Bruce was now certain that something was deeply wrong with this place. Aunt Kane might have been pretending to be clueless, but the foolish girl in front of him probably did not possess that kind of acting skill. They genuinely did not know what coffee was.
Bruce chatted with Patty for a while longer and discovered that her symptoms were exactly the same as Aunt Kane's: she did not know about hospitals, tea, coffee, or modern devices such as televisions and computers. She did not even know what magazines were. All her concepts of books came from religious scriptures, and aside from "religion-friendly" activities, she possessed no skills whatsoever.
So-called "religion-friendly" activities meant cooking, eating, doing housework, tidying one's appearance, and sitting around chatting with family and friends. Generally speaking, only some extremely conservative religions promoted such a concept.
The requirements for those activities were also extremely strict. No drinking alcohol, no eating greasy food, no using modern electronic devices such as phones or computers, and not even watching television.
The topics of conversation were similarly restricted. They could only discuss religious matters, praise God and the faithful, compliment family life, and express concern and affection for one another. Beyond that, they could hardly say anything.
It sounded plausible enough, but it was actually utterly absurd. Socializing under such strict rules was not socializing at all; it was a performance. No one could satisfy their social needs through that kind of interaction. It was merely herd mentality making them go along with the crowd.
This girl named Patty was the same. Logically, someone so young and beautiful should have been a prominent figure at school, with plenty of admirers. People like that were usually confident and outgoing. Yet none of that showed in Patty at all.
She seemed somewhat timid,