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Page 77
Abby awakened to the sound of rain. No, it was water flowing in the bathroom. Leaving her hair loose about her shoulders, she put the robe on over the shirt she had been wearing and went into the kitchen to cook breakfast. It was the least she could do. Opening cabinet doors, she located plates and glasses and cupssome made of the same odd material as Mike's canteen.
She was startled by the vast array of packaged foods. One cabinet held tin cans with colorful paper wrapped about them that said they were peas, soup, and other food items. In another, paper boxes contained things with odd names she had never heard of: Corn Pops, Minute Rice, granola bars.
Abby explored the rest of the room, including the strange items she had noted last night. The stove was not of black cast iron but of silvery metal. She found no wood to fuel it, which was all right since she saw no matches to light kindlingand after the plumbing wonders she had discovered, she was not surprised to see a flame when she turned a dial on the stove's front.
A second, bigger contraptiona large white cabinet the size of an upright coffinastounded her. Its door was cool and smooth. Pulling it open by a metal handle, she saw all manner of food insidemeats and cheeses and paper boxes labeled "milk." Most miraculous was that everything was coldhere, on the desert! Obviously this was a form of icebox, but where did Mike get ice?

 
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