Chapter 18 - The One That Came Back
The next spring, Dana called with news about the cuttings. One had rooted strongly enough to transplant. It was small and crooked, with three brave leaves and a stem no thicker than a pencil. When she handed it to me, she warned against planting it where its future canopy would cross the trail.
We chose a place near the middle of the yard. Ellie checked the distance twice with Danny's old tape measure. She'd been accepted at a college three hours away, and we were both learning to discuss that without pretending it was easy.
A carpenter had turned the saved trunk section into the backrest of a simple bench. The old birthday marks ran along the wood like a crooked ruler. They stopped at ten. Ellie had outgrown the tradition before Danny died, and he'd joked that she'd need a ladder if she wanted to continue it.
Helen came over carrying a bag of compost. She'd started walking the repaired trail again, sometimes with her daughter and sometimes alone. She made us promise not to use too much compost and then supervised anyway.
Cynthia passed on the path with a small garden rake in her hand. Her magnolia had been selectively pruned after an inspection. She stopped to look at the sapling, gave an awkward wave, and kept walking. That was enough.
Ellie pressed soil around the roots. “What if this one doesn't make it?”
“Then we'll plant another.”
She looked up, surprised. Last year I would have said the tree would survive if we tried hard enough. I'd made that promise so often I'd stopped hearing how unreasonable it sounded.
We watered the mulberry and sat on the new bench. The yard was hot without the old shade, but a breeze moved through the little leaves. Ellie leaned against my shoulder.
“Dad would've loved that the bench is crooked,” she said.
“He would've claimed he designed it that way.”
May you like
We laughed. Then she went inside to finish packing for her campus visit.
I stayed where I was until the sun reached the back fence. There were no berries to sweep yet. The broom still hung by the gate, where I could reach it. I took it down anyway and cleaned the shared path, then put it back before Ellie called me for dinner.
