Colleen hung up the phone after a long conversation with her mother. There was a look of consternation on her face. "Nathan, I need to talk to you."
"What's up, babe, you look a bit anxious?"
"I just had a long talk with my mom. My Uncle David and my Aunt Eleanor were killed in an automobile accident last weekend."
"I'm so sorry, Colleen. I don't remember you ever mentioning them. Were you close?" He wrapped his arms around her, in a comforting hug.
"No, we weren't close; I haven't seen them in ten years. Uncle David was my father's brother, and he and Dad were pretty much estranged. David is, or was, a minister in some fundamentalist Christian sect."
"Like the Mormons?"
"No, they weren't Mormons, but they had a lot of similarities. They didn't practice polygamy or anything like that, put they were really puritanical. Every thing they did revolved around their church."
"Sounds pretty gruesome to me." She still had heavy frown lines on her forehead. "Are you okay?"
"I don't know; there's more to the story. Mom and Dad want my cousin Julie to move in with us. She's now virtually an orphan."
"How old is she?"
"She just turned eighteen. She's always been home-schooled, but they want her to enroll in the public high school for her senior year. I'm not too crazy about the idea, but she is family."
"I guess we could do it, but it will crimp our lifestyle a little bit. Like we'll have to keep our clothes on around the house, and probably no skinny-dipping."
"Maybe we could convert her to Hedonism." They both grinned at the thought.
Colleen and Nathan had just turned twenty and had bought their first house. It was a rambling two-story, built of native stone, with a lot of weathered redwood and big windows. It had decks on both floors and a swimming pool in the backyard. It sat on five acres, surrounded by woods. While studying music at Julliard, they had cut a CD of their own compositions. Nathan composed the music and Colleen wrote the lyrics. It turned out to be a big hit and had gone platinum. They royalties allowed them to buy the house and equip it with state-of-the-art studio and recording equipment.
When the doorbell rang, Colleen, dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt, went to answer it. Standing on the porch was a very prim looking young woman with two suitcases by her side. She was wearing a shapeless grey dress with a high collar that was buttoned halfway up her throat, and a long skirt that touched the tops of her high-topped shoes. It had long sleeves, plain buttons, and was otherwise unadorned. She wore her blonde hair in a single braid that hung down past her butt, and big thick glasses.
"You must be Cousin Colleen. I'm your cousin, Juliette Quinn."
"Oh, Julie, hi," she said, throwing her arms around her in a welcoming hug. Julie's body stiffened up and her arms hung rigidly at her sides. "I'm so sorry about your mother and father."
"They have been called home to heaven to be with our Lord."
"Uh, oh, of course. Julie, this is my husband, Nathan."
"Come in, Julie. Welcome to our home." He extended his arms like he was about to give her a welcoming embrace. She turned her head away, picked up her bags, and marched around him into the house. "Uh, your room is upstairs, the first door on the right. Let me carry those bags up for you." "I am quite capable of carrying them myself, thank you." They watched her clomp up the stairs, a white petticoat slightly visible under the hem of her floor length dress. No upskirt view there.
"Holy moley," Nathan said as she was out of earshot, "is she uptight or what?"
"I don't think she's used to being hugged."
"Not by a man, anyway."
"Not by a woman, either. Weirdest thingβWhen I hugged her, her chest was hard. Even small-breasted women are soft. Then I kind of stroked her back a little, you know, like a sympathy rub, and I couldn't feel anything like flesh or muscles, just this rigid thing, like she's wearing a corset or something. No bra strap, either."
"She's flat as a board, she doesn't need a bra."
"Who knows what she's hiding under that shapeless dress? Except for her face showing, she might as well be wearing a burhka, like the women wear in Afghanistan."
"Maybe someday we'll find out," Nathan said, wearing a lewd grin. He gave her breast a friendly squeeze.
"Oo, you're so bad," she replied, patting his ass. "I guess I'd better go up and help her unpack and get settled in."
When she entered Julie's room, the first thing she noticed was the spare blanket that had been on the bottom of the bed was now draped over the mirror on her dressing table.
"It is vain to look at one's image." She had opened the medicine cabinet, leaving the mirror against the wall, and hung a robe over the full-length mirror on the bathroom door.
"There are no mirrors in your house?"
"Papa had a small shaving mirror, but that was kept in a drawer."
"You mean you've never looked at yourself?" Julie shook her head. "How do you fix your hair if you can't see it."
"Mama braided my hair, or one of the sisters." She later learned that "sisters" weren't necessarily siblings, but referred to any woman in their church colony.
Colleen helped her unpack, hanging her dresses in the closet. There were four of them, all cut them same, all virtually colorless except for one that was pure white. "That one is for wearing to church."
"I'm afraid there aren't any churches of your denomination around here."
"Then I'll just have to read the Good Book and pray on my own." Colleen noted that the only book she had with her was the Bible.
"All I see are dresses. Do you have any jeans or other kinds of pants?"
"Men wear pants; women are supposed to wear modest dresses."
"Modest?"