Rootbound — The Winter Trowel, Page 3
By Suha · Published
Transcript
Scene: between two steaming bays, a translucent ghost of a tall lanky young man appears, edges glowing soft frosted-glass, grey work shirt rolled at the sleeves, brown braces, owlish brown eyes fixed on Fern. He speaks: "You can see me." Fern, calm, holds the pitchfork loosely: "I can." The ghost: "Then you're Judyth's girl."
Image description
Between the steaming compost bays stands a faint translucent young man in threadbare 1960s work clothes, looking at Fern with quiet hope.
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.