Sister Floriana

The Dogs

Senor Roberto smiled as he ran into Sister Benita in the marketplace that day.

"Good morning to you Senor."

"Good morning! It's wonderful to see you, Sister Benita."

"Thank you. Now, are you going to tell me what you're doing with these Great Danes?"

Roberto laughed.

"They're actually dobermans. I know they look quite formidable. I'm still having them trained. Rest assured they wouldn't harm a fly. At least until I'm through with them; I'm hoping they'll be able to sniff out the Reds in this town."

"Really? There are Reds here?"

"Probably not," he admitted. "But some of the men around here suspect that they've been scouting us, trying to see if they can get close. With these tracker dogs, we can know for sure."

"You've trained many dogs before?"

Roberto grinned, scratching one of the dogs behind the ear.

"More than many. Ever since I was a little boy, I've been around dogs. I remember my first one was named Alfonso XII, after our own dear King, God rest his soul."

"That's nice. You wouldn't happen to be an Alfonsist?"

"Why, absolutely! I know Old Franco's already said that he won't be giving him back the throne, but it's the principle of it."

All of a sudden, all three of the dogs perked up and looked avidly towards something off to their right. Benita followed their gaze, fascinated.

"Have they picked up on something?"

Roberto scratched his chin.

"Oh this is serious. They're looking this intently at that barbershop... that can only mean one thing."

"What?"

"They're starving and the barber is having sausages for lunch!"

Roberto laughed, and led the dogs away from the marketplace. 

"Have a good day, Sister! I've got a long day of training ahead in the woods!"

"Have a good one!" she called back.

The friendly dogs next to him loped along like giants. 

"Sausages, eh?" said Benita.

A grin spread across her face, and she gained an awful, wicked idea. 

Elsewhere, Pacifica, Marisol, Eulalia and Floriana were spending a day in the park. Pacifica was collecting acorns to grind them into flour and make pancakes. Since Mother Superior no longer made them, they'd decided to take matters into their own hands. 

"Found one!" said Floriana triumphantly, dunking it into the bag. Pacifica nodded, and then turned around to scour the ground for more. She was dead focused on her task, her face set in steely resolve. Pacifica usually looked very focused, serious and uptight but now she had a task in front of her. Everyone else rarely saw her like this.

"Here's one," said Eulalia, dropping another one in the bag. "And by the way, I've been meaning to ask you- what's with the frog?"

"Oh. His name is Sancho," said Pacifica. She walked away to get more acorns. 

"And?"

"And what?"

"Where'd you find him?"

"Remember that day we had to walk home in the rain?"

"I fell and hurt myself," Eulalia recalled. "Angelo came and got me and Carmen."

"That was when we first met. I took him home and he seemed to like it. And now he just sits on my shoulder."