Rootbound — An Invitation to Autumn, Page 5
By Suha · Published
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Transcript
Two panels. Top: An elderly woman sits at a wooden table indoors, looking down at an empty ceramic bowl. Bottom: A younger woman with a silver streak in her hair speaks on a wall-mounted rotary phone inside a long greenhouse at night, while a bearded man in a jacket stands behind her. White blossoms are scattered on the greenhouse floor. Visible text, in reading order: Ida: I was a child then. Ida: He died before it bore fruit. Fern: It is still trying. Ida: I can wait for autumn.
Image description
Two panels. Top: An elderly woman sits at a wooden table indoors, looking down at an empty ceramic bowl. Bottom: A younger woman with a silver streak in her hair speaks on a wall-mounted rotary phone inside a long greenhouse at night, while a bearded man in a jacket stands behind her. White blossoms are scattered on the greenhouse floor.
About this chapter
White petals lead Fern and Wren into Room Six, where an apple tree flowers without fruit for a dead gardener's promise to Ida. Fern finds a compatible neighbour and hand-pollinates the blossoms, but refuses to promise a harvest she cannot control. Ida's willingness to wait releases the keeper. Days later a fruitlet forms, while soil creeps beneath Room Seven.