Gestation / Fernando Dámaso

The tree began to spread its leaves on June 14th. First slowly and then more quickly. In the morning they began to cover the windows and towards noon they already reached the roof and had started to become intertwined. Their first effect was the dim light they let into the room. It seemed as if they took possession of everything and this would make them grow. By nightfall the room was a single entangled vine unable to be penetrated by any human being. On the fifteenth day the leaves began to extend under the door and broke the glass of the window, looking for new space. In three days the house was engulfed in full green leaves.Hundreds of birds came to the vine, filling every day of the week with their songs. As the hours passed, the leaves spread more and more. After the house, they covered the neighborhood and later the whole city. They grew on cars, on posts, illuminated advertisements and over shop windows. Everything went well and was acceptable until the moment in which they started to grow on people. The first one who noticed was García, a mason, when he was on his way to his work: leaves sprouted from his fingers. He ran screaming like a madman until a root set him into the ground next to the bus stop. The same thing happened to others. After one month, in the place where the city would have been there was a beautiful forest. This is how it remained for decades until one day when from a tree, a child was born.

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Translated by: Antonio Trujillo