Was all this to punish me? My mother used to talk to the trees, in her time. She spent nights on this hill, although I never knew why. I was also born to listen to the voices of the trees, but I chose to be deaf to them. You undoubtedly did what you did as a way of recalling me to you, because until then I had refused to listen. But I learn quickly, you see. I listen and I learn. I am on your side now. Let me hear your voice, the one that made my twins run to this hill. They had the gift, too. They came here laughing. Toward their wooden cage. Toward their new skin.

And now, this evening, I have come to ask you to take me. Let me become you. I come in peace, drunk with your perfume, to feel the rea.s.suring touch of wood beneath my palms. I want to blend myself into you, let the bark absorb me. Later, perhaps, you will reject me again. I will be made surrogate mother for you if that is what you wish. Since they will have reappeared one day. You know how empty a woman feels, when she is a mother without her babies? Benjamin fills his own void his way, by drowning the gaping hole they have left with too much whisky and beer. Me, I want only to take them into me again. Or have the three of us to melt into you.

Let me join you. Ravage me if you must, nourish me with your sap. It is with pleasure that I will be made tree--what do I have to lose here? I don't fear for myself anymore, you see. All I wish is to reach the two faces, to add mine to the fresco. Perhaps one day Benjamin will pa.s.s here and will think he recognises me in one of the masks. But he will push away the idea, think it the delusion of a drunkard, and he will go home again to sleep it off in the empty bed. Poor fool. How he adored his twins!

I want to know what you did to them. It matters little to me that they became wood, foliage, chlorophyll. I want to know and to become like them, even if it is necessary to take a share of you. Accept me into you, put me near them, shelter me from the world.

Don't make me wait any longer.

Editor Biography.

Lavie Tidhar is the author of the linked-story collection HebrewPunk, novellas An Occupation of Angels, Cloud Permutations, and Gorel & The Pot-Bellied G.o.d. With Nir Yaniv, he co-auth.o.r.ed the short novel The Tel Aviv Dossier. Lavie has also edited the anthologies A d.i.c.k & Jane Primer for Adults and The Apex Book of World SF. He's lived on three continents and one island-nation, and currently lives in South East Asia. He maintains a web presence at www.lavietidhar.co.uk.

Artist Biography.

Randall MacDonald is a trained cla.s.sical painter with degrees in Art and Art History. He has been a successful ill.u.s.trator, designer and art director for a wide variety of clients and projects. Randall is also an accomplished director with over 400 commercials to his credit, with clients such as McDonalds, IBM, and Proctor and Gamble. He has received numerous international and national awards for his creative work and he looks at every project as a new challenge and a chance to improve and learn more about his craft. For more information visit web.me.com/randymacdonaldart/Site_27/Front.html.

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