The Sisters Visit

.The next morning, Psyche had just finished breakfast when she heard two voices calling her name. "Psyche! Psyche!"

"My sisters!" she exclaimed. "My sisters are calling for me!"

Psyche called for West Wind. When he arrived, she instructed him to go to the mountain and bring the two women calling her name.

Psyche was waiting outside the palace when Favonius sat Thomasina and Calla down. She ran to greet them, giving both many hugs and kisses.

Thomasina and Calla were too busy looking at the garden and the palace to notice Psyche's demonstrations of affection.

"I am so happy to see you," Psyche told them. "Come in and let me show you my new home."

As the two sisters followed Psyche from room to room, their mouths opened wider and wider in disbelief at the wealth they saw. And if that were not enough, there were the invisible servants who prepared baths for them and, later, served them a sumptuous meal, which, they noticed, Psyche had done nothing to prepare.

Psyche saw that her sisters were not eating and wanted to know what was wrong. "If the food is not to your liking, please tell me, and I will have another meal prepared."

"Everything is fine," Thomasina said. She and Calla smiled tightly.

"You are so fortunate to have married a man of such wealth," Thomasina continued. "Poor Calla and I married nobility, but, alas, what good is a man who has a full title and an empty purse?"

"What does your husband do?" Calla wanted to know. "He must be a very important person to have a palace like this and riches unlike any we've ever seen. What did you say his name was?"

"I didn't say," Psyche answered, a little flustered.

"Where is he? We would love to meet him," Thomasina put in.

"He ... he ... yes, he went hunting. That's what he spends all his time doing. I seldom see him myself." She gave a smile. "Oh, dear. Look. It is growing dark. How fast the time went by. Come. Would you like to take some jewels with you?"

Thomasina and Calla started drooling at the mouth. Psyche got up from the table, and her sisters followed as she led them down the corridor into a room where the table was piled high with diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and jewels no one had gotten around to giving names to. Thomasina and Calla filled their pockets, then stuffed their bras with so many jewels, they could hardly move.

Psyche hurried them out of the house, nervous that they might ask her more questions about her husband. When outside, Psyche called for West Wind, who was resting atop a tree.

"Take them back to where you found them, friend Wind."

As Favonius lifted Thomasina and Calla into the air, he thought they were heavier than when he had brought them. He understood as he listened to them talk.

"It's not fair!" Thomasina declared.

"You can say that again!" exclaimed Calla. "Invisible servants who wait on her hand and foot."

"Plates and goblets of gold! Room after room filled with jewels and fine garments."

"Why is she the one who always gets everything?"

"Father loved her more than he did us. And now, she has what must be the wealthiest man in the world for a husband."

"It's not right!"

"No, it isn't!"

Not only the jewels, but jealousy and malice, had made the two sisters so heavy that Favonius was tired and out of breath when he deposited them back on the mountaintop. Even though he was supposed to do whatever Cupid or Psyche wanted him to, he didn't know how many more trips he could make with those two. If they kept feeding each other's malice, they would end up as heavy as the mountain.

Thomasina and Calla were eager to get back to their parents' palace and look at the jewels they had acquired. However, if they returned with expressions of sated lust, everyone would be suspicious. So the two sisters tore each other's clothes and scratched their faces to make it appear that they were grieving for their "dead sister." They agreed not to tell their parents that Psyche was alive, for if they knew how well her marriage had turned out, they would love her even more.

When Thomasina and Calla reached the palace, they didn't have to say anything. Their disheveled appearance was enough to confirm the king's and queen's worst fears. Psyche was indeed dead! As their parents began weeping anew, the two sisters went up to their chambers and unburdened themselves of all the jewels they had taken, then hid them behind loose bricks in the fireplace. Then they began plotting: how could they kill Psyche and get her husband? Or at least his wealth.

Chapter end