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Show Acting Alone Page 56 man right before me. "Call them Krystle, Velvette, and so on," snickered someone, a wicked stranger with Polycarpana's voice and, yes, body. "See how they love it. They'll put on a circus for you." At first glimpse of the male person bending over to enter the large marble receiving room, two of the three weird sisters commenced cackling like fishmongers' wives. They were old for novices, forty to fifty-five years old, but their shrieks echoed like those of teenagers' down the seventy stone feet from their reception desk to the doorway. Polycarpana sometimes had to invoke the intercession of the Blessed Vigin herself to abide these people. Usually she walked on eggshells among them, trying so hard to be "neutral if not nice. Now, the hideous superciliousness of this professor having rubbed off on her, she was approaching the weird sisters with something like a swagger in her step. It felt horrible and wonderful. Dr. Edwine was in charge now. "What in Christ's name'd you do to your nose, Shorty?" shrieked Sister Krystle/Babo. "Nothing!" he shrieked right back. Polycarpana hadn't asked that question earlier because she'd somehow anticipated just such a response. "How bout a bandaid, Stretch?" "Yeah. Got any big old dark blue ones? With little ducks on them?" "Oooh, we've got us a weird person!" shrieked Sister Velvette/Ido. Sister Stormie/Castrensia was coming, hobbling down the corridor, buckling under a tray laden with Simone Stylite's medication, wrappings and |