In Over Her Head by Elsie Russell - Parnasse.com

ooks at the English bookstore. And I must do something about this!"
She told Sandro, clutching her fur collar.
As Beatrice made a bee line for Fendi, Sandro, Ula and Penny
went up to the Spanish Steps, crowded with the local teenagers and
tourists, and found the bookstore tucked next to Keat's house, where
Ula found a copy of the same dog eared little volume she carried in her
bag, Immortal Sisters, Secrets of Taoist Women, and bought Penny a
copy.
"This is my bible. Merry Christmas, Penny," she said in her
most subdued tone and hugged Penny, who had no interest in this stuff
whatsoever.
Beatrice billowed into the bookstore covered in her new fur, a
troglodyte thing with jagged hairy bits hanging off the hem that would
look right at home inside a Natural History Museum diorama, but not a
stuffy old world bookstore.
Next morning, while waiting for breakfast and looking at Ula
under the twenty foot ceilings, Beatrice wondered aloud, "How long
has she been doing this street theater in the public piazzas? I thought
she was the big downtown sensation, no?"
He shrugged.
"When was the last time she was in the nuthouse?"
"Mama! It was a hospital."
"Poor girl, she must get it from her mother, she was very
unstable."
"You knew Ula's Mother?"
"Oh, yes, we were all one big happy family. Everywhere. It was
always party time then, here, in Paris, New York, at Studio 54, at Port
Lligat with Salvador, when Irina threw herself off the rocks at Capo
Creus she was lucky Dick was there to dive in after her, eh? Carrrrazy!"
Penny had trouble seeing Dick Schwanz do anything as
chivalrous as jumping off a cliff after a girl.
Ula drifted to their table and sat down, unfolded the napkin,
spread it carefully on her lap and watched the group through the dining
halls floor to ceiling mirrors, avoiding direct eye contact. Through the
mirror she addressed Sandro. "Is Keat's house open today?"
"Why do you want to see that old British nostalgia?" he asked
her directly.
"I thought Penny might be interested in Frankenstein's
mommy."
"Eh? Why?"
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