With the apparent crisis of Carol's impending arrest averted for reasons neither she nor Henrietta could fathom, the three women settled snugly into their booth each with their respective cups of coffee to nurse. However, the young naked blonde, who called herself Maisie, insisted that her fellow nudist, Carol, sit with her "just in case."
"You said something about Zenrists earlier," said Henrietta as she took a sip of her cappuccino. "What is that supposed to be?"
"Hmm, it's hard to describe what we are in a few words," said Maisie, "but I guess you could say we're a religious order. The Lovers of Zenriah we call ourselves."
Henrietta quirked an eyebrow. "Lovers of Zenriah?"
"Yes. Lovers of Zenriah," Maisie said before pausing a moment to pensively gaze at her breast and stroke the tattoo on it very delicately, like how one would expect a woman to behave toward a dearly loved one. "The goddess, Zenriah, is our creator and our protectress. She gave us our existence, our lives, and our purpose. In return, we devote our very beings to Her."
"Goddess? Zenriah? I've never heard of Her," Carol mused aloud.
"Really? I find that hard to believe, what with you walking around in the nude like that. A lot of women think that just because we do it, then they can too."
"It was my idea," said Henrietta. "I suggested that she come here naked. Carol here, she's a nudist you see. Loves to run around naked. Says she would do it all the time if she could!"
"Tell the neighborhood, why don't you?" Carol groused before taking a deep sip of her iced coffee.
"Really? Is that so?" said Maisie, shooting Carol a long and very ponderous look.
"Back up a minute," said Carol. "When you said 'we do it,' what exactly did you mean? Did you mean to say that you...Zenrists, you walk around...naked?"
"Indeed, we do," said Maisie. "One of our core tenets is that we must live every moment of our lives nude. Wearing clothes is, you could say, against our religion."
Carol was thankful she wasn't drinking her coffee when the Zenrist girl said that, because if she had, she would have most definitely sprayed it out her mouth and likely all over Henrietta's face. "Really?"
"Mm-hmm."
"So
that's
why I saw some women walking around here naked the other day!" said Henri. "Could they have been Zenrists like you?"
Maisie nodded her head. "Most definitely they were. We do have a pretty sizeable presence in this town."
"But wait, if Zenrists run around naked, why can't anyone else?" said Carol.
Maisie shrugged. "It's just the way things are. The court ruled that since we are naked for spiritual reasons, our nudity is protected under freedom of religion. So we Zenrists have the right to be nude in public. Us and only us. Well, maybe Digambara monks could too, but good luck finding one of them in this country."
"I see," said Carol. "So that's why that cop had an issue with me. But wait...how did she know I wasn't one of you? And for that matter, how could anyone tell a Zenrist from a regular naked person? If someone's just walking down the street flaunting her stuff, she could just be a random flasher for all anyone knows?"
Maisie smirked. "Like you?"
"Yeah, like me...heeeey!"
Maisie giggled at Carol while the latter shot her an indignant glare. "Well, Flashy, I'll give you a hint as to how it works. What happened when you first walked in here?"
"I...nearly bumped into a cop?"
"Yes, and then...?"