Green Beginnings in ‘The Overstory’

Part three: Lost

Photo by Martin Martz on Unsplash

Dorothy is almost forty-two. She and Ray have just received the final verdict on their infertility journey — they have exhausted all possibilities, and will not have a biological child.

Ray’s love for her is unchanged. He simply wants her more than he could ever want a child.

He tries every way he can to convince her of this. But Dorothy’s heartbreak fills her with bitterness and a sense of impotent rage, rage that she can only unleash on Ray, while he can only endure the blows and wait in silent hope for her to return to him.

“Out in the yard, all around the house, the things they’ve planted in years gone by are making significance, making meaning, as easily as they make sugar and wood from nothing, from air, and sun, and rain. But the humans hear nothing.”