The night of the big show, Buggy was a nervous wreck. His palms were sweating inside his gloves and his bow tie was spinning in circles. He showed up at the Rainbow Gardens two hours early, but there was already a line around the block. At first, he assumed people were just dying to see Bobby Goldstein, but that wasn’t it. The majority of the crowd were parishioners from Reverend Jellybottom’s church.
“What are all these people doing here?” Buggy asked when he tracked down Jellybottom having cocktails in the bar of the brothel.
“Ah, Brother Buttons!” the reverend cried, already a bit tipsy from a few too many fuzzy navels. “How are the preparations for the show coming?”
“They’re coming fine,” Buggy said. “But what I want to know is why you’ve got so many of your churchgoers crowding the sidewalk?”
“I told you Friday Night Mass is popular.” The reverend slapped Buggy on the back and took another drink.
“You didn’t tell me it was going to be this popular.”
“Yeah, normally the turnout isn’t this good, but once I told everyone that Bobby Goldstein will be here they all wanted to come.”
“Are you kidding me?” Buggy said, pulling the reverend’s drink away from his mouth. “They can’t stay for Goldstein’s performance. They have to leave after your sermon unless they pay a thousand bucks a ticket like everyone else.”
“It’s too late,” Jellybottom said. “I already told them they’d be seeing Bobby Goldstein. I can’t deny them that now.”
“Well, you’re going to have to. This isn’t a free show.”
The reverend just laughed and shook his head. “I reserved this venue for the whole night. I said you can use the stage after my sermon, but I didn’t say that my parishioners had to leave.”
Buggy wondered what kind of Hell he’d go to for strangling a priest with his own robe. “Fine, but they’re standing in the back. Paying customers get the seats.”
“I’m sure that will be fine,” said the reverend, taking a fresh drink from a pink-haired waitress in a mini skirt. He didn’t attempt to hide the fact that he was admiring the clown girl’s behind as she walked away. A big smile crossed his face as he held up his glass in a toast. “Here’s to a great show.”
Then he slammed it down.
“You seem to drink a lot for a holy man,” Buggy said.
“Just loosening up,” said the reverend, slapping the behind of the clown waitress as she passed him again. “It’s going to be my biggest sermon ever.”