips pressed against her ear as she slid her arms around Leah’s waist from behind, both of them still shivering from being wet and cold—but far more from fear. “She can’t get in here.”
“Hello?”
The door shook as Sister Abigail tried it, finding it locked. The girls clung to each other in the darkness, holding their breath. There was a line of light under the door and Leah squeezed her eyes shut, wishing her away. Erica’s cheek was resting against her back, their trembling hands clutched together over Leah’s quivering middle. She was sure the nun just on the other side of the door would hear their labored breathing, the banging of her heart against her rib cage, and insist they come out like the miscreants they were. And if they refused, well she’d just go get Dale Merlini, the janitor, and they’d be dragged out and have to take the walk of shame past everyone into Father Patrick’s office.
The door shook again and Leah bit her lip, sure it was all over. They were going down like Bonnie and Clyde, two partners in crime finally caught and brought to justice. And then they heard the old nun sigh, muttering something to herself. Miraculously, the sound of her footfalls faded. The light under the door went dark, and they heard another door close. More footfalls, briefly, and then nothing.
They didn’t speak or move for at least a full minute, both of them too afraid.
Leah felt Erica begin to shake, and at first she thought she was crying, but then she realized, when her friend finally took a shuddering breath, she was laughing and trying to hold it in. Leah giggled, trying to stop herself, but the more she tried, the worse it got, until they were both snorting and snickering in the darkness.
“That was a close one!” Leah whispered, her breath hitching.
“Too close!”
Leah stood, reaching for the doorknob. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Wait.” Erica put her hand over Leah’s. “Wait a few minutes. I just want to be sure she’s not waiting for us.”
“Come on,” Leah pleaded, trying to turn the doorknob in spite of Erica’s protest. “I want to get out of here.”
“Hang on.” Erica reached around her and Leah startled as lights flickered overhead, a fluorescent buzz filling the room. “No sense running back out there and getting caught in the hallway.”
Leah sighed, crossing her arms over her chest and watching as Erica began to move further into the room, exploring. It was just more storage, metal shelves lined with boxes. She imagined the church had hundreds of rooms like this down here with stuff no one had seen in decades. Maybe centuries. Or eons.
“What is this?” Erica mused, pulling one of the boxes off the shelf.
“I have no idea.” Leah rolled her eyes, turning back to the door and pressing her ear to it, listening. “Can we go now?”
“These look familiar.”
She glanced back over her shoulder. “What do you mean?”
“These boxes.” Erica held one up. “Don’t they look familiar to you?”
“No...” Leah shook her head, too anxious to be gone to really register the gray box with the black stripe and the white letters on the side.
Erica shook the box at her, eyebrows raised, and Leah looked again, eyes widening in recognition. They were just like the boxes they’d found under Mr. Nolan’s bed, in the secret darkroom.
“What are you doing?”
Erica knelt, putting one of the metal boxes on the floor and grinning up at her. “I’m looking.”
“Curiosity killed the cat.” Leah groaned. “I’m sure they’re not what you’re thinking!”
“Satisfaction brought him back.” Erica clicked the latch but nothing happened. “And what if they are? These are film boxes, for sure.”
Leah laughed, shaking her head. “They’re probably movies they took of mass. Or church picnics. Or maybe they’re movies for teaching new priests or nuns or something, like the ones they show us about safe driving...”
Erica snorted laughter, trying it again. Lifting the box, she shook it and it rattled. “Damnit! Locked!”
She went over to the shelf, taking down another box and trying the latch, then another and another, with the same result. “They’re all locked!”
“Come on.” Leah sighed. “Let’s go, before we get caught down here.”
Erica got up, frowning as she put the boxes back on the shelf. “Oh all right.”
They opened the door where, just a few minutes before, Sister Abigail had been standing, finding more shelves filled with storage boxes in the room they’d come through in the dark. They were the banker’s kind of cardboard boxes usually containing papers and files. Leah recognized them because her mother’s employer, Mr. Highbrow, had tons of them in his office.
“Do you want to go through these too?” Leah teased as Erica turned off the fluorescents in the room they’d just vacated, closing the door behind them as she flipped the light switch on in this room.
“Oh shut up.” Erica stuck her tongue out, grabbing her friend’s hand as they made their way down the aisle toward the door to the hallway.
She turned the knob slowly, peeking through the crack in the door as she eased it open, but there was no one out in the hallway. The girls turned off the light and crept out, Erica leading the way. They found their way to the old storm cellar or bomb shelter or whatever it was, Leah didn’t really care except that it was a way out.
Up the ladder they went with their book bags and umbrellas, opening the doors at the top. It was still pouring out, which was probably a good thing, because no one was out on the street. Huddling together under Leah’s umbrella, they started their walk back to the warehouse. They were quiet for a while, both of them still shivering.
“Erica...” Leah finally prompted, glancing over at her as they walked. “What happened with Bobby?”
Erica didn’t answer for a moment, and when she did, her friend’s voice was so soft Leah could barely hear it over the pelting of the rain on the umbrella over their heads. “I told him I didn’t want to have sex anymore.”
“Oh.” Leah stopped, pulling Erica up short, as they waited for a school bus to pass before they could cross the street. “Well… why?”
“Because… because after last week...” She jumped over a puddle. “After you and my dad...”
Leah winced and sighed. “Erica, I’m so sorry...”
“Can we talk about me?” Her voice turned ice-age.
“I’m sorry,” Leah said again with a gulp. “Go on...”
“Anyway, after I found out about you and my dad… I went to confession,” Erica went on as they rounded the corner on her block. “And I told Father Michael everything.”
Leah’s stomach roiled, remembering her own time in the penance-box with Father Patrick.
“And I recommitted my virginity.”
She frowned, cocking her head. “Can you do that?”
“He said I could.” They slowed as they came to the warehouse Erica called home and turned up the walkway. “He said my recommitment would help absolve me of my sins.”
“Funny,” Leah snorted. “Father Patrick just gave me a bunch of Our Fathers and Hail Marys.”
Erica gave her friend a quelling look as she put her key in the lock. “This is serious, Leah.”
“Okay, okay.” Leah dropped her book bag and umbrella in the foyer and followed Erica to the kitchen. Being at the Nolans’ again was like coming home and her heart felt swollen and tight in her chest.
“You see, the thing is...” Erica kicked off her shoes and grabbed an apple off the table. Leah sat in one of the kitchen chairs, watching h
er friend slide up onto the counter. “I’m being punished.”
“Bobby breaking up with you is punishment?”
“Probably that too.” Erica chewed on a bite of her apple. “Although I think Yvonne Livingston may have had more to do with that than God did...”
Leah untied and toed off her saddle shoes, pulling off her wet socks. “I don’t get it.”
“Everything we did, Leah.” Erica went on. “Watching those movies, how we were with each other, me having sex with Bobby...”