This story is part of Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors, a climate-fiction contest from Grist. Read the 2021 collection now. Or sign up for email updates to get new stories in your inbox.
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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 gre... Read more
