A Greek Beauty

A Greek Beauty
A Lily Pond
Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
American Day Dream Vader, too, was afraid—to let his son see him, to remove this armored mask thathad been between them so long. The black, armored mask that had been his onlymeans of existing for over twenty years. It had been his voice, and his breath, andhis invisibility—his shield against all human contact. But now he would remove it;for he would see his son before he died. Together they lifted the heavy helmet from Vader's head—inside the maskportion, a complicated breathing apparatus had to be disentangled, a speakingmodulator and view-screen detached from the power unit in back. But when themask was finally off and set aside, Luke gazed on his father's face. It was the sad, benign face of an old man. Bald, beardless, with a mighty scarrunning from the top of his head to the back of the scalp, he had unfocused, deepset,dark eyes, and his skin was pasty white, for it had not seen the sun in two decades.The old man smiled weakly; tears glazed his eyes, now. For a moment, he lookednot too unlike Ben.