Enslaved

During the many forced apologies of childhood, Libby, Sarah, and I would follow our self-prescribed protocol. Mother would stand by to negotiate the peace treaty, and the guilty sister would cede herself into slavery for the day. Carrying out the whims of her master, the slave would suffer according to her wrongdoings from earlier. Offering one’s enslavement was also a standard gift bestowed on birthdays. Resultantly, only one day a year, May 29th, was I ever master of my two sisters. For it was always me, never them, who misbehaved, who needed to compensate for bad behavior through slave labor.