“Wow,” said Cooper shaking his shaggy-hair head like a wet dog after running through a lawn sprinkler. “I guess a lot of people are trying to get out of the rain tonight, huh?”
“Hey—it’s the sixties!” said Simon. “Maybe there’s a concert going on tonight.”
“Yeah, like that one in Woodstock,” Chelsea said with a nod looking over her shoulder and watching the sea of faces pass by. “I bet there’s a couple of thousand people here tonight.”
A man holding a cardboard sign brushed past Maya. Her eyes grew wide with recognition as she silently read the words written in big block letters …I AM A MAN. “There’s no concert here tonight. Something serious is going on. C’mon,” she said, thumbing to the stairwell. “We can get a better view from the second floor.”
“Maybe figure out what we’re doing here while we’re at it,” said Gabby, clomping up the steps behind her.
As the troop gathered on the balcony, Cooper leaned against the back wall and whistled. “Man, it’s crowded up here too,” he said scanning the rows in front of him but not seeing even one empty seat.
“SRO all right,” agreed Simon. “And how about all these lights? Hey—look! See those guys down in front? They’ve got TV cameras on their shoulders. Gee, what do you think is going on?”
Gabby crossed her arms and sighed. “That would be a lot easier to answer if we knew exactly where we were.”
Maya looked across the balcony railing. She stared straight ahead to the rows of chairs lined up on an elevated stage that faced the audience. Chairs filled with people who were looking out into the crowd.
A crowd that was waiting for something.
Someone.
Her eyes fixed on the podium.
A pulpit.
She swallowed hard. “I know where we are,” she said softly.
Cooper blinked. “You do? Well, start spilling! Tell us already!”
“We’re in a church.”
“Huh?” Cooper scratched his head. “What are we doing in a church?”
