“Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.”

– Oscar Wilde, Irish playwright, novelist and poet

“It wasn’t fair,” said Penny. “And no one can tell me otherwise.”

“Define fair,” I replied, looking for perspective. “Tell me what fair means.”

“I’ll tell you what it’s not,” she declared. “It’s not having your drunken father come home after a night of drinking and deciding that you’d make a good punching bag.” I was about to learn how unfair Penny’s upbringing had been and the stories were heartbreaking: thrown against the wall and knocked unconscious at age five when she stepped between her parents to break up a fig...

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