The Organist Wore Pumps (The Liturgical Mysteries) by Mark Schweizer Read Free Book Online

him a sickeningly sweet smile. “We did that in October. Of course, now we’ll have to add your salary to the total.”
    The deacon made another note.
    Gaylen flipped a page of her pad. “Now...the Jesse Tree. Who won the battle last year?”
    Mushrat looked confused.
    “ The Chrismonites,” said Elaine. “We weren’t in the new church, though, so there wasn’t really a tussle. The old ladies made chrismons all summer and hung them on the tree in the rotunda of the courthouse.”
    “ The year before that, we didn’t have a tree,” I said. “We’d just burned down.”
    “ And the year before that...” said Elaine.
    Gaylen held up her hands. “Okay,” she said. “Who does the Christmas parade this year? And who’s in charge of the town Christmas crèche?”
    Everyone looked in my direction. It was a long-standing tradition that the Kiwanis Club and the Rotary Club, rival civic organizations, took turns organizing the St. Germaine Christmas Parade on alternate years. About twenty years ago, during a particularly successful run of Christmas parades by the Kiwanians, thanks to a three-hundred pound Santa they’d recruited from Elk Mills, the town council had given the parade to the Kiwanis Club for the foreseeable future. The Rotarians, lacking a really big Kris Kringle, but having plenty of sheep, decided that they’d start a Living Nativity in Sterling Park. It was a smash hit! The Christmas parade was only one evening, but the Living Nativity went on for several nights and the Kiwanians weren’t going to take this affront lying down. They immediately petitioned the council to have their own Living Nativity, and it was Pete Moss in his role as Solomon that finally proposed the compromise. The Rotarians and the Kiwanians would swap duties each year. One year, the Christmas parade, the next year, the Christmas crèche. And thus it has been ever since, except for that fateful year when St. Germaine had two Living Nativities going at the same time.
    I thought for a few seconds.
    “ The Rotarians have the parade. Cynthia says it’s going to be a doozy. The Kiwanians have the crèche.”
    “ Then this shall be our decree,” said Gaylen, using the royal pronoun. “On such years as the Kiwanians are in charge of the town Christmas crèche, the Jessetonians shall decorate the Jesse Tree. On such years as the Rotarians present the crèche, the Chrismonites shall hence prevail.”
    “ Amen and so be it,” I said.
    “ Anything special for the Second Sunday of Advent?” asked Kimberly Walnut.
    “ Well, the choir is singing Hugo Distler’s Kleine Adventsmusik. It’s a short cantata. Seven variations on Savior of the Nations, Come . We’re doing different movements throughout the service. We have a few instrumentalists coming in from Appalachian State.”
    “ It’s quite lovely,” said Elaine. “Fun to sing.”
    “ Will we be starting up the Children’s Moment again?” asked Kimberly, hopefully.
    “ That would be awesome!” said Donald Mushrat.
    “ I think not,” said Gaylen.
    “ I have something for the first week in January,” said Kimberly Walnut. “We’re having a lock-in for the kids. It’s our ‘Cocoon’ program. We’ll have activities, and Bible study, and prayer time. We’ll write letters to God...that sort of thing. Then we’re going to have a church service with communion the next morning. It will be a life-changing experience for these children.”
    “ I hope you’ll let me be involved,” said the oily Mushrat.

    •••

    “ Could you ride with me to Boone?” Gaylen asked, as the meeting disbanded. “Actually, I need to have some blood drawn, and I don’t want to have to drive myself home. I thought we might chat.”
    “ Be happy to,” I said.
    Gaylen’s late model Volvo was parked in front of the church and she beeped the doors unlocked with her remote as we walked up. It was still a cold morning, although the sun had melted the frost that covered the park almost