[There’s a soft, reverberating hum beneath the recording]

Macy: The voltaic and extractor are live. Dictaphone too.

Freestone: Good. Dr. Birch, prepared to etherize Mattie?

Walstead: I think I’d prefer the bourbon, if I-

Freestone: No jokes. If this fails, this whole scheme is stillborn. Birch!

Birch: I’ve been ready for half an hour, Victor.

Freestone: Alright. Good. Right. Bones are arranged, all the cans are open, tools are sterilized, Matilda’s ready for extraction, my father is on guard outside. Mother? I think we’re ready.

Lilith: Oh, my son. You’ve always been ready. Do not let your fear tell you anything else.

Freestone: I…I love you too, mother. Starting positions, everyone. I’ll start shaping the edenflesh back into organs and muscles, see if we can’t get the torso ready as a base for everything else. Dr. Birch, release the gas and monitor Matilda’s condition until I can extract the remaining edenflesh inside her neck. Geraldine, we have a complete skeleton and a slew of false tendons I made yesterday; make sure the bones are placed correctly and use the tendons to help stitch things together. Matilda, lie there, look pretty, and don’t die. It’s about two hours to midnight. God took a day to make the human body; we have until sunrise. A lot of that work is already done, but we only have so much time before the voltaic or lantern run out. Five, four, three, two, go.

[Silence, roughly one hour]

Birch: She’s asleep.

Freestone: Washing my hands, moving to Matilda. Geraldine, ribcage looks good. I finished the serratus muscles, make sure they fit correctly.

Macy: Serratus…anterior, superior or-

Freestone: All three. I laid them out appropriately.

Macy: On it.

[Silence, roughly half an hour]

Lilith: So that’s what was inside me all those years. You only truly realize the work of God when you see it in the flesh.

Macy: No kidding. If this was how church went, I’d pray more often. Victor, your ribcage muscles are attached and starting to look a lot more muscle-like.

[Silence]

Macy: Victor, are you liste-

Freestone: Busy!

Lilith: Victor, I did not raise you to be impolite to your assistants or ladyfriends.

Freestone: I - Sorry, Mother, Gigi, but we’re having complications with Matilda. She just started gargling blood midway through the extraction; I’m cutting the pump speed but-

Macy: Oh God, her throat didn’t finish healing. Damnit, let me through! I’ll wire her head and chest to the voltaic; Victor, split her throat cleanly and keep extracting. That’ll keep the blood from flowing into her chest. Where did Dr. Birch go?

Birch: [Faint] Second canister of nitrous oxide! I don’t know how much longer this is going to take and if her throat’s hemorrhaging, we don’t want her awake to find out.

Macy: Never mind that, she’s not going to have a windpipe until we’re done. Once her throat’s open, keep her from bleeding out.

Birch: [sharp breath] I haven’t done internal surgery in decades but I can at least apply pressure with gauze. Victor, do you concur with her?

Freestone: No, no she’s right, I’ll get the big knife. We’ll lose an hour but we didn’t drag her halfway across the country to risk her choking to death on her own blood.

[Silence, roughly forty-five minutes]

Walstead: Oh, are we…done already? Why does…why can’t I…where’s my body?

Macy: Quick, someone grab her!

Birch: I have her head!

Macy: Keep it there. If she yanks that wire out of her neck, she dies.

Walstead: Wait, why am I dying? You opened me up? I…what did you do, Victor?

Freestone: We took the option that’s less likely to cause permanent lung damage. Extraction’s complete. How’s the hemorrhage?

Macy: Dr. Birch got the bleeding to stop. Gaps are too wide to sew shut so I’ve flattened out some horse material and made a lining for it. That should allow the wounds to heal safely without getting irritated. Matilda, your head’s just a little loose because we had to fix something in your neck. You’ll be okay.

Walstead: Hah…I…believe you…your touch so loving…you’d never do my flesh wrong.

[Silence]

Freestone: Oh good, she passed out again. Geraldine? Okay, I see the color in your face. We’ll close up Matilda’s throat, you get back to the bones.

Macy: I’m fine! I am fine. How about you get back over there and start making some organs?

Lilith: She stirs hearts even in her dreams, does she? I haven’t seen the like since…that great royal lover of the Israelites.

Birch: You met King Solomon?

