cat’s meow broke off the staring contest we’d been in. “Uh, hi?” I said and walked to his side. “I was brought here by the cat.” Coal narrowed his eyes at the black cat, who sat there licking their paw without a care in the world. “Peanut did, huh? He does like doing weird things sometimes.” “So his name’s Peanut? Is he your cat?” I asked as I dropped to sit next to him. My moves were slow, asking permission to join Coal. I took his lack of refusal as a welcome. He could have stopped me if he wanted to. “No. Actually, no one really knows who he belongs to, but he travels with our circus.”
