Part 08: Penelope, religious fanatic…

Enter Penelope, hermit and religious fanatic.

Olive re-locked the bookcase and ambled upstairs. In the small bedroom at the front of the upper hall, she’d left an electric light burning. Smart thinking: a prowler in the night might have judged from this ever-glowing light that someone was home. The bedroom was Spartan: an iron bed, one straight chair, a washstand where she scrubbed her face clean from makeup, and a heavy oak chest of drawers.

She scrambled to unlock the lowest drawer, tugged it open, and gathered a wrinkled, shiny dress of black. Then she found a pair of thick black stockings and black shoes. To cover her head, she chose a modest black bonnet. Finally, she singled out a demure and baggy cardigan, a black lacy shawl, and a cheap and pitiable wig with unkempt hair of a withered brown.

She stripped off her fashionable slacks and blouse and changed into those gloomy garments. As she donned the wig, the corners of her mouth drooped. Leaving the light on and her own clothes dumped on the bed, she descended the stairs. She was not the same woman who’d climbed them. Her features were like Olive, but distinctly less healthy, attractive, and agreeable, and she radiated the sorrow and deep thoughts of a God-fearing dreamer. Now she was not Olive, but Olive’s twin sister, Penelope, hermit and religious fanatic.
 
To be continued…

The real world:
 
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Like to know more about Alf, Bert and the rest of the gang? You can read their chaotic history in What on Earth.
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