What Became of Her

Peligro, the sign said. Danger – because the road that led up to the house twisted
sharply around the hill. One of the Hispanic workers had made the sign as the
house was being prepared for its new owner. When Rosalind Slaymaster was finally
ready to live there, everyone in the small Pennsylvania town had come to call
the place Peligro. It was like Mrs Slaymaster to leave it that way. She was
said to be the richest woman in Bucks County. When Edgar Tobbit first met her
he thought she didn’t look rich, but it didn’t take him very long to realiSe
she wasn’t like anyone else, either. Neither was her teenage niece, Julie, who
arrived at school every day in a white Hummer. And neither was Peale, the two-foot
leather mannequin who had his own wardrobe of tailor-made suits; his own passport,
bedroom and television. Peale was said to grant wishes and make dreams come
true.
"What’s Peligro like?" Edgar’s friend asks him. And Edgar invites
him to a party there on Christmas Eve.That is how Neal Kraft and Julie first
meet.
The threesome quickly become fast friends and, in a short while, change one
another’s lives, barely aware of the old secrets that inspire Mrs Slaymaster’s
revenge on the town.Through it all Peale sits among them with his green glass
eyes bright and watchful, as though he knows what’s coming.
What Became of Her is partly based on some real-life characters the author has
never been able to forget.