Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 Tree of Life (C) 2004 by Dragonfly (c) 2011 New edition with additional
material

   This new version is in the short story collection, "Dragonfly Stories
Vol.  1: Tales of the Erotic and Strange," available on Amazon and
Smashwords.  Please support Dragonfly by purchasing her work so she can
write even more!

   ***

   Warnings be damned, she had to do something.  Patty put on the bright
orange safety vest and carefully picked her way out into the flood waters.
The dirty brown river was cold, unseen things brushing against her pant
legs as they passed, and she didn't want to think about what may be coming
downstream in the muck toward her as she tried to reach the stranded
horses. The farm was an island now, and the water that blocked her way was
rising but still running slowly enough that she figured could make it back
across.  She opened the gate and grabbed the halter of the nearest panicked
horse, patting its broad cheek gently and speaking to it kindly as she led
it into the water.  The whites of its eyes showed as it waded through to
the other side, one of the other horses following behind.  The mare's kin,
she figured.  Another trip across, and the water was getting dangerously
high.  It sloshed around her buttocks and splashed her gut so that she
began to shiver.  One horse left.  She grabbed its mane, since it had no
halter, and began to gently lead it across the swift, brown waters. 
Halfway across, her feet were swept out from under her, but her hold on the
horse's neck helped her regain her footing.  Five feet from the bank, the
other horses waited and called to the third as it awkwardly climbed the
slope to safety.  I've done it, thought Patty.  Then her feet slipped again
as did her hold on the horse.

   She screamed reflexively and got a mouth full of choking gritty muck. 
Her hands flailed and struck out for a branch, or fence, or anything to
hold on to, but there was nothing.  Trying to keep her head above the
swirling waters, she paddled as best she could toward the nearest shore.  A
branch connected with her head from behind, and everything went black.

   * * *

   Coughing water from her lungs, Patty came to.  Despite a throbbing
headache and being half drowned, she managed to carefully stand up and look
around at where she had ended up.  Patty had no clue where she was.  The
flood waters had left her in a marshy area, the churning brown river now
several feet away as it receded.  How long had she been out?  She gently
touched her head and found a good sized lump where the branch had clobbered
her, then she realized that most of her clothing had been torn off in the
waters.  Beginning to shake from the chill, she looked around and began
stuffing big pads of insulating moss into her remaining clothes to keep
warm and wished for some dry firewood.  Looking in every direction, she
could see no trace of civilization, only marsh and swampland for miles. 
Some large white birds called as they flew overhead, and suddenly she felt
very alone.  Several hours later, hypothermia was really beginning to set
in.  "Must... keep core body temperature... up..." she said out loud, just
to hear her own voice.  She rubbed her bare arms and watched the river mud
pill up into little rolls and fall away from her skin.  Suddenly she heard
a low rumbling... was it another flood?  An earthquake?  A bright red
helicopter appeared from behind some distant trees.  Gasping with panicked
hope, she tore off her safety vest and waved it in the air as she jumped up
and down.  "HERE!!" she screamed, "HERE!  OH GOD, PLEASE COME GET ME!!" The
helicopter stopped, then turned toward the moving orange dot.  She had been
spotted.

   * * *

   Night fell as Patty finally got out of the shower.  It had taken what
seemed like hours to get all the grime out of every crack and crevice of
her body.  The on-demand water heater allowed her to crank it up as hot as
she liked as she scrubbed off the scum, lathered her hair three times, and
rubbed fragrant herbal soap all over.  She even used her exfoliating sugar
scrub, her special facial wash, and a gentle vaginal douche for good
measure.  Patty couldn't remember when she had gotten dirtier, or when a
long, hot shower had been so delicious.  She still wore her towel around
her head and was doing a final cleaning job under her toenails when she
felt a pang.  "Goddamn period," she muttered to herself.  "And I just got
clean too.  Well, this is just the ovulation pains.  It'll be a couple of
weeks before the flow starts."

   But somehow, something in the back of Patty's mind knew that it felt
different.  That it was in the wrong place.  And it wasn't so much the
light cramping of ovulation as a strange, unfamiliar... something... that
she couldn't put her finger on.  Not painful exactly, but not comfortable
and normal either.  Pushing the thoughts aside as paranoia caused by stress
and fatigue, the weary woman climbed into bed and fell into a deep sleep.
