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102 chapter thirty-three Ifind that work at Triple E suits me well—the cycling seasons, the chores. My sisters found that menial labor quite suited them too as they aged. Merry with her job at Triple C, sewing patterns for children’s clothes, and Ketzia at Triple D, night-typing in the house of those bachelor detectives. I am sure that our parents find it confusing that we three sisters who grew up in a town of such promise ended up in such, well, domestic positions. However, there are perfectly reasonable explanations for our lives of service: Merry and Ketzia are insane, you see. It’s a natural effect of having been tortured. As a child it was as if watching two maniacs on the loose. Now, you would think that they were the ones who were under some spell, with their madness and nonsense. However, if you look closely, it is more that random acts of violence lit a match to their bodies and sent them spinning , like a firework snake. Now that they have steady employment and permanent homes, it would seem that they have “come to their senses.” But it is just the opposite! They were never en- 103 chanted. But now they are! Enchanted by labor—‘tis labor has set them free. If this is sounding complicated, forgive or forget it, please. As for me? I had the most enchanted childhood, and never had much imagination. I was rewarded with money just for being, well, me. I never knew myself, nor wanted to know myself really. But one day, it is as if I awoke into darkness—yes, I woke up, though I never wanted to wake up. I should say that I do love my job here at Triple E, gathering eggs and growing the flowers and gathering the wood and making the fires and tending to frogs. It is strange, though. Always I considered my sisters to be imprisoned by magic, but it was me all along. Magic saved them, but it killed me. Some days, I wish I never had been born, because then I never would have died—never would have missed such beauty on earth. ...

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