She kicked one of the hinges, and the door slammed shut on top of us.

4.

I pushed against the door with all my strength, hoping to snap it off its lock, but the damn thing held firm. It didn’t help my growth spurt came and went the same day it hit, making me a couple of inches too short to get a good hand on the door, and there wasn’t anything down here I could use as a stepstool. I called Marshall over to help me, and with the two of us pushing, the door lifted a crack. We both could see just enough to know Andy wasn’t nowhere around.

“That bitch locked us in here,” Marshall said.

“What the hell you done got us into, Marshall?”

“Why the hell’d you tell her we didn’t have no guns?”

“What were you gone do, quick draw on her?”

“Don’t be a smartass, Coy.”

“How ’bout you go ahead and tell me what all this is.” I motioned at the cabinets full of money and the Armageddon stores even though Marshall’s back was to me. “How’d you know all this was down here?”

“You know that crazy-ass church that opened up where the Dixie Mart used to be?” Marshall said. “Couple of these old dudes I work with at the shop started going not too long ago. Heard them saying they been raking in some big ass offerings every service, and one of the elders told them they escort the money here to old Lew’s on Sunday afternoons.”

“And how’d you find the money?”

“Deductive reasoning, I guess, Coy.”

“Now who’s being the smartass?”

“I just looked around. It happened more by accident than anything.”

“Why’d you decide to look for it anyway?”

“‘Cause they said they were rolling wheelbarrows full of money outta the church. Said they actually have deacons carrying guns in front of God and everybody to protect it.”

“So you thought we ought to come here and steal money from God?”

“Coy, we ain’t stealing money from God.”

“We’re stealing from His church.”

“You know as well as I do that ain’t no real church.”

“How come it ain’t?”

Marshall rolled his eyes like I was too smart to act this dumb, but I wasn’t playing. I didn’t know anything about this church. Other than they’d moved into town a few months ago and were meeting in what used to be a convenience store.

“C’mon, Coy, they do all that dancing and shouting and praying for healing. The preacher parades around, carrying rattlesnakes in one hand and a bottle of olive oil in the other. Talks about casting out devils and speaking in tongues.”

“It ain’t the first church like that in Tugalo County.”

“Yeah, but them other preachers got a little modesty to ’em. They drive a used truck instead of something brand new with all the tricks.”

“Where’s this church getting all this money then, Marshall? It ain’t like the other holy rollers ever hauled around wheelbarrows full of cash.”