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“Though she be but little, she be fierce

William Shakespeare

TROY

Trinity Chapel

South Boston, Massachusetts

SILENCE THE MOST loaded sound in human history

The only sound audible was the click, click of ainst the ame I relished as a kid one last time I knew the way to the confession booth by heart Been a parishioner in this church since the day I was born I was christened here Attended Sunday mass here every week Hadhere I would probably have acy of men in my family, it wouldn’t be an open-casket event

Three, four, five steps past the holy water font, I took a sharp right turn, counting

Six, seven, eight, nine My eyes fluttered open Still got it

It was there, the wooden box where all of my secrets were once buried The confession booth

I opened the squeaking door and blinked, the s into my nose I hadn’t set foot in reconciliation in two years Not sincea bike—once you learned, you never forgot

Though this tio down differently

It was an old-fashioned booth, in an old-fashioned church, no living-roon and fancy, rille divided the priest and the confessors, with a crucifix hung above it

I settled inthe scarred peith a bang At 6’4”, I looked like a giant trying to fit into a Barbie Drea less sins raced through ht of how big or sick to his stoer than my morals

I folded my suit coat on the bench beside me Sorry, oldabout all these years

I heard hi his throat I did the sign of the cross, reciting, “In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit”