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My father used to tell me stories of carnivals He called the to celebrate When he was a child, he could go to a carnival and pay ten dollars to walk through a house of mirrors

He described it many times--warped mirrors that made him too tall or too short; mirrors juxtaposed so that they looked like infinite portals He said that the house always looked like it went on forever, that it was infinite, when from the outside it was really as s past the illusion, because the exit was never as far as it seemed

I hadn’t understood what he arden, the tennis courts, the labyrinth of shrubbery, trying to channel his spirit I iaiertips

"Help ure this out," I tell hirass as I stand in the orange grove I’ve never been good at solving puzzles; my brother is the one who solved the Rubik’s Cube on the first try He’s the one who took an interest in the science of things, asking our father questions about the destroyed countries while I was busy ad froe trees "You shouldn’t have answered that ad You never listen toto do with you?" He’d take o home

"Rowan" His na answers ; there’s no path on earth that would lead hi, I take a break and succus that make my prison more enjoyable I dive into the artificial sea within the pool An attendant shows raate the sunken Titanic Iwet and srass and sip colorful drinks with pineapple slices on the riolf on a course that I suppose was built for Linden when he was a child, or maybe his dead brother before him We don’t keep score, and it’s a joint effort to defeat the spinning clown at the last hole We try playing tennis but give up andtennis balls at the wall, since that’s all we seeood at

In the kitchen I can eat all the June Beans I want I sit on the kitchen counter, helping Gabriel peel potatoes, and listening to the cooks talk about the weather and how they’d like to serve the bratty little bride a dirty sock Gabriel, as good-natured as he is, agrees that Cecily has been particularly awful lately So up a rat for her lunch, and the head cook says,

"Watch your tongue There are no rats in my kitchen"

Linden feels that he’s neglecting Jenna andat all I almost ask for a crate of June Beans, because I heard the kitchen staff co deliveries, and since then I’ve been fantasizing about escaping on a delivery truck But then I think of all the progress I’veLinden’s trust, and how easily it would be destroyed if I were caught, which is highly possible, considering Vaughn knows everything that happens in this place

Jenna says, "I’d like a big traarden We jus hurt, and then we lie in the center of it and watch the clouds for a while

"This isn’t the worst place to die," she confesses Then she props herself on her elbohich causes my body to slide more toward her, and she asks me, "Has he come to your bed at all lately?"

"No," I say, and fold ain"

"Rhine?" she says "When he came to you, it wasn’tfor children"

"No," I say "It was never that He hasn’t even kissedback down

"Has he come to you at all?" I ask

"Yes," she says "A few ti to Cecily"

This surprisestea in the library and burying her nose in ro when she has seemed rumpled or out of sorts, especially not the way Cecily was And even now, she see

"What was it like?" I ask, and immediately a hot blush spreads across my face Did I really just ask that?

"Not terrible," is Jenna’s nonchalant reply "He kept asking if I was okay Like he thought I’d break or so to break, he wouldn’t be the one to do it"

I’ht of Linden kissing e, puts my stomach in knots And yet both of my sister wives have donehis child

"I thought you hated him," I finally say

"Of course I do," she says Her voice is a gentle hus her foot casually "I’ve hated all of them But this is the world we live in"

"All of them?" I say