Hotter with a Blue Bonnet on it

Kate McCallum upped the volume on her car stereo, not only because it was a good song, but because she wasn't entirely sure when she'd get a chance to listen to real music again, so she figured that she should get in what she could in the time she had left. After this it's probably banjos and harmonicas; or maybe jug bands. No doubt guitars are the work of the devil. Whatever craziness they actually lived by she could learn to deal with because the payoff would be worth it in the end.

As the odometer ticked off another mile of winding road in the black of night, bringing her closer to the little barn on the prairie, Kate pondered the circumstances that put her on this road in the first place. A few years ago she decided to start a tech blog, figuring if she got enough clicks out of it the companies whose products she reviewed would happily send her cutting edge toys that she could show off to her friends, and maybe they'd even let her keep some of them. The blog was polished, her personality bubbly, and her technical expertise was unassailable in her prose.

She garnered quite the following and got her wish; companies were sending her their finest toys to try earn her praise. One company sent her their latest high-end laptop for review and that's when things took a turn for Kate. It wasn't meeting the benchmarks it should have and, looking under the hood of the machine and digging wherever the trail led for answers, she found the company had sent her a production rather than review model. When she broke the story that the company had planned to dupe its customers, its stock value tanked and triggered a federal investigation.

It was then and there that the thrill of discovery and the power she could have grabbed her and wouldn't let go. She wanted to let the tech side of things go and dive headlong into investigative journalism.

But she dove headlong into a wall.

Sure, other publications wanted to hire her, but only tech-related ones. She'd even gotten a couple of offers for network jobs as a tech correspondent, but Kate knew perfectly well that as much as they both knew she could offer them, they really just wanted to put 'the hot geek girl' in front of the camera and she couldn't have cared less about that. She knew then that the only way that anyone was going to take her seriously was if she broke a serious story.

She thought long and hard about where to go and what to do. It had to be human interest and it had to have that behind-the-scenes reality show vibe that she could convey because, if there was one dependable thing about people, it was that they never got tired of leering at the lives of others. The more secretive those lives were to start with, the better, and there were few lives more secretive than those in The Way and the Truth. Very little was known about them beyond that they existed. The people that lived around them said they were patriarchal and bothered no one. Neither of these facts were salacious or unusual. What put it under an unwelcome spotlight for a time was the fact that teen pop superstar Rose Khyber, after vacationing in the area, upended her life and abandoned her career to join the group.

She'd thanked her fans for their love and support in a web message telling them that she had found something better, signed off, and hadn't said a word to the outside world since. Fans had flocked for a time, and some still did hoping to catch sight of her, but most moved on, though every time a musical retrospective aired or the label reissued an album, paparazzi and their telephoto lenses would try to catch sight of her.

When they succeeded, photos splashed across the tabloids of her with other women in the group. Khyber's eyes almost as pale a blue as the long dresses the women wore and the blue bonnets that adorned their heads with their white lace trim and tied into perfect bows under their chins.

Getting an exclusive with her would be enough. If she could do that that would open doors all by itself. If she could do that and get an inside view of this bunch and how they lived she could probably write her own ticket. At the very least, her days of writing about how to overclock a CPU and rating ultrabooks would be over.

"Turn left in one-quarter mile," the feminine voice dutifully intoned.

Equally dutifully, Kate followed the direction and turned from the long gravel road to what was little more than a path carved by tire tracks into the grass. Could be worse. she supposed. This group seemed to be like some more modern Mennonite sects in that they were selective in the technology they shunned.

She followed the directions to proceed, wondering what she'd find and exited at the possibilities. As it was it had taken weeks to establish enough trust to get people from the group to speak with her, and longer still to get them to agree to let her visit at all. Even then they imposed all these restrictions that, to her ear just came off as cloak and dagger nonsense. But, she supposed it was something that they let a journalist in at all.

Journalist. She liked the way saying that felt.

