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Show THE EXTERMINATOR-77 arm-like thing rising from it with a box on top holding a man. The yellow arm had lifted him high up into the tree and he was cutting off branches with the chainsaw. Already, the ground below was strewn with branches. Men were hacking at them, stacking them in neat piles. The flickers were gone, leaving her with a place inside herself where they must have pecked. And he was there, standing off to one side, laughing, his white head thrown back, his hands on his hips. She gathered up the trailing gown and veil and ran down the stairs, sliding a l i t t le on the bodies, skirted the cylinder and hose, and flung herself out the door, waving at the man in the box. Tears flew from the sides of her eyes like transparent moons. "Stop! Please. You musn't!" No one heard her. He stood laughing, not seeing her, his thin body tense, vibrant, surprising. She ran to the door of the truck, so that the driver would notice her, but he was looking up at the man in the box, smiling. She ran to the men hacking up the branches, but it was as if she weren't there. She ran back to the side of the truck where he was. Marta was next to him and he had an arm around her, and both their heads were flung back, watching the man in the box. Ellie stood then, unsure, staring up at the enormous sky, back down at herself, small, covered in white, the way the snow used to lie on the bigger branches. Nothing happened. |