Lilith: What? No, not that dusty demon-catcher.

Birch: David?

Lilith: Ew. He failed to get a man under his command to sleep with his own wife. He’s unworthy of such a title. It’s…you gave her a festival. Purim?

Birch: Queen Esther?!

Lilith: Everybody’s always surprised by that. You think one rises from concubine to queen on virtue alone? Xerxes’s harem served her as eagerly as they served him, never mind the king himself. You’d know when she’d ensnared someone’s heart when they’d stop eating dairy and meat and start hoarding fruit. I swept floors in that palace - the king beat me to Haman - and when he chose her for the night you could hear them from anywhere in-

Freestone: Mother.

Lilith: Yes, my loving son?

Freestone: You know you always do the hand motions when you tell Esther stories and it messes up the tar. I don’t want that interfering with the final steps.

Lilith: So wise, my son. I will wait until you’re done. Have I given you time to recover, assistant?

Macy: Um. Yes, we almost finished closing up Matilda wile you were talking and it looks like the flesh we extracted is starting to form into a trachea shape, so that saves us some time.

Lilith: How glorious that I was able to assist despite this form.

Freestone: Ah. Yes, thank you for…handling that. Okay, Geraldine, let’s finish the torso, neck to waist, spine first, and then start working on the limbs. Dr. Birch, keep an eye on Matilda of course, but we’re about to both be elbow-deep in viscera. I would appreciate your help with keeping our tools clean.

Birch: It is entirely uncivil to ask a man to work after informing him about the sexual habits of Queen Esther. But yes, I can assist.

Freestone: Perfect. We got off-track, but we can do this. My mother will walk free again by midnight.

[Silence, roughly five hours]

Freestone: This is it?

Macy: You know we weren’t able to get all the flesh.

Freestone: Yes, but I was hoping we’d be able to at least have something left for the head.

Lilith: It is more than enough, Victor. You know this last step is even beyond your technique. It’s a matter of faith - and legerdemain.

Freestone: I know. I know. Okay, Geraldine, you get her left arm, I’ll get her right. Dr. Birch, her legs. Overlay the tar as cleanly as possible with her body.

Macy: It was Victor’s father who did this the first time, right? Maybe we should call him in to-

Birch: No.

Lilith: No.

Birch: We should not.

Lilith: Absolutely not.

Freestone: Geraldine…my father excels at the unexpected. What we’re doing has been expected for roughly fifteen months of planning. It’s overwhelmingly expected. Keeping him out of the room is the best possible thing he can do.

[A faint burst of static, intermixed with muffled human yelling]

Freestone: Besides, it’s good to have him on guard. I don’t know who that is but they need to stay far away from all this. Alright, we lift on three. One, two, three!

[The sound of tar rubbing against quite a lot of things in quick succession, intermixed with heavy footsteps and ending with a loud thud]

Freestone: Whew. Okay, now for the tricky part. Geraldine, hook up the voltaic, get the body alive. Dr. Birch-

Birch: I’m turning off the other lanterns now. I have the small one in my hand.

Freestone: Alright, remember, turn off the last lantern and then get back to that door. Once I say we’re done, light the match, light your lantern and re-light all the other lanterns. I don’t want to stay in the dark for too long. It has to be dark because it’s fundamentally a trick, but I’m not sure what other tricks might-

[A louder burst of static mixed with more yelling, can discern “come all this way” and “deny my purpose” in the yelling]

Macy: That’s…

Lilith: Lambchop?

Freestone: Birch, now!

[Silence]

[Four resounding metallic hits, like a hammer on an anvil, accompanied by bubbling tar. The reverberating hum stops.]

[A loud wooden crack, possibly a door being kicked in]

Bean: You…thought you could escape…no matter how far, I will never-

Lilith: Lambchop. It really is you.

Bean: I…no, no, no, no, NO, NO, NO!

Lilith: Look at you. You’re so thin…so sad.

Bean: I’ve…failed. I can’t…I won’t do it again, I will not be butcher again. It was all meaningless. All that cruelty, meaningless. Elle, please, if you ever loved me, kill me so I will not have to kill myself.

[Silence]

[A burst of apologetic static]

Freestone: Um…Father, restrain Pastor Bean. Geraldine, turn off the recording. We need to discuss this.

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