.. felt ... she belonged to The Tree. So, we took the stick to comfort her.”“Will she be all right?” Nina asked.“We don’t know yet,” Karen... said. “The caregivers will do all they can for her.”Jane asked for her baby, being held by Raven. As soon as she had her, she gave the infant a tiny breast to suckle.“We will help to give Gen more food from a bottle so she can grow strong like the two of you,” Karen said. “You scarcely have enough energy for yourself, Jane. Always eat as much as you want so. Thenshe cut the ends to even them up and shaved the hair on the back of myneck. Once done she blow-dried my hair in its normal side part. Shetold Deborah to let my hair grow and at night and on weekends make sureI parted it in the center, this way she could watch the growth andbring me back for my next trim at the appropriate time.On the ride home Deborah was once again quite, so I said, "A penny foryour thoughts."She looked at me and sighed, I know you tried to be good at the salonbut when you. It was just the two of us on a hill overlooking the state road. I'm sure people called in some sort of wild animal, at least from the noises I was making. We did see some lights come on, and more than one flashlight as people checked around their yards. By then we were done, though, and we lay wrapped in blankets watching what was going on.We had to sneak back in at home, though my folks were still up. The next day we did a lot of touching and holding of hands. My body was in tune with his, and. She’d never talked about herself from back when she was a young girl, even though she’s been taking me to these tryouts for a while.They called my name, “Charles Sladek?”I got up. “Break a leg, honey,” Mom said.“Aren’t you coming to read with me?” I said, turning to her.“Oh, yes—sorry,” she said grabbing her purse.We walked into a room with three people behind a desk, each with a yellow pad. One looked up and said, “You’re not Charles.”“My son asked me to try out with him. I used to do theater.