Bloom by Nicola Skinner

Author:Nicola Skinner [Nicola Skinner]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2019-03-06T16:00:00+00:00

‘ROUGHLY THREE HUNDRED years ago,’ Sid began, ‘Little Sterilis wasn’t a town at all. It was countryside, green and wild. There was a river, acres of wild wood, some meadows and one tiny hamlet called Little Cherrybliss, made up of three or four cottages.’

Little Cherrybliss? Where have I heard that name before?

‘It all belonged to my ancestors, the Strangeways. And their lives have mostly faded away into the earth like old leaves. But my great-great-great-grandmother, Agatha Strangeways, is the one whose story matters here.’

He took a gulp from his mug with an unsteady hand. ‘Now, the Strangeways were known to have green fingers.’

Neena laughed.

‘Oh, I don’t mean they were aliens or anything like that. No, that’s what we call people with a knack for growing things. The Strangeways folk might have led simple lives, but they had a gift when it came to nature. They could grow what they wanted, when they wanted it.’

He gazed into the distance, and I knew he wasn’t looking at the jam jars and cereal boxes on his shelves. He was looking at the past somehow, with his sad eyes. It was the same look I’d seen on Mum’s face when she talked about the last time she’d danced in the rain. What was it about the past that made the grown-ups in my town look that way? As if it was a broken toy they couldn’t fix?

Sid sighed, bringing me back to the present. ‘Now, the Strangeways didn’t need any of your supermarkets or takeaways. They lived off the vegetables and fruit they grew on the land. And they were so good at growing things, people often wondered if the soil was magic, or they were.’

‘Were they?’ I gasped, nearly choking on my second custard cream.

‘Maybe,’ said Sid, a small smile on his face. ‘Or perhaps it was just good soil, and they knew how to tend it. If you love something properly, you can always make it flourish. Either way, the land meant everything to the Strangeways. They wanted for nothing. They had trees for their children to play in, and to shade them in summer. They had a river to swim in. Their homes were sweet with flowers, and they ate like kings. Life was good for them.’

Sid broke off and took another gulp from his mug.

Florence gave us a mournful look from her basket.

‘Now, one little Strangeways girl was more skilled at growing things than the rest of them put together. Her name was Agatha Strangeways.’ Sid looked at me, blinking fast. ‘You have her trowel.’

Too right I had it. That old rusty trowel had made the Surprising Seeds come alive. A shiver ran down my neck.

‘From the moment Aggie could walk, she spent all day roaming the meadows and swimming in the river. She could name every flower, plant and tree in field and valley by the time she was six. She loved every inch of Little Cherrybliss, and it loved her right back – you could tell, just by the way it grew green and lush when she was around it.

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