Hobbling toward her, he replied, “Sweats, and yes I’m going to tell you.” He caught a pair of sweat pants when she tossed them in his general direction. Leaning against the wall for stability, he eased the fabric legs over his dressings, then pulled them up to settle the elastic band around his waist.

As they went slowly downstairs, walking became slightly easier for him with every halting step, and he began to tell her his idea, “So what I was thinking was this; how do most people honor their loved ones who have passed away?” He paused a moment to allow her to think about his question.

When she circled her hand, encouraging him to continue, he shook his head and said, “They have a ceremony, one of various sorts, where words are spoken over the deceased and tokens of affection are laid on the graves. So that’s my idea.”

Susan drew her eyebrows together, clearly puzzled. “What’s your idea?” When he just stared at her and raised his eyebrows, she exclaimed, “Oh! You mean a funeral.”

“Yeah, like I said—simple.”

Moving to look out the kitchen window, while Justin started brewing coffee, she stared at the remains of the greenhouse and muttered to herself, “In order to have a funeral, even an informal one with only Justin and I, we need to locate their graves.” Tapping her bottom lip with the index finger of one hand while she cupped her chin in the palm, she murmured, “But, I don’t know where they are, and I don’t really think it would honor them very much to dig around haphazardly until we find their bones.”

Stepping behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist, he looked out at the greenhouse himself. “It shouldn’t be that hard to find them.”

She glanced over her shoulder at him. “I didn’t realize I said any of that out loud.” He gave her a quick squeeze and said, “Yep. But like I was saying, it really shouldn’t be that hard to locate the graves.”

“But, Justin, it looks like someone indiscriminately took a weedwacker to everything in there at one point,” she commented, turning back to stare out the window again. “How are we going to find Emma and Jebediah’s graves?”

Leaning forward slightly to rest his chin on her shoulder, “Didn’t you say Emma showed you where Archibald buried them? If we use your position in the greenhouse from when I found you the other morning as a starting point, it really shouldn’t be too difficult an undertaking.”

Reaching back to wrap her arms around Justin’s waist, Susan said, “And if we can find the remains of those rose bushes they were buried in front of, then we should be able to find them.” Picking up the Mason jar containing the flowers she had bought at the grocery store in town, she asked, “Are you ready to look for their graves?”

“Sure.” Then with a chuckle he added, “It can’t be as hard as finding the proverbial needle in a haystack.”

Within a half hour, after drinking a cup of coffee and donning shoes and light jackets, Susan and Justin entered the greenhouse; in her hands were two small bouquets of flowers. Moving off to one side, he said, “I found you over here, by this pair of dead rose bu…” He stopped in the middle of his sentence and began to investigate the bushes closely. “Well, these are the two rose bushes that you were lying between, but when I found you they were dead, and they most certainly didn’t have those roses on them.”