The Unmapping

by Denise S. Robbins

“It’s the TruTrees. You know how they’re made? They’re made out of actual wood pulp. And oil resin and a whole lot of other stuff, chemicals that I can’t pronounce, but I do know the jury’s still out on whether they cause cancer. But that’s beside the point. They’re made out of real trees! I can’t tell you how I’ve complained about this. The whole point is to preserve trees. Not cut them down and put them in a blender with cancer-causing chemicals! But Management says everything they produce takes materials, and the TruTrees are still immortal, therefore in line with my father’s vision of reducing clear-cutting. ‘Immortal.’ You hear that? Immortal! They think they’re gods. The more we try to simulate nature, to print it in a factory, the further away we get.” Franz stops walking, crouches down, and picks up a handful of soil, uncovering a warren of worms. “To immortalize a tree is to blaspheme it. That’s what it is. I don’t believe in God but I do believe in Nature, like my father, and we’ve blasphemed. We created something we shouldn’t have. Something that defies the laws of nature. And now here we are. One thing leads to another. Nature’s laws have been broken. We created something terrible, and now there’s chaos in every major city in America. Soon, the world.”