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hit your head and hallucinated a robot clown? How did you hit your head?”
    â€œThe robot clown knocked me down.”
    Cindy frowned at her. “You got a chicken-and-egg thing going on there.”
    â€œI don’t care,” Mab said. “I’m going to work on the Fortune-Telling Machine.” She thought about that while Cindy went over to refresh the coffee cup of the guy with the trilby hat and the glasses. The Machine was going to be so beautiful when she’d restored it, once she’d studied it to get it right. Cindy came back, and Mab said, “I’m going to have to do rubbings of all four sides.”
    â€œOf the robot clown?” Cindy said.
    â€œThe Fortune-Telling Machine. Forget the robot clown.”
    â€œI don’t want to forget the robot clown, the robot clown is exciting.”
    â€œThat’s because it didn’t run into you.”
    Cindy shook her head. “Are you kidding? This is a great story to tell people. You can say, ‘I got run down by a robot clown.’ All I can say is,‘My roommate got run down by a robot clown.’ It’s not the same thing.” She stopped and thought for a moment. “I’m thirty-two years old, and I’ve never been run down by a robot clown. That never bothered me before, but now—”
    Mab put her fork down. “You know what was strange?”
    â€œThe robot clown.”
    â€œBesides that. Glenda wasn’t surprised when I talked about it. She asked me questions about it like it was real.”
    â€œDid you ask her why?”
    â€œShe was busy selling me on the idea that it was a hallucination. Which, of course, it was. But if it wasn’t, I’d swear she knew what it really was.”
    â€œHuh. I don’t remember any park legends about robot clowns.”
    â€œThere are park legends?” Mab frowned. “I researched this park and didn’t find any legends.” She thought about it. “Of course, I was looking for photographs of rides.”
    â€œOh, yeah, we got legends. Like the Devil’s Drop is haunted. And if you cheat on your honey here, you die of a heart attack with a mark on your chest. And if you throw a penny in the paddleboat lake, your wish will come true.”
    Mab blinked. “The last one’s kind of an anticlimax.”
    â€œIt doesn’t work, either.” Cindy looked around and then leaned across the counter to Mab. “But some stuff does work here. Like Delpha really can tell your fortune.”
    â€œNot mine, she can’t,” Mab said, digging into her waffles again. “She’s been after me ever since I got here, but I am not going into that booth. Going in there to repaint it was bad enough. She kept looking at me, like she was seeing something I didn’t know about.”
    â€œShe wants to tell your fortune and you won’t let her?” Cindy said, pulling back. “Are you crazy? I’d kill to have her do mine.”
    â€œSo go.” Mab forked more waffle.
    â€œI’ve tried. She won’t do me. She says I’m a naturally happy person and I shouldn’t mess with fate.”
    â€œOh.” Mab chewed a little slower as she considered that. “Then why is she so hot to get me in there? I’m a naturally happy person.”
    Cindy gave her a you’re-kidding-me look.
    â€œNo, I am,” Mab said. “I love my work.”
    â€œThat’s all you do,” Cindy said. “You won’t even take time out to smell the robot clown.”
    Mab screwed up her face. “Ew.”
    â€œYeah, that wasn’t good. But really, all this great stuff around you that you could be enjoying, and you go to work. I mean, this is probably the longest conversation we’ve ever had, and you’ve been living with me for nine months.”
    â€œI don’t really have much interesting to say,” Mab said. “Except about my work. Work is great