Eliza's Forever Trees

Suddenly Mother jumped to her feet and ran to one of the trees, a three-hundred-foot-tall redwood. ¿Forever tree! Forever tree!¿ she cried, smiling. She swept the skinny girl up into her arms. The child¿s pale skin shimmered in the golden forest light. ¿Forever trees, forever trees,¿ they sang, spinning in circles. The memory melted into the fog, and Eliza felt very tired. The question came again to her. It appeared out of the gray, out of the damp, out of the cold corners of this new...
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Suddenly Mother jumped to her feet and ran to one of the trees, a three-hundred-foot-tall redwood. ¿Forever tree! Forever tree!¿ she cried, smiling. She swept the skinny girl up into her arms. The child¿s pale skin shimmered in the golden forest light. ¿Forever trees, forever trees,¿ they sang, spinning in circles. The memory melted into the fog, and Eliza felt very tired. The question came again to her. It appeared out of the gray, out of the damp, out of the cold corners of this new house. The question whispered¿it always did¿the kind of whisper that sounded very loud indeed: Where had Mother gone? Shadows appeared and disappeared in Eliza¿s mind. Still, she couldn¿t remember. She simply could not remember anything after that last story in the forest. For some reason, she wasn¿t terribly worried. She was a little worried, for sure, but not terribly worried, because a strange calm held the shadows and the question. It held Eliza, too. Because love is forever.