His right hand was on the mouse, and his left curled around a half-full plastic soft drink bottle. “Hey, Sister! What brings you back here so soon?” He stepped to a waist-high refrigerator, pulled out an unopened bottle of cola, and offered it to her. “Here, have one. I bet you can use this about now. The temperature is supposed to hit the high nineties today, but I was outside checking the mailbox a while ago, and it already feels like one hundred.” “It certainly does, particularly coming off the asphalt,” she said, wishing, if only for a moment, that she’d joined an order who used modern, short habits and lighter-colored fabric. “How about you, Pax? I have a dish of water for critters, too.” He gestured toward a metal watering dish against a wall. “Did you all get an office pet?” “No, not really, but sometimes we have a big gray cat who drops by to say hello. I’m not sure who he belongs to, but the guy looks well fed.” “He’s not here now, is he?” She looked around anxiously.