The path for her finally ended when she saw a small light illuminate the porch of a small, white, one-bedroom house seemingly alone in the nothing. She pulled her car behind it and got her suitcase out of the trunk. It was a nice little place by all appearances, freshly painted with small bay windows either side of the door. Even so, with life in the city being what it was, she wasn't used having so much space between her and other people.

She'd sort of expected someone there to greet her, but there was no one, which made her feel slightly more alone, but she pushed it aside as she looked under the mat and around for a fake rock or something that might hint as to the location of a key, but there was nothing to suggest one. Not that it mattered, she realized, because the door didn't lock anyway.

Turning the knob, she went inside. Finding a light switch to her left she hit it to reveal what was nothing less than a lovely little home. Hardwood floors, earth tones, and modest furnishings made the whole place look like a lovely bed and breakfast. No microwave, but almost every other modern convenience was accounted for. None of it was top of the line, mind you, but the stove, refrigerator, washer and dryer were all there to be used. She was happy for the latter at least as she wasn't going to be cooking much. No television, of course

Looking through it, it was absolutely immaculate. Everything gleamed and she would have bet money she could eat off that bathroom floor. The living room opened to the bedroom area with a small end table, lamp and a bed with a sumptuously thick comforter. Beyond that was a small wooden corner desk where she could set up her laptop. She'd loaded it with games of all types since she knew there wasn't going to be a net connection.

Setting it up and waiting it for it to boot, she poked her head into the closet to find clothes, in this case seven full-length dresses, all powder blue with white piping around the neckline and the same at the sleeves. It all flared at the waist to a full gathered skirt. Next to them were seven white rosette lace slips. On the floor under the garments were two pair of flats in that same powder blue.

On a shelf above the wardrobe was that well-known, but otherwise innocuous blue bonnet. It was long-brimmed and with the same lace piping as the dress. One of the cotton straps dangled from the shelf her own exhalations moving it back and forth in an almost come hither motion.

At least they save time clothes shopping.

Leaving them where they were, Kate decided it was only about eight o'clock so she'd shower and play games for a while after she chronicled her arrival. There wasn't much to say, but she figured she may as well start at the very beginning.

After winding down for the night she slipped under the covers and it all felt wrong. All she could hear was the sounds of crickets and, here, unlike home, when it was dark, it was actually dark. It all conspired to make her feel a little like a child. She was able to talk herself through the irrationality of most it, but she simply couldn't abide no lock on her door. She got out from the safety of her covers and spent several minutes figuring out how to best jam chairs under the front and back doors, which made her feel a little better.

Still, sleep took a while to arrive.

***

Kate jumped awake, startled by the rapping on her door seemingly an instant after her eyes decided they were willing to stay closed. It took her a moment to place herself at roughly dawn at her destination rather than home in her own bed.

A strong, but slightly muffled feminine voice could be heard."Would you open the door, please?" It was by no means rude, but it was very clear she was displeased at having to wait.

Adrenalin clearing the cobwebs from her mind nicely, she scrambled from bed and rushed to put a robe on over the nothing but panties she usually slept in. "Just a minute." She threw it on, tying it quickly before she pulled the chair from the door and opened it.

On the other side stood a middle aged, but not unattractive woman. She was slightly on the chubby side but Kate took that as her body's slight compensation for the ample chest. Her hair was sandy blonde, eyes a deep green and carried herself just standing there like she owned the world. And, indeed, she walked in without an invitation, looking perturbed. "I didn't think you'd be ready, though I was actually hoping to be disappointed that way."

Kate looked around, briefly at a loss. "Ready for what?"

She looked around the home, slightly pleased that it wasn't a disaster already. The girl had some civility at least. "We work here, young lady. There are chores to be done. Get your clothes on and come with me. There are cows to be milked, breakfasts to be made, and generally work to be done."

She took it in. "I'm sorry, I...didn't think I was going to be doing that sort of thing. I was quite clear in my letters that..."

The other woman cut her off. "I read your letters, Ms. McCallum," she began before rattling off pieces of their contents verbatim. "It's clear that you thought you were just going to roll in, do your interviews, write your little tale, and that was going to be that."

