"What is that?" Mary suddenly said. "Jennifer, what have you got under your blouse?"
She found out. But wasn't her blouse opaque enough? As it turned out, it wasn't the color of the shirt that gave it away. It was the size and bulkiness of the necklace. Mary could see an outline of it pressing against the blouse.
"It's just a necklace," Jennifer said.
Mary tsked her, showing her disapproval. "I never thought you'd be one to wear such flashy jewelry."
Jennifer was embarrassed at being caught, but more than that, she was angry that Mary wasn't minding her own business. You want to see flashy jewelry? How about I make you wear some big hoop earrings for those bare earlobes of yours? Jennifer thought, nastily. But like back at the grocery store, it didn't quite sound like her voice. Close, but different. And she would never think something so mean about her friend Mary. She looked down at Mary's hand and had a compulsion to grab it, and she was moving her own hand, to do just that, but then the memory of what happened back at the store with Megan came to her, how she had shocked her when touching her arm. Though, she had a feeling that she did more than just shock Megan with electricity. She had a feeling that she did something very very bad to Megan. A jerk like her, maybe she deserved it, but she didn't want to do something like that to a friend.
So, no. No! She wasn't going to do anything to Mary. Whatever this was, she could fight it ... right?
"It ... it belongs to a friend of mine," she lied, feeling the compulsion to touch Mary's hand fading away. "I didn't have anywhere else to put it, so I chose to wear it. But it's not something I'd like people to know that I'm wearing, so I hid it underneath my blouse." Jennifer felt flush with shame. She had just lied to the reverend's wife. "So, uh, where's the sign-up sheet for the volunteer work?"
"Right here, dear," Mary said, pointing it out on the table.
Jennifer bent over to sign her name to the sheet, causing the necklace to droop and push out her blouse more noticeably.
Mary could better make out the shape of the necklace, seeing that it was quite ornate, something almost antique looking. "Who's this friend of yours again?"
Jennifer stood back up. "Uh, just someone I know. Listen, I'm really busy. I have to leave." She then rushed away, saying good-bye as she went.
Once outside, her embarrassment and shame remained, but her anger came back as well. Why couldn't she just mind her own business? Then I wouldn't have had to lie to her. Bitch, she thought, before her eyes went wide with shock, and fear. Did she just call the reverend's wife a ... bitch? She rushed to her car, got in, then drove home. She needed to be in a safe and familiar place, and she needed to pray. Something strange and frightening was happening to her. She needed to make it stop.
