The storyteller begins each section with the same phrase: "Listen, and remember." At first I thought it was just habit. Then I noticed where the repetition landed: always before a name, always before a warning, always before a moment when the community's rules are tested. The narrator does not explain the rule like a textbook. She circles it, returns to it, lets it sink in through rhythm. In the printed version, the editor deletes some of the repeated lines to "tighten the prose." The story becomes faster, but it loses the feeling of being held by many voices over time.