"But it was made clear to you that, if you were to visit, this community would set the rules for your interactions. Your response was, 'I'm willing to do whatever it takes to make this work and craft a fair and balanced look at the community and your way of life.' Watching other people work is not a fair look at how we live, it's the look of an outsider looking in and we already have enough of those. Get your clothes on and come to work."

Kate pondered it for a second. Those were her words and she supposed the woman had a point. "Okay, just give me two minutes." She didn't get one step towards her suitcase before the other woman stopped her. "Not those. There are clothes in your closet. I know there are because I tended to it myself."

For an instant she felt like an idiot. "Right. Don't want to stick out." She went to the closet and pulled one of the outfits from it before the other spoke again. "You're trying my patience a bit, Ms. McCallum; slip under dress."

She grabbed that too and then looked awkwardly at her. "If you'll wait in the other room or outside or something I'll be right there."

"While you dawdle and decide which heels go with blue and white? You have nothing I haven't seen before, only the proportions are different." When Kate didn't move, the other sighed and turned. Seeing the laptop there she immediately averted her gaze. "It's not set to come on or something, is it?"

"No. It's off."

Finally, she turned toward the oak dresser in front of her and the large mirror above it. "See? Eyes closed and everything. Can you get dressed now or do I get to waste more of my morning?"

"Thanks. You can call me Kate, by the way."

"That'll be fine, Kate."

There was a pause. "And you are?"

"Vanessa, she exhaled. "You may call me Vanessa."

As she dressed, her abrupt awakening still having her on edge made her more snarky than usual. It's just a computer, it can't hurt you."

Vanessa shook her head and over-emoted as her hands floated in an imitation of a ghost, "Oh, outsider, I so fear your magic box. I hear stories that cyclopes live in them and if you stare into their eye above the screen they steal your soul."

She huffed. "Look around you, we're not Luddites. We don't disdain machinery. The men even drive. I know exactly what your laptop is and what it does."

"Then what's the problem?"

"It can be a source of...incorrect information about the world. It's a negative influence to be avoided, so we choose to avoid it."

"Radio? Television?"

Vanessa was firm. "Television is unnecessary, so is radio."

"Guitars?"

"What?"

Kate shook her head. "Nothing. Dressed now."

Vanessa turned and shook her head. "Only by half." She closed the gap between them and retrieved the bonnet from the closet before leading her by the hand to the mirror before standing behind her. Placing the bonnet in Kate's hand Vanessa began to bring her hair up to be pinned back with the extra pins in her pocket. "The bonnet outside, always. It is a matter of propriety, modesty, and correctness."

She stood before the mirror, dark hair disappearing in a bun, blue eyes displaying her own annoyance, but she said nothing. When in Rome.

The bonnet came down, surrounding her head snugly, not to mention all but eliminating her peripheral vision. It wasn't uncomfortable at least as she watched Vanessa tie it to her in a perfect bow. Indeed, looking at it, she could tell that the length of the loops on both her and Vanessa's ties were the exact same length. Must be some stellar muscle memory for that.

"There," Vanessa said approvingly. "Better. If we hurry, breakfast might not be too late for the rest of us. Come."

They walked the long stretch to the barn in the distance. Lot's of green grass, hills and trees in the distance, but nothing else in the way of people. She figured she'd meet them later and hurried up to catch up to Vanessa who was setting a brisk pace. "I gotta say Vanessa, that was pretty impressive."

"What so impressed you, Kate?"

"That you just knew what all was in my letters, like, right off the top of your head."

"Eidetic memory," she said simply. "I can still see your first emails in my head, dear. It's something I was always blessed with."

"So... the internet is okay for the men, but not for the women? And only the men drive?"

"Men are the head of the home, Kate. Every home needs a single voice to make the decisions."

Correctness.

The thought appeared in her head and ran away so quickly she didn't even register that it occurred at all, so she went on as though it hadn't. "Why do they do it if it's so bad?"