The next morning she went to her County Search and Rescue debriefing, was
reprimanded for not waiting until help arrived despite her insistence that
the horses would have died without her, and was urged to get a medical exam
in case she had been exposed to a hazardous disease in the floodwaters. 
Patty drove home, the last of the rain continuing to keep the streets wet.
Her mind wandered and she found herself parked in the garage, not quite
remembering how she got there.  "Stress," she murmured to herself as she
got out of the car.  As she stood up, the odd feeling returned.  Not a
cramp exactly, but some kind of dull pulling feeling in the vicinity of her
uterus.  It was getting stronger, so she took a couple of ibuprofen and
relaxed on the couch to watch television, laying a heating pad on her
abdomen.  Almost immediately the feeling increased, a pressure building up
where the heating pad touched her skin.  Feeling a little ill, Patty
decided to turn in early.  The office where she worked was still a mess
anyway, and it would be days before the ground floor was cleaned up.  Her
boss had called to let her know that she wouldn't be needed for a while, so
she had volunteered for a Search and Rescue volunteer shift.  Getting into
bed, her mind wandered back to when she had saved the horses.  She curled
up on her side to try and relieve the uncomfortable feeling inside as she
fell asleep.  In her dreams, ocean waves turned into horses, and as she sat
on the beach, the horses galloped inside her vagina and filled her body
until she became water too.  Jerking awake the next morning, a welcome
shaft of sunlight came through her bedroom window.  Patty smiled as she
opened the blinds and let the sun bathe her in warmth.  Instantly, the
pressure returned to her belly and the smile faded.  It was getting worse,
and she began to think that maybe a trip to the doctor was in order in case
she had gotten an infection from the dirty waters.  She closed the blinds
again, and the pressure disappeared.  Patty paused, confused a little by
this strange reaction.  She opened the blinds, allowing the sun to hit her
pubic mound, and the pressure was back with a vengeance.  She closed them
again, cutting off the sunlight, and it subsided, but not completely this
time.  Frozen to the spot, she opened the blinds a crack and let the sun
shine only on her arm.  Only a little of the sensation made itself known
down inside her.  She moved so that the sun hit her face, and only got a
little twinge from her belly.  She let the sun fall on her belly and pubic
area, and the strong, sudden pushing sensation almost brought her to her
knees.  But it wasn't an unpleasant sensation.  Still curious, she got the
heating pad and applied it alternately to her belly where her womb was
located, and alternated it with sunlight.  The heat stimulated the strange
feeling, but sunlight made it go wild.  Her crotch began to tingle slightly
as well.  Standing in the sunlight, she allowed the feeling to grow inside
her.  She began to breathe a little more rapidly, and ran her hands over
her belly as she prepared to masturbate.  She reached the soft area just
above her pubic hairs and began to tease herself, then realized with a
shock that its shape had changed since she had last been there.  There was
a distinct bulge now -- why hadn't she noticed it when showering yesterday?
She felt the bulge, and it was firm.  Definitely something there.  And the
longer she stood in the bright morning sunlight, the more pressure she felt
from within.  Was it... growing?  Right before her eyes?  She became more
stimulated, even though she wasn't pleasuring herself.  Patty began to feel
her vagina moving slightly, an exciting pressure growing there as well. 
Still she stood in the sunlight, enjoying the sensations it was creating
within her body.  Overcome at last, she began to finger her opening as she
felt herself being stretched deep inside her tunnel.  Yes, she decided, her
belly was getting larger.  She massaged the growing bulge with her free
hand and became even more stimulated.  Still standing in the sunlight that
was somehow creating this rapid change in her, Patty felt the skin of her
abdomen begin to tighten as whatever was inside her grew even larger.  The
shape inside her elastic vagina was so large now, trapped behind the tight
ring of muscle at the entrance, that she could feel it pushing against both
her anus and her increasing womb.  At last she came, her quickly moving
fingers stimulating her clit into release as the sunlight did its work too.
Sinking to the floor, still in the shaft of morning light, she closed her
eyes and panted as the orgasm subsided into little aftershocks, but the
sensations inside still increased.  Patty shuddered with another wave of
pleasure as something finally found its way out from between her labia. 
