Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-25170312-20151102215252/@comment-27123781-20151102231253

Hope you dont mind if my thoughts are a little disorganized or rambly. I'm mostly trying to brainstorm with myself to figure this out, but your help would make it easier xD.

So... I really enjoyed this, even though children dying messes with my head (probably because I am a paranoid father of a 14 month old haha). I can live with the ending, but it doesn't change the fact that I am totally lost. I understand that the kid was trying to protect his family out of fear. From what it sounds like, he met the man before Rose was born or right when she was concieved. So Daniel picked roughly 270 roses, provided he got a new one each day. That's a lot of roses for one garden.

It was a good idea to pick that time frame though. There probably werent any intense thunderstorms from late spring to fall, so he was most likely able to go every day. Of course im still going off of the assumption that they found out at 4.5 months in.

Back to what I was trying to figure out. So he picks these dandelions and does the ritual every single day. His mother and father are safe, but the baby dies. Did Daniel unknowingly sacrifice his sister to the spirit of the Dandelions? Also, Daniel met the man at the time of Rose's conception probably before the parents knew; even if they were trying to conceive a child. If at any point Daniel figured out what was going on, he definitely didn't know at the begining. WAIT! Or did he?! He got upset when he found out he was going to have a sibling. He knew it would be taken or he couldnt protect it.

Ok so this is what I have so far. The spirit of the dandelion field demanded a human sacrifice... The speaker for the evil spirit threatened to hurt Daniel's family if he didn't do the ritual needed. Daniel had no idea what was going on but loved his family so he accepted a little pain each day to keep them safe. After this horrible thing happened, Daniel was still giving blood for his family, fearing for their lives after what he witnessed. What else could the spirit want though?. It has its sacrifice. Was it a curse maybe?... Hm... Would the dad forbid him from going back; if so would the spirit get his parents like it originally threatened? Did I miss a part where Daniel failed to complete the ritual one day?

Anyway, don't let my rambling attempts to figure this out on my own make you think that I didn't enjoy the story. It was a good read, I'm just confused. I think I cleared some of it up for myself, but your help would be nice too.