Before his eyes, his father's form stretches and changes shape. His skin darkens from ochre like his wife's to near black, and his graying hair turns silvery white. His irises fade away and gain a pale glow. He looks younger, maybe only fifteen years his son's senior. He looks like a defeated man. His son doesn't know what he's witnessing, except that it is not his father. It is a younger man, with a longer, narrower bone stucture and a beautiful face. His mother stands up from the table and uses her full force to slap the man who sits by their table. She opens her mouth and closes it again without saying anything. Their son can only sit in stunned silence. Finally, his mother rounds on him with eyes like molten stone and raises her voice to him for the first time in his life.