She opened her eyes and saw a thumb-sized, pale green shoot quickly
emerging from between her legs, its large leaves slowly unfurling as it
moved to collect the sunshine.  Transfixed, and sure now that she was
dreaming, Patty simply sat on the floor and watched what was happening to
her.  The shoot grew larger as it continued to slowly push its way out, and
she could feel the moving stalk begin to stretch her hole open wider as two
more eight-inch leaves unfurled themselves toward the sun.  She pinched
herself to see if she were awake, and sure enough, it hurt.  The stalk
continued to issue from her vagina, and her belly continued to grow.  She
pushed on the rising mound and could feel a hard knot within that slowly
increased as two more leaves began to open.  Finally shaking herself out of
her shock, she scrambled up and closed the blinds, causing the plant's
growth to cease.  She stood shaking, her legs apart, looking down at the
green, heart-shaped leaves that quivered as well, tickling her belly. 
Patty tentatively touched the substantial leaves, and they were velvety on
the underside with thick veins.  Exploring further, she used her fingers to
follow the stem downward, feeling the smooth surface and the bud where the
leaves emerged from it.  She continued, feeling her way down the shaft and
trying to hold the leaves out of the way so she could see what she was
doing.  She found the point at which the thing emerged from her vagina, and
shuddered again with the feeling of it, her inner muscles twitching against
the hard form.  She grunted and gasped as she worked in a finger alongside
the thick stalk, following it deep into herself where she found its point
of origin - it was going into (or, more accurately, coming out of) her
womb. With her other hand, she pushed on her swollen belly and felt the
pressure of a large, lumpy form within pushing back.  Patty knew she had to
get help.  She called for an emergency appointment at the hospital that
night (knowing the dangers of exposing her belly to daylight) and headed
for the kitchen.  There, she found her pruning shears in the drawer, and,
holding her breath as if it might hurt, severed the shoot as close to her
labia as she dared.  Exhaling with relief, she had felt nothing.  A pale
juice slowly dripped from the plant's wound.  Patty grabbed some
loose-fitting clothing and sat down to wait for the sun to go down.  Over
the next few hours she only felt a small amount of growth, and by evening,
when she was ready to leave, the inch of new shoot protruding from her hole
was sliced off to make the drive easier.  At the hospital, the doctors were
baffled at first, but the X-rays showed what had happened - a seed from a
large tropical plant had somehow been washed into her vagina during the
flood and had germinated in the moist, dark warmth of her body.  Experts
were called in, and it seemed that a careful abortion-like procedure would
do the job of getting the root ball out of her uterus.  The next morning
she awoke after the surgery had been done, and immediately noticed that the
hard pressure inside her had gone.  Patty felt a mixture of relief and loss
-- she understood the relief, but why did she feel as if she had actually
had an abortion?  Shaking off the grogginess, she had a hospital breakfast
and then slowly drove herself home.  But a nagging feeling that something
wasn't quite right remained.  She left a message on the machine at work
that she would miss being there the next day, and took some pain killers
for the dull throb that was in her gut.  Damn doctors, she thought... then
wondered why she had.  They had helped her, hadn't they?  They had all been
very kind, and worked hard to ensure that she wouldn't be embarrassed...
Patty went into the kitchen and saw the shears she had used to cut the
plant.  A bead of dried liquid rested on the blade and she shuddered
involuntarily.  Getting a small glass she took a shot of brandy to calm her
nerves.  Something scratched at the back of her consciousness.  Later in
the afternoon, after two more shots of brandy and some bad television, she
took some more pain killers and laid down for a nap.  Rest was what she
needed the most.  Wonderful sleep.  The dreamless sleep of the dead after
such a trying 24 hours.  Some time later she awoke, stretched, and noticed
that it was dark outside.  A terrible flavor in her mouth made her get up
and brush her teeth, then she used the toilet.  The doctor warned her that
there might be some faint traces of blood, so she wasn't surprised by the
droplet of pink that appeared on the paper, but something wasn't the same.
