There is a specific clause saying that the renewal is solely at the discretion of the owner. You remember how we had that young man in that apartment who was an exercise nut? At least once a week he’d drop a barbell, and always in the middle of the night. Bessie was sure the house would cave in. You know how she loved this place. After she finally got rid of him, she added the renewal clause to the lease for the new tenants.”

“Looks as though you’ve thought of everything,” Willy observed.

“I do feel sorry about telling them they have to move, but I’ll be honest-I’ll be glad when they’re gone,” Kate said. “Vic Baker is always underfoot, looking for things to fix around here. You’d think he owned the house.”

When they left an hour later, Willy and Alvirah walked Monsignor Ferris to the door of the rectory. The already cloudy sky was now completely overcast. The wind had become sharp, and the raw, damp cold was bone penetrating.

“They’re predicting a long winter,” Alvirah said. “Can you imagine in a couple of weeks, having to tell those little kids that they can’t go to Home Base, where they’re safe and warm and comfortable?”

It was a rhetorical question, of course, and as she asked it, even Alvirah was only half listening. Instead, her attention was directed across the street, where a young woman in a sweat suit was standing, staring at the rectory.

“Monsignor Tom,” she said. “See that woman. Don’t you think there’s something odd about the way she’s just standing there?”

He nodded. “I saw her there yesterday, and then she was at early Mass this morning. I caught up to her before she left and asked if I could help her in any way. She just shook her head and almost rushed away. If she has a problem she wants to discuss, I think I’m going to have to let her come to me.”

Willy put a restraining hand on Alvirah’s arm. “Don’t forget we’re due at Home Base to help Cordelia with the rehearsal for the Christmas pageant,” he reminded her.