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Show 259 Simon something to put in his bathtub. He was almost glad when the malaise returned to distract him. The second visit to the Klines was on a cold blustery evening later the same week. No new snow had fallen, and what was already on the ground had hardened to a dirty, polished crust that broke under your feet and filled your shoes with cold particles. Sorenson politely declined the brandy and then the coffee that Alice offered them and then proceeded to business, laying out charts and folders on the floor by his feet. Alice was dressed for receiving visitors this time, complete with stockings and shoes, though low-heeled ones which she kicked off anyway in order to sit in the same chair with her legs curled under her. Richard wore a baggy grey pullover and old pants with a hole in the left back pocket. He had stayed in the bedroom while they were taking off their coats and getting settled, but had finally come out to the living room with his lower lip stuck out thoughtfully and had pretended to be surprised at seeing them there already. He sat down on the couch with his hands in his pockets and for the first fifteen minutes or so kept a cool smile on his face that suggested he had the question to confound them if he chose to unleash it. The tract they had given her was an extract from Joseph Smith's autobiography. It described his first vision at the age of thirteen, his series of visits from the angel Moroni, his recovering of a set of engraved gold plates in a hillside containing the records of an ancient civilization in America and an account of the ministry of the resurrected Christ among the people of that civilization, his translation of these records by means of a pair of transparent stones buried with them, his years of persecution by people who didn't believe him, the appearance of John the Baptist in a forest one morning to confer the priesthood on him and a friend named |