It was thicker than urine, almost as thick as tree sap.  It looked just
like the droplet on the blade of her shears, and she stared at it for a
long time before wiping again.  Another droplet, just like the first.  She
figured it was residue from the proceedure and tried to shrug it off, but
when she stood up, a familiar pang visited her womb.  Patty froze and felt
her lower abdomen with her hands, but couldn't feel anything inside.  She
took a deep breath (not realizing that she had stopped breathing), and
strode toward the bedroom.  Another small pang.  But she didn't feel
frightened at what might be living inside her body.  She wondered at this
feeling... this strange, welcoming feeling of hope.  Hope that it might
happen again.  Irritated with her foolishness and trying to shake off any
bizarre, romantic notions, she strode swiftly into the living room and
landed hard on the sofa, determined to live a normal life as if none of
this had ever happened.  She grabbed the TV remote and savagely changed the
channels, found some random reality show to numb herself with, and got up
to get some more brandy.  Another little flutter in her womb.  Or maybe it
was her period this time?  Perhaps a little pang of ovulation?  Tossing her
hair and ignoring it, she wrenched the whole bottle (or what remained of
it) off the counter and swung back onto the sofa where she was soon fast
asleep.  At some point in the middle of the night, she awoke to find that
the television was still on, and hazily watched a couple of commercials as
she woke up enough to go pee and move to her bed for the rest of the night.
One commercial in particular, however, caught her attention.  It showed a
spray for tough weeds, like dandelions, and showed how if any of the root
was left behind when you pulled it up, a whole new plant would grow from
that tiny bit of root.  A tiny bit of root.  They hadn't gotten it all.  A
cold feeling shot down her body as she felt something again.  Was it a
cramp?  It felt like the little dull pain she got when ovulating sometimes.
She could feel it on the left side, right about where her ovary was.  Yes,
that had to be it.  Patty laughed roughly at her own wild imagination,
grinding the heels of her hands into her eyes and getting up from the sofa.
A wave of feeling shot through her belly and made her gasp, but not from
pain... from pleasure.  She straightened up and felt another movement from
within, accompanied by another sensation of pleasure and a little dull ache
in the vicinity of her left ovary.  Still slightly groggy from awakening
and from the remnants of the alcohol, her mind tried to work sensibly as
she tottered down the hallway to the bathroom.  But nothing made sense at
4:00 in the morning under these conditions.  Sitting down to pee, the
change in position caused another movement from within, and another tingle
of pleasure in her depths.  Wiping carefully, she saw another pink droplet
of the thick, sap-like liquid.  The act of drawing her hand across her
opening gave her a chill of desire.  Standing up, another movement in her
belly, another tingle of pleasure (were they getting stronger?), and
another dull pull at her ovary.  Her mind wouldn't focus, and she decided
to simply ignore it until the next day as she crept under the warm, soft
covers of her bed and almost instantly fell asleep.  Having turned the
alarm off and enjoying the warmth of her comforter, Patty slept in quite
late.  She turned over and was awakened by the dim awareness that something
wasn't quite right in her body.  She felt a familiar pressure from within.
Did she have to pee?  No, that wasn't it, she decided as she rolled to her
other side and was rewarded with a strong wave of stimulating pleasure in
her vagina.  Then her eyes opened wide at the thought of what it might be.
She felt as if Christmas morning had arrived, then caught herself.  What in
the world was she thinking?  What if the damn thing was back?  Yes... what
if it was?  She slowly reached down and touched the skin of her lower belly
where the root ball had been before.  She breathed deeply, then pushed
inward with her fingertips.  Something was there.  Something firm and
irregularly shaped.  It was back.  Trembling, she withdrew her fingers and
examined her feelings as she drew the blankets up around her chin.  For a
long time she laid in bed, staring at the ceiling, watching the light play
there from the top of the window where the blinds didn't quite meet.  The
blinds.  She noticed that her labia were pulsating with her heartbeat.  She
slowly reached down with her right hand and began to play with herself.  It
felt so good.  The thing inside her was somehow stimulating her, and she
responded.  She loved it, the life within her womb.  It was hers.  Nobody
had to know about it.  She could keep cutting it off and nobody would ever
know.  A feeling of horror hit her, and she stopped moving her hand.  She
could never cut it again.  It wasn't right.  It would be like cutting her
own body.  The memory of the sap on the clippers haunted her now, like a
murder weapon.  Patty got up and went into the kitchen, the movement of
standing up from her bed causing the form inside her belly to push against
her in different ways.  Pleasant ways.  Unconsciously, she rubbed her belly
as she walked.  She went into the kitchen and threw the clippers into the
trash, then noticed what she had been doing.  Taking her hand away, she saw
that yes, there was a noticeable bulge inside her again, her skin
stretching to accommodate it.  Staring down, she rubbed it again, feeling
the new shape, caressing the tightened skin, welcoming it into her heart.
