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" 'Are you sure of the Light yourself, Mona?' I asked her

" 'Well, you see, that's the very problem,' she answered 'When these people die they aren't sure of it, and they ht for what it is Theyto the Earth; they

cling to mortals whom they can still see and hear ¡¯

" 'And so we have this theoretical spirit whose nucleus doesn't go into the Light,' I said, 'this soul that drifts -- ¡¯

" 'Yes,' she said, 'and it can start a whole adventure for itself, especially if it finds a receptive person like you orpowers are still weak Then of course we help it focus by noticing it and talking to it, and paying attention to it, and its organization becoer ¡¯

" 'But what about a spirit like Goblin? He's not a ghost He doesn't knohere he came from ¡¯

"She shot lance that said: Be careful 'Goblin is pure spirit then,' she replied, 'but spirits are probably organized in exactly the same way -- they have the nucleus and then a kind of loose body, a force field of a body, and it's this force field they use, just like a ghost, to gather particles to appear to someone ¡¯

"We walked on out of the ce The swas that want to kill An evening song canore it Mona see

" 'Quinn, if only you could talk to Stirling,' she said 'I think he would have soFor centuries the Talahosts They welcome people like you and land I went to their Motherhouse there, and I even visited the Motherhouse in Rome ¡¯

" 'Sounds religious, rather like the Trappist monks or the Carmelites ¡¯

" 'Well, they are sort of that way,' she answered, 'but they aren't religious They're good without being religious So used to it You kno it is with us Catholics Anything supernatural that isn't from God just has to be evil And here you have the Tala to like Stirling Nobody could fail to be disar ¡¯

" 'Tell me about Fr Kevin,' I said 'What's his story?¡¯

" 'He's a good priest,' she said 'I ought to know I tried hard to get him into bed, as I told you, but couldn't do it He was born here in a big house on Magazine Street, the last of eight children His eldest sister is a whole nother generation We call theood and never get into any trouble When he went into the priesthood they sent him up North, and now he's come back, principally because the family needs its own priest and also because he can teach here He's quite the theologian when he wants to be ¡¯

" 'Mona, why do you try to go to bed with so many people?' I asked I knew that I sounded naive and childlike, but I had to ask her

" 'Why do you do the sa, Tarquin?¡¯