Secret Missions by Michael Gannon

Author:Michael Gannon [Gannon, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-06-203928-6
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 1994-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

AS TONY NEARED the front door on his way out of the Alhambra, he paused for a quick peek into the parlor. At the moment, it was nothing more than an act of idle curiosity, though later he would readily acknowledge that it was as fateful an idle action as he had ever taken in his life.

Seated on a sofa inside the parlor, facing the door, was an attractive woman, late twenties-early thirties, brown hair, formally dressed, whose eyes at once caught his during the instant his head appeared.

“Oh, Father!” she called, extending her right hand, and catching Tony in the motion of withdrawal.

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, having now to step bodily into the room.

Sally Parkins stood and said, “I hope I’m not botherin’ you, it’s just that I haven’t seen a priest before in this whole state. I was beginnin’ to think they didn’t have ‘em down here. They’re all over New York. Do you know Father McGowan in New York? He would be a lot older ‘n you.”

“No, I’m afraid I don’t,” Tony answered. “I’m from New York, as a matter of fact, but thev’re hundreds of priests in the city I’ve never met and don’t know.”

“Father McGowan was the one that baptized me when I was born. His name is on my certificate, which is in a frame back home in New York. But I haven’t been to church much, certainly not recently. And I never went to parochial school. I guess you’d call me fallen away.”

“Well, you can do something about that,” Tony encouraged her. “Did you ever go to catechism classes?”

“Never did. Never heard the word ‘til just now. What is it?”

“Instructions in the Catholic faith.”

“Oh, them. I asked my mother once—she wasn’t all that religious—if I could go to Sunday school or Saturday school or whatever it was, don’t know what nomination, near our place on West Forty-seventh between Sixth and Seventh. But she said, shove in your clutch!”

“Shove …?”

“To tell the truth, Father, I gotta be honest with a priest. The real reason I wanted to go was to be with this dude I had a crush on we called Handsome Harold, who actually grew up to be a pretty good trumpet player, and not bad with the horses, either.”

“Uh, Miss—?”

“Sally Parkins is my name, Father, honored to meet ya.” She extended her hand.

“I’m Father D’Angelo,” Tony said, accepting her hand. “Could we sit down for a moment? I can explain what you could do to get your religious life back on track again, one New Yorker to another, okay?”

“Okay,” she agreed, and popped down on the sofa.

“You need to begin,” Tony explained, “by learning the teachings of the Catholic faith into which you were baptized and by going to church regularly every Sunday and on holy days. Now how do you learn the teachings? By taking a course of instructions, the same course that is offered to converts. Once you finish the course, and have convinced the priest who is your

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.