Ethos



    Her magic tricks set her apart in more ways than one. Yet her essence of being can be sorrowfully misunderstood.

    When I saw her roll a body into the river, something changed. The magic was gone.

    Perhaps it would be best if I begin at the beginning.

    Rachel, pronounced Rockal in the Jewish way, was gifted from birth, according to the child's bubbe. She said the child was born with a caul, a sure sign of "giftedness."

    Rachel was, in fact, from Tierra Del Fuego. Born into a family of sixteen children, her poverty-stricken parents saved up money to put her in a large cardboard box and send her to Los Angeles, via parcel post.  They addressed the box to the only person in America known to them, Bascomb Pygmalion Swartz, an itinerant harpsichordist. Pygmalion was a gifted harpsichordist who played in many fine brothels and always received big tips if he forgot peoples names.
  One night he was playing in a swells mansion and was recognized by one of the guests and... his wife. She did not know Pygmalion from a brothel, of course, but she was a fine harpsichordist, too, and they belonged to the same music club, LA Bach Doors Society. A music club that would frequently overlook the practices of their hosts.