Patty called her office and explained that she had just had surgery for
a... uterine growth.  A benign uterine growth.  Yes, she was fine.  But it
would be a few days before she could go back to work.  Maybe a week.  Or
two.  Depending on what her doctor said.  She would let them know as soon
as she was coming back.  She absently hung up the phone and went back to
the bedroom.  The morning light strained to enter but the blinds prevented
it.  She could feel the plant inside her straining as well.  It needed
light.  She could give it what it needed.  She climbed onto the bed and
crouched there on her knees, facing the window, preparing herself for what
she knew would happen.  She could feel the root growing restless, the slow
movement and increasing pressure causing her juices to begin flowing and
her inner thighs to tingle.  Patty opened the blinds.  Sunlight cascaded
through the window and onto her body.  Instantly, the pressure within began
to increase.  She watched, smiling blissfully, as her belly stretched
further.  Then, catching her by surprise, a sudden blast of pleasure so
intense it almost knocked her over issued from her vagina.  She orgasmed
instantly as the hard, thick shoot pushed out of her uterus and moved
through her tunnel, working her sensitive places until the knotted up
shoots finally arrived at her opening.  She gasped with wave after wave of
sustained pleasure as the pale green rod, thick as a thumb, emerged from
her slit and began to seek the light as it had the first time.  Two deep
green leaves slowly unfurled themselves at the level of her navel, and she
stroked the edges of her hole where the plant pushed it open, another
little spasm of orgasm causing her inner muscles to clamp down and work
deliciously on the firm, bulbous stalk inside her.  Still the plant
continued to grow.  From within, she could feel the roots in her womb
enlarging, looking for somewhere to expand.  In her vagina, the stalk kept
growing thicker, pushing the stretchy walls ever outward behind the ring of
muscle at the entrance.  Her opening continued to grow wider still as the
stalk of the plant enlarged and grew thicker.  Still she sat in the sun,
encouraging it, fondling the large, heavy leaves, loving what was
happening. She felt a new pressure now, and grunted a bit as a second shoot
pushed its way out from between her labia, two more leaves slowly unfurling
to catch the sunlight.  The first stalk was just putting up two more large
leaves, and she could feel the roots continuing to grow in her womb.  The
blinds were still open, sunlight glowing strongly, bathing her body and the
plant.  Suddenly she felt a new pang deep within, this time on the right
side where she sometimes got cramps when she ovulated.  Two more leaves
unfurled, and the two stalks kept growing larger, as did her belly.  Then
she realized what must be happening - the roots had found her open-ended
fallopian tubes.  The plant had passed beyond her uterus and was taking
root ever deeper inside her body.  Still she sat in the sunlight, smiling,
massaging herself.  A third shoot forced its way out of her already
stretched opening, and the sensation made her begin to masturbate once
again.  Pushing the leaves out of the way, she watched herself as she
rhythmically fingered herself, the enlarging green bush shaking back and
forth with her movements.  Patty looked down at her belly, which was now
distended as if several months pregnant, and at the triple pale green rods
sticking out of her, forcing the reddened lips wide apart.  With her other
hand she grasped the stalks and moved them, forcing her genitals to move
with them, back and forth, back and forth.  Two more leaves unfurled near
her face and she orgasmed, kissing and licking them as her entire body
spasmed with the force of it.  She suckled on a leaf as her orgasm
subsided, her straining vaginal muscles attempting to tighten around the
huge shape spreading her wide.  The leaf tasted sweet and a little salty in
her mouth.  Somehow, she knew it would.  The window remained open.  The
plant continued to grow.  Her knees growing tired, Patty tried to sit back
on her bed and awkwardly collapsed onto her back, the plant towering over
her, the leaves rustling together.  The new position brought her renewed
pleasure as the huge, bulbous forms shifted deep inside her.  She squeezed
her legs together and felt the cool stalks of the plant against her soft
thighs, a roughness beginning to form around the base of the shoots.  She
touched them and realized that it was bark, then discovered that if she
moved just right, the rough bark would rub against her vaginal walls,
stimulating her to new dimensions.  As she came again, a droplet of salty
sweetness fell into her mouth from the plant above her and she felt even
more pressure from within.  She looked down at her body and saw that her
womb had grown huge, as if she were seven months pregnant.  More and more
