The best part of research for Sheppard and You is when I just scroll through all the hiking photos I've taken to confirm when grows what.
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Sometimes The Mountain Buries You is a queer novella about the things that threaten your attempt at a much-needed quiet life. Check out the about page here.
The third time you hike to meet Sheppard on the packed dirt service road, he nods back towards town and starts walking the direction you came. You turn around and walk next to him. Not knowing if talking is some part of it—It—you wait until Sheppard speaks first. “I was going to show you the salmonberries coming in.”
He sounds miserable, you pat his shoulder, “Next time?” You don’t know what to ask for clarification when he shakes his head. Later, once you’re in town and he’s settled onto your couch, he explains It moves things around. He emphasizes that It doesn’t destroy the flora and fauna It rearranges, but It does rearrange them, as though the whole mountainside was a flower bouquet or a scale model to fuss with. He’s pretty sure Its rearrangements are beneficial to the hillside and all those plants and animals, but he hasn't found and observed long-term that many rearrangements.
links and search terms from writing ''The third time you hike to meet Sheppard on the packed dirt service road, he nods back towards town'
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271530893_Soapaberry_Unique_Northwestern_Foaming_Fruit Soapaberry: Unique Northwestern Foaming Fruit (Soapberry—in Ktuxana: kupaʔtiǂ ʔakwukaʔis ; in n̓səlx̓čin̓: sx̌ʷusm)
- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubus_spectabilis Salmonberry (Roseberry in n̓səlx̓čin̓: skʷəkʷiw̓, Salmonberry in Sḵwx̱wú7mesh: yetwán)
- searched phone photos for dates of salmonberries at various stages of growth