Rootbound — The Winter Trowel, Page 5
By Suha · Published
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Transcript
Scene: the ghost faces Fern, both hands out, a soft plea, the steaming yard behind him. He says: "Bury it deep. Then I can rest." Fern nods gravely and reaches a callused hand toward him: "Where do I find it?" Joss: "Under the far bay. Wrapped in oilcloth."
Image description
Joss asks Fern to bury his mother's trowel deep under the apple tree so he can finally rest.
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.