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Show 46 and being dissipated by a gust from the window. Sounds also seemed affected. He had been conscious of the distant barking of a dog while saying his prayers, and though he could hear it now it seemed muffled, coming to him in erratic bursts and sometimes cutting out altogether. Spatial distortions had not occurred, though. He took a chance on the movement passing unnoticed and darted a glance around the room while the angel was shaping something in the air with his hands and satisfied himself that the crude wooden chair and table which his father had built still occupied the same plane they had before, and the walls had not moved, though the drawings he had thumbtacked along the wainscotting fluttered cryptically. He caught the words urine and thumb and shortly afterward something that sounded like Sears. The angel had placed a hand on his chest when Lorin looked back up, and with his other hand was drawing an imaginary line in the air from his chest up to a point six or eight inches away from his face. He moved his face close to the palm of that hand, then drew it back, squinting his eyes and moving closer again, then back. He looked down at Lorin to make sure he understood. Lorin nodded, and he went on. His expression was not unfriendly, Lorin had to admit that. But it was grave and serious, as though the punishment he was saving till last were necessary but regrettable all the same. Lorin found his attention wandering while the angel recited something from the Bible, so he took special pains to look as though he was following everything, nodding whenever there was a pause. He wondered if this had anything to do with touching Melanie's breasts, because he could explain that. He had not meant anything disrespectful. She hadn't been offended, he could make that clear. She had just shaken her head, and smiled sadly. He was aware that that didn't excuse it, of course, but it had actually been a kind of spiritual experience in its own way. |