“You’re not telling me everything,” she charged. “Something’s happened. Something terrible has happened, and you’re keeping it from me. Do you think dreams warn people of tragedy? I dreamed—It’s still so real I can hardly tell you about it. But I dreamed that my hair—” She touched her head and seemed relieved upon discovering she was wearing her hat. “Well, never mind about that now.”
“Clarissa hypnotized us. We’re all under her spell. Maybe church—”
Judy stopped Pauline before she could finish.
“Religion isn’t magic,” she said quietly. “It’s—something inside.”
Judy’s sudden sincerity seemed to confuse Flo.
“Well, I—I thought you were keeping something from me, but if you want me to go—”
“Of course we want you.” Pauline decided the question for her. “Shall we go?”
Judy found Pauline’s church even more formal than she had described it. The minister and the people in the choir wore black robes. Judy’s prayers were all for Peter and his work that had been so cruelly interrupted. Thoughts of what he must have suffered took possession of her mind and would not leave her.
“And so it is, my friends,” the minister was saying, “we love each other and think that is enough. But were we not commanded in the fifth book of Moses, ‘Love ye therefore the stranger; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.’”
Now Judy was more confused than ever. Clarissa was a stranger. Judy had followed her heart and loved her as a friend. But had she done the right thing? Was she a friend or a phantom? Should she have trusted her? What of the confidence game?