Rootbound — The Winter Trowel, Page 11
By Suha · Published
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Transcript
Scene: Joss, nearly dissolved, lifts one arm to point past the yard toward the far rose arches, turning Fern's gaze. "Where the roses arch..." "something was buried." Fern looks toward the dark garden, the seven brass keys catching a glint at her hip. She says, "Opal never said." Caption: "Rootbound — to be continued."
Image description
As he fades, Joss points beyond the yard toward the distant rose arches and warns that something was buried beneath them, then he is gone.
About this chapter
While raking the Compost Yard at night, Fern hears a name in the steam. The ghost of Joss Millard, her great-uncle who died in the yard in the hard winter of 1963, waits for one unfinished errand: he never buried his mother's trowel under the old apple tree as he promised before the frost took him. Fern searches, finds the trowel nicked at the corner with a fern stamped near the tang, and learns through Ida why Joss still lingers. When she buries it, the old apple breaks into impossible blossom and Joss fades. In the root pit he reveals the trowel's buried secret, opening the next numbered-location mystery at the Rose Bed arches.