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Show Acting Alone pa g e 44 Chapter Four She heard the strange, deep, nasal voice echoing up the stone hall from the special collections room. Though she'd never seen the movies, she was sure this was what Darth Vader sounded like. Or maybe the child in The Exorcist. Someone, some stranger, was down there mumbling to himself. Lord, another solitary babbler. They were the hardest to get rid of. Sometimes the solitary babblers were unwilling or even unable to acknowledge one's existence, much less one's authority to ask them to leave. Sister Polycarpana crossed herself without really realizing it, and forced her legs to begin carrying her down there, to check it out. She had been assigned the post of substitute librarian many times before when Sister Cunegunde had taken her turn at adoration; and Polycarpana had seen and heard some pretty strange people in this old library, including some truly wondrous candidates for the position of Intruder. Something about convents seemed to attract people like this. Of course, Saint Paphnutius Convent had been getting more known and more accessible by the year, ever since the Motherhouse in Germany had suggested, rather demanded, that the sisters steadily sell off bits of their land to enrich the coffers. Polycarpana and Simone had been rooting for a certain tiny Jewish town east of here that had been inquiring about purchasing part of the grounds for a kosher resort. But they'd been having |