Tree

The tree couldn't remember how long it had been around, only that first moment of what could be called cognition.  It was with the excitement of their first Christmas that the couple opened the package and began assembly.  Following directions, they had poured the living silicon, chemicals and wire mesh into the enormous glassy green bowl. It didn't take long for dormant instructions to be executed.  The ingredients began to warm and a small crystalline structure formed upwards.  Iridescent tendrils grew outward and ended in small shiny globes that hung down ever so slightly. Hours later this process would stop and something that resembled a quaint Christmas tree would appear.

   Although their tree was small, the young couple was not discouraged.  Both full of hope that this holiday would be one of many, there was only wonder at this form of life emerging on the living room floor. Much like the children they hoped to have, this Family Tree would be a part of them, a permanent record of memories only remembered in that wistful manner that comes with age.  They would even name him some day, a family tradition that might just outlive them if all went well.

   It was their first celebration together in the small home.  As if watching in silence, the living machine collected their images, reflected and burned them into the tiny globes of the tree.  Each reflection was recorded for playback at a later date, during a holiday to come. Scenes of the young lovers coming in covered with snow, both laughing and stripping off their clothes, or laying down together in front of the fire where glasses of wine shared and lovemaking, imbued Christmas Eve with cozy warmth. The day of presents arrived and images of the two scantily clad lovers going together to the tree that morning were inscribed, burned into the growing circuits of the Family Tree. All those things were translated to cold logical data, a reflection and remembrance of the beginnings.

   A year passed.  The Family Tree had sat dormant, silently waiting for festive visuals to log and a furtherance of growth.  That growth came with supplements. More living silicon and a chemical elixir added days before another Yuletide season.  New globes spawned as the older ones began to cycle images from the previous year.  Soft scenes of that first celebration replayed as the two sat in front of the device.  They watched these moments replay while smiling and blushing, as gifts were wrapped and toys for the new one joined the other presents at the base of the tree. This new one was an image of that smiling shining face, which made them three instead of two.

   An even taller tree welcomed yet another addition to the family.  The older child stood near the tree holding her tiny sibling up to the newly formed orbs. Smiles and the look of sheer happiness filtered into "Tree" as it was affectionately called now.  Memories filed away for the next onset of Christmas time, stored in a matrix of silicon and crystal structure that was soon becoming as complicated as the very family unit it served.

  Older now, the children knew how Tree worked.  They hammed it up in front of him during the season.  Dressed in nativity gear, the children showed off costumes made from the neighbor's towels and bed sheets. Wide eyes and shrieks of joy accompanied the sight of a room filled with toys and bright red stockings that hung from the mantle.  Tree remembered all of these things and the wonderment of Christmas morning as they looked out the window to find fresh tracks that were undoubtedly the evidence of Santa's visit.  Tree also mirrored sadness as well.  The death of a loved one replayed in the eyes of the young and old when next he was called back to duty.

  The family had taken good care of him over the years.  Their reward of course, was all those happy times stored and replayed on globes long since created and imprinted.  He was tall now, branching out in all directions as if he were simply an extension of what the family had become. In a house no longer filled with siblings running to and fro, Tree was the reminder of those times.  Each image was an eye into moments past and this gave mother much solace.

  The house was no longer the center of the universe, as children, grown, had their own families now, each with a Family Tree beginning to capture memories for a new generation. She stood there in front of one of the newer globes, watching them all replay.  Smiles and tears mirrored themselves as she thought back to happier days and Tree recorded this as well.  It was in many ways, a joyous reminiscence and a painful moment, perhaps a very complicated yet simple reminder that this sadness, is just all right.