Prudence (in the Time of Prohibition)

V

t was mid-morning the next day by the time Prudence arrived at the Mattingly residence. Slowly she opened the front door and, carrying her white slippers in her right hand, attempted to tiptoe upstairs to her room. As her foot touched the first riser, her father's voice called from the front parlor, "Get in here, young lady." It was a command impossible to ignore.


As soon as she entered the room, her mother gasped as though in horror. Raising both of her hands to cover her mouth, the poor woman fainted, falling backward into her armchair. Her father, equally astounded, stared at his daughter with horror written all over his face. "How dare you enter this house looking like that!" Edgar Mattingly roared as he confronted the sudden changes to Pru's appearance.


"It's time I became my own woman," Prudence declared as she squarely met her father's eyes.


"Your own...!" Edgar was unable to finish his own sentence. His mind reeling, he thought about how carefully he and Edith had raised their only offspring; how she had always obeyed their every wish. Never thinking of her as her own person, he always considered her an extension of his wife and himself.


"My own woman, Father," Pru responded, confident for the first time in her life. "I lived under your rules all my life and they got me nowhere. I'm a grown woman with my own income. You can't hold me back another moment."


"If that is the case, you can get out of this house and stay out." Edgar's face went from red to purple as he shouted his final words to his only child. His hard, cold heart closed to her as he understood she was beyond his control.


"Gladly!" Prudence yelled back, defying her parent for the first time in her life. Without so much as a good-bye to her mother who was just rousing herself from her faint, she exited her family home, slamming the door firmly behind her.


Returning to the Mayor's office, she related the story of her departure from the Mattingly residence. Overcome with mirth, Oliver Everett arranged for Pru to move in with Candy Kane. He liked the idea of being able to visit the two young women he admired the most living in the same residence.


Life changed dramatically for Prudence Mattingly under the guidance of Mayor Everett and Candy Kane. With a new attitude to enhance her new wardrobe, she became a woman of the world. Never once did she look back at the restrictive home her parents had forced upon her. She was free to do as she pleased for the first time of her life and she took every advantage of it! And lived happily ever after.