"Television and the like are negative influences, as I said. The men occasionally expose themselves to such things in moderation, in part, to stay abreast of the world."

"But you don't get to?"

"I don't wish to. The men have decided that it's best for us to not want that, the men are the head of the community and the home, so the women do not wish to."

"None of them?"

"None of them," Vanessa repeated with pride.

"That's a little nutty, if you ask me. Women are independent and just as able to decide for themselves as men."

"I thought as you did once."

"Really?"

She thought back. "I was a mergers and acquisitions attorney in Los Angeles."

That was something given how prim and proper she seemed now, though it seemed to fit her as well. "What happened?"

She smiled a genuine smile. "I found something better."

Kate let that go as they walked to the barn with a few dairy cows. Another barn with some horses stood a short distance away. Vanessa went into teaching mode as Kate fought down her aversion to the smell. "Now, Kate, pay attention." She sat the younger woman down on a milking stool and walked her through the process of milking a cow, from lubricating her hands, to pressure to the best order in which to work the teats. "Why diagonally?"

Vanessa retrieved her own stool and sat it down. "Doesn't matter, really; just diagonally means you don't have to switch sides."

After a few fumbles that earned the cow's ire, milk spurted, hitting the bottom of the bucket with a high pitch. "Hey, I think I've got it."

Vanessa was genuinely pleased. "I can tell by listening. Very good, Kate."

Correctness.

That thought simply occurred as a flush of happiness at getting it right. "So...what brought an M&A lawyer out here?"

"I was between jobs and decided to see a little of the country. One of the men in the community saw me in town and offered me a place to get away from everything and I took him up on it. I was in the house you're in now as a matter of fact." She now looked a little wistful. "I fell in love with the countryside and the people. He took me as a wife and I never went back."

Just the way she said it put Kate a bit on edge. "He took you? You make it sound like that was his decision, too?"

Her response was plain. The admissions came with blushing cheeks."It sort of was. He said he liked smart women with a little meat on the bone."

Kate didn't know what to say to that, but Vanessa didn't seem to need a response. "We have a big, lovely family and I'm happier than I ever was or could have been anywhere else."

"I'm glad it's worked out for you. What about your family?"

"My family is here," she said. "I keep in touch with my outsider family enough so that they don't worry."

"You don't visit them, they don't visit you?"

"They come here if they wish to see me. We have lovely visits." Her voice turned firm and resolute. "I don't want to be anywhere but here. I don't want that chaotic life anymore in that chaotic world. Here is love and peace and community."

Correctness.

Kate could at least see the appeal of such a lifestyle for some people. "Did your husband decide that for you, too?"

She milked away."He helped me see what truly mattered. He helped me see how men and women should be."

Okay, that's a little culty. That's a lot culty, actually.

Bad thought.

She looked down at the pail as it continued to fill. She'd switched sides and continued without even realizing it. I'm here to try to learn about them. I make another hit piece like the rest nobody's going to notice it at all. Be fair. Learn about them. Let them teach you.

Correctness.

Finishing in the barn, they made their way towards the main house after they stopped back to let Kate pick up a pad and paper to take notes. Vanessa, when will I get to see the rest of things?"

"You mean the community as a whole?"

She nodded. Part of seeing how everyone lives is, well, seeing how everyone lives, right?"

Vanessa turned to look at her. "And it was also made clear to you that it was up to us how you were introduced. Let's be honest here, I don't know that you ever intended to come here for a fair and honest look at our lives, but you will get one thing we're both certain you're here for: Rose will be here tomorrow."

Kate did a double take. She couldn't quite believe her luck "Rose Khyber?"

Vanessa's eyes narrowed. "What other 'Rose' would you come here for? She's willing to come and help you. Tomorrow. In the meantime, I ask that you give yourself to the day."

For the promise of probably the most exclusive meeting in a decade she could do pretty much anything. She nodded eagerly and they entered the house to the sounds of chatting and the smell of breakfast cooking, and it sure did smell good. Maneuvering like a well-trained dance troupe were three other women who each stopped what they were doing to introduce themselves.