Sarah was hanging laundry beside the house.
She dropped a clothespin.
“What?”
“Come here!”
She hurried toward the garden.
Eli crouched beside the vine.
Then pointed.
Sarah leaned forward.
For a moment, she didn't see anything.
Then her eyes widened.
“Oh.”
Eli grinned.
“Look!”
She smiled.
“A watermelon.”
He laughed.
“A real one.”
Sarah crouched carefully beside him.
The fruit was small, but healthy.
Its skin was dark green with pale stripes.
For several seconds, she simply stared.
Then she looked toward her son.
“You grew it.”
Eli shook his head.
“Grandpa's seeds.”
She smiled.
“And your work.”
His eyes filled.
For a moment, he couldn't speak.
Then he looked toward the red barn.
“I wish he could see it.”
Sarah rested one hand on his shoulder.
“I think he'd be proud.”
Eli smiled through tears.
That evening, he wrote the date in the notebook.
Then he measured the fruit.
Recorded its position.
And noted the soil conditions around the vine.
By the following week, several more watermelons had appeared.
The upper comparison beds struggled.
Some plants wilted badly.
A few died.
The stone-and-mulch treatment helped certain rows retain moisture, but it wasn't enough to overcome severe drought without an adequate water supply.
The lower North Bed, however, continued doing better.
Its soil remained cooler and more consistently moist beneath the surface.
The vines spread.
Their leaves grew thick.
And the developing fruit began gaining weight.
Eli didn't tell Hank.
He didn't announce it in town.
He simply kept recording.
Then, late one afternoon, he noticed something strange beneath the oldest row of stones.
The ground had shifted slightly.
A thin line of damp soil appeared beside a rock Grandpa had marked years earlier with a shallow notch.
Eli crouched.
He touched the dirt.
Then looked toward the old notebook.
A drawing on the final page showed the same stone.
The same notch.
And a small arrow pointing toward the cottonwood stump.
Beneath it, Grandpa had written:
IF THE NORTH BED STILL LIVES IN AUGUST, LOOK FOR THE OLD IRON RING.
Eli stared.
For a moment, his heart began racing.