This story is part of Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors, a climate-fiction contest from Fix. Learn more about the power of imagination in Fix’s Climate Fiction Issue.
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Grandma Marne was the one who told Willa that the world was powered by ghosts.
“The oil. The coal. It all came from ancient things, dead things dug out of the Earth.”
Willa was raised to hold a healthy skepticism of extraordinary claims.
“No way.”
“Yes way.”
“Like, dinosaurs?”
“Well, no,” Marne said. She set down her gardening shears and stood up, wiping her brow. To a layman, the garden around their home looked wicked and untamed. A mess of tangled gamagrass spilled out between trellises of tumbling vines; tomato plants heavy with fruit — most green, but some blushing red already — nestled among sprays of peppermint and bloodroot and bee-balm. But Willa knew that the garden was a system designed with scrupulous care, and everything down to the very last leaf was in its place. Milkweed to attract pollinators. Garlic and pennyroyal to repel... Read more