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How would his family survive if he could not provide for them? Hoping it was nothing more than a good dream, he followed his friends into the factory.
At the factory, he took his spot next to a man who strangely answered only to K. A was unsure why someone would only answer to a letter. K had been working on his magnum opus recently. It had been a series of nightmares all sent to the same man. In them, the dreamer took on the persona of K. The dreamer desperately wanted entry into a foreboding castle, but was eternally unable to get inside. The dream was extremely insidious, and the dreamer would wake up eternally unsatisfied.
While A worked, he whistled up a little tune. It was brisk and cheerful, ad boosted his self-esteem considerably.
This tune did not go unnoticed by K, however. With a snarl he asked A to stop his infernal racket. It apparently was infusing bits of charm into his nightmare.
A became overwrought. Bursting into tears, he fled home. His family met him there, Sobbing he told them the sad tale of his metamorphosis. He concluded by saying he would no longer be able to provide for then now.
His sister was most understanding. She had adored him previously, and told him that he could stay at home, in hopes that he might get better. The family could survive for a short time without his support.
His mother simply collapsed when he finished, and his father glared at him angrily. Wilting under that stare, A retreated to his room.
He heard his family talking as he left, but didn't try to listen. He instead focused only on losing his happiness, A tried as hard as he could to think only of dark and gothic images, but they would simply not come to him. He couldn't even imagine himself thinking of such dark and dreary images. Instead, his thoughts were eternally drawn back to that meadow with the unicorn. A sat there in silence, picturing the green.
A remained in his room for several days, eating nothing. He found it was possible to subsist on happiness alone, and whenever a pang of hunger struck, he banished it with a blast of the meadow. Hunger was, after all, an unhappy emotion.
One evening he heard his sister talking to his mother. "I'm worried about him, mother," she said. "He hasn't come out, or even eaten, for days. Maybe we should do something."
"I'm sure he's fine," his mother replied. "And besides, money he is running low. He is simply one less mouth we have to feed.
His sister apparently saw the logic of this argument, and was silent.
So his life went for quite some time. He was never able to remove his happiness, and was too frightened to leave his room. One time his superior came to visit, demanding an explanation for his truancy. A had been one of his hardest workers before this absence. A's family pleaded and cajoled in an attempt to make him leave, but he wouldn't be dissuaded. He thrust himself into A's room, and let out a horrific shriek upon seeing A's emaciated but clearly happy form. He bounded away, clearly disgusted by his employee's transformation.
During his confinement, A attempted to discern whatever he could of his family's monetary status.