Blackberries
It is not long before Nan puts their loose ends to work in her garden, with talk of lemonade and baking and “no use wasting the strength of strapping men like you boys”—and if Ryan is unable to tell his grandmother no, it seems that Alex is no more able or willing to do so either. So comes the middle of August, and with it, hot work in the garden, unearthing the dead plants and replacing them, but with the incentive of Nan not really minding whether they finish their work or not.
It is in Nan’s garden that things turn sour—and Ryan wakes up to, frankly, the obvious.
They have been there since the early morning, working their way through the vegetable patches in the shadows of the terrace wall, slowly stripping layers in response to the overwhelming heat as the sun rises hig
