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Show 327 recently joined the church. Lorin couldn't hear what they were talking about through the quiet buzz of voices in the room, but Larry had a patient smile on his face as he waited for them to finish. Other people were wandering aimlessly around the room. They were all waiting for something, but he didn't know what. He wondered what was behind the white curtain on the wall. When anyone walked close to it, it moved slightly, as though the air around it were disturbed. His curiosity pricked, he got up and went over to see. As he approached it the curtain began to stir, and presently a low, terrible wind came up from behind it. The curtain billowed and flapped. He saw an opening behind it, evidently a tunnel broken directly out of the wall and lined with rock, as though the room had been built against the side of the mountain. He stepped back and the wind died down. The curtain floated back down, gently brushing the floor. He looked around at the others, but in order not to embarrass him they were pretending they hadn't noticed. In fact they were not paying any attention to him at all. Presently he realized that soon each of his friends was going to enter the tunnel and go away, and he would not be allowed to go with them. His feelings hurt, he started to go back to his chair when a young man about his own age stepped in front of him. "You're Lorin, aren't you?" he said. "Yes." The young man looked expectantly at him for a long time, then smiled. "You don't remember me, do you?" Lorin looked at him closely. The man was nondescript enough: narrow face, puffy eyes, light brown hair parted on the left. Not as tall as Lorin, but perhaps a little heavier. Neatly dressed in coat and tie, with a handkerchief in the breast pocket of his coat. |