"The poison of fear. The physical changes that accompany fear, magnified beyond belief by belief itself."
"But how in the world could all this have affected Cappy? He wasn't a savage. And he was elderly, Ted. A bad heart, maybe. A stroke. Anything."
"He passed his pre-flight physical only a year ago. And—well, he lived all alone. He was careful not to let you see it, but I know he worried about these three trees on his place. And I know he got back from the Meeting in a worried state of mind. Then, obviously, the trees moved—grouped themselves around his cabin within easy range. But don't be afraid of them, Naomi. So long as you're not, they can't hurt you. They're not bothering us now."
"No. But where's Richard?"
Naomi's eyes swept past Ted, encompassing the cabin. No Richard! He'd been left outside ...
Glass tinkled and crashed as she flung back the cabin door. "Richard! Richard!"
Her child was not in sight. Nor within earshot, it seemed.
"Richard Heckscher! Where are you?" Sanity returned with the conventional primness. And it brought her answer.
"Here I am, Mommie! Look-at!"
He was in a tree! He was fifteen feet off the ground, high in the branches of a tree-thing, swaying—