The Seed Keeper

Ida visits Rosalie, and they talk about how they had both been “throwaway” children. After Ida’s cousin was shot, the police came around asking questions. Ida’s mother defended her, but Ida feels that she did so more to protect the family than out of love for her. She tells Rosalie that she didn’t kill him because she didn’t need to, implying that someone else had already done it. Her communication with her parents is now down to one letter a year.

She gives Rosalie a photo of her Uncle Clarence with Rosalie’s parents on their wedding day. In the background are Lorraine (Rosalie’s grandmother) and Darlene. Ida tells Rosalie how she heard that Lorraine and her two brothers were different when they returned home from boarding school. She offers to take Rosalie to see Wilma Many Horses, a woman who may know more about the family.

Ida and Rosalie visit Wilma at a senior center in Milton. She not only knew Ray and Agnes, but she is also somehow related to them. Rosalie also meets Carlos, who remembers her from when she and her dad used to stop for gas at his station.

Ida and Rosalie go to the tribal council to get Darlene’s phone number.