leaves unfurled, creating a shady canopy above her, just shy of the
ceiling. She felt a dull pressure in her abdomen, but further up than
before - focusing on it, she could feel the fine baby roots exploring
deeper into her flesh, tiny fluttering caresses that slowly spread up and
out.  She gasped as still another shoot worked its way out of her one exit,
stretching her opening more than she had ever thought possible.  This new
shoot was white and started burrowing downward, right into her bed.  Patty
didn't fully realize what had happened until she tried to shift her
position in order to take advantage of the moving shaft of sunlight and
found that she was stuck fast to the bed, the root having penetrated the
mattress and wrapped itself around the frame.  She pulled the best she
could, but it was no use.  The pulling, however, brought back more feelings
of pleasure and desire, her hand working her clitoris up to another
rampaging orgasm, her inner muscles clamping down on the stimulating bark,
her thighs lovingly caressing the trunk of the young tree growing from
within her.  The sun moved to the other side of the house, where another
window waited to open.  Patty couldn't quite reach the string for the
blinds, so she managed to kick the bed away from the wall a few inches and
used one of her branches to flip the string toward her.  With a sigh, she
closed her eyes, laid her head back, and pulled the string.  The new flood
of bright midday sunlight brought renewed growth to the tree and made her
gasp with ecstasy.  A dull pressure, almost painful but not quite, filled
her already swollen womb and her lower chest from the inside.  The roots
continued to penetrate her flesh, seeking nutrients and water.  Her belly
grew larger still, looking now as if she were nine months pregnant, her
skin tight as a drum against her new form.  Two more slender roots emerged
and pierced the mattress below her, entwining themselves with the frame of
the bed, the first root finally forcing its way down through the wooden
floorboards, which creaked under the strain.  More leaves sprouted from the
branches, and more branches sprouted from the three brown trunks coming
from her ravaged hole.  She felt a brief moment of pain from both her
ovaries as they were consumed by the hungry roots, but was then rewarded
with more pleasure in her thighs and vagina.  She found her way through the
branches and leaves to her clitoris again, and fingered her way to another
amazing orgasm.  Patty was growing thirsty, the hot sun continuing to shine
on her transformed body, the plant drawing moisture from her flesh. 
Suddenly, she felt cool liquid inside her abdomen and chest, and could
sense that the roots had made it through the floor and had penetrated the
ground below the house.  She was renewed and nourished as the tree drank,
and felt peaceful as the rustling leaves reached ever upward to caress the
ceiling and walls.  She wondered why she didn't grow hungry, then
understood that the sunlight was feeding her now, too.  Satisfied, she fell
into a dreamless sleep.  Awakening several hours later, Patty realized that
she could not move.  She desperately wanted to reach toward the sunlight
outside, but was frozen, her arms and legs ignoring her desires.  As she
struggled, she felt a stiffening substance inside her limbs, and tried to
figure out what was causing it.  Concentrating, Patty felt a tiny, creeping
movement inside her shoulders, down her fingertips, and up her back.  The
tree's roots had been busy while she had been sleeping and had grown into
almost every inch of her flesh.  She licked her lips, and tasted a salty
sweetness.  Then she noticed a bright flash of color from the corner of her
eye and looked up at the tree above her.  Red flowers were forming at the
tips of some branches, flowers that looked exactly like human vaginas, each
one ready to accept a penis and dripping with pink liquid.  Without
thinking about it, she automatically tried to squeeze her own inner muscles
tight.  Nothing happened inside her stiffened flesh.  But several of the
flowers squeezed tightly shut.  Wondering at this, she squeezed again. 
Several of the flowers closed.  Squeezing very hard for a long time, she
managed to close most of the flowers, and they stayed shut as long as she
willed them to.  Unable to move her head, she looked down the best she
could, but could only see a tree rising from between her legs, a thin
coating of bark now covering her inner thighs.  Patty could not tell where
she ended and the tree began any longer.  Another salty droplet of sweet
pink nectar fell onto her lips, and she savored it as she slowly moved her
tongue back and forth on one of the last human parts left to her.  All she
could do was lay there, immobile, wondering what would happen next.  She
could feel the cool liquid slowly moving through her body, the water being
taken from the ground and upward to her leaves in the form of thin sap. 
She realized that she thought of them as her leaves now.  She also found
that she was no longer breathing, the plant's systems having overtaken
hers. Her heartbeat had stopped, and she wondered what kind of liquid was
now flowing through her veins.  Another drop of nectar fell into her mouth
from one of the red flowers above her, and instead of swallowing it, which
she was no longer capable of, she simply absorbed it into her flesh.  Patty
sighed, and closed her eyes contentedly.  She would not open them again.

   * * *

   Several days later, one of Patty's coworkers came to check on her.  The
office was getting collectively worried, so Dave, the friendly but shy "new
guy" decided to take his lunch hour and drive over to her house.  He saw
her car in the driveway and knocked on the door.  No answer.  Concerned, he
tried the handle and called out as the unlocked door opened a crack.  No
answer.  Upon entering, he noticed the sweet fragrance of flowers filling
the house.  Thinking it must be bouquets from well-wishers following her
surgery, he thought nothing of it as he continued to call out into the
house for Patty, widening his search.  Finally, he entered the bedroom. 
The scent was heady there - dozens of red, vagina-shaped flowers danced at
the ends of the branches of a massive tree that was firmly rooted in the
ground below, the floorboards shoved wide apart like sticks of kindling. 
It pushed the roof up dangerously, the ceiling plaster broken, powdery
shards of it littering the floor.  The windows were shattered, the tree's
branches having forced their way through the glass to seek more sunlight
and moisture.  Licking his lips unconsciously, Dave approached and wondered
how a tree could be growing right through the floor and roof of a house,
then noticed that it was engulfing a bed as if it had been growing around
the frame for a hundred years or more.  The metal was twisted and bent as
the strangely gnarled roots and trunk crushed and consumed it.  Dave placed
his hand on the bark, not noticing that he was trembling slightly.  He
pulled open his sweaty shirt collar, thinking that the room was unusually
humid, and became even more aware of the flowers.  They exuded a musky,
sweet odor and dripped with pink nectar.  He reached up and touched one,
and it twitched closed for a fraction of a second, the nectar flow
increasing, the air becoming thick with insistent fragrance.  He touched
the flower again, entranced, and realized that it felt exactly as it looked
- like a woman's vagina.  A red, receptive, wet vagina.  Looking around as
if someone would see him, he took a drop of nectar on his fingertip and
tasted it.  Delightfully sweet, and a bit salty as well.  He slowly
inserted his finger deeper, and the flower twitched again, wrapping around
him, almost caressing.  Other nearby flowers began to lower themselves
closer.  He licked a droplet of nectar from the one closest to his face,
inhaling the wonderful musk of the tree deeply.  His tongue searched
deeper, and when he closed his eyes it felt exactly like pleasuring a
woman... a woman scented like the most wonderful flower imaginable with
sweet juices in her tunnel.  He lapped up all he could find.  More of the
flowers surrounded him, moving slowly, caressing his body as he lowered his
pants.  As if in a dream, he found one near his rod and pushed inside it,
the red tunnel suckling and milking him as he continued drinking deeply
from another flower, intoxicated by the nectar.  His hips moved and rolled,
rhythmically thrusting into the soft, fleshy, wet opening the tree offered
him.  Before long, he shot deeply into it and shuddered with orgasm, a
gasping grunt escaping his lips as he continued tonguing the other flower,
drinking the sweet liquid within.  He stood still for a few minutes, then
slowly withdrew, a mixture of the nectar and his semen spilling onto the
ruined wooden floor.  He smiled and looked up at the strange tree.  It
would be his little secret.  He intended to come back, but later, after the
effects of the fragrance and nectar wore off, he was shocked at himself and
what he had done in Patty's bedroom.  But he had done enough.  Later that
day, the flower he had mated with shriveled and fell away, revealing an
enlarging green ovary pod.  Tiny seeds formed within, and soon the ripe pod
burst open and spilled tiny brown seeds all over the floor and through the
cracks to the soil below, a shower of fertile new potential lives. 
Somewhere inside the consciousness of the tree, a mother's hope arose that
her children would find purchase inside another dark, moist, warm womb. 
The cool liquid from the earth seeped upward into her limbs... the warm
sunshine felt so good on her leaves and nourished her body... This is what
it means to truly be alive and have purpose, the tree thought to herself.
She hoped another man would find her there, her dozens of hungry flowers
dripping with the sweet nectar of anticipation.  Perhaps a whole rescue
crew would stumble in, looking for the creature that was once known as
"Patty." Her flowers all needed filling and fertilization so very badly...