Netta
Has seen the sun, and will tell you it is not worth it.
Story
Netta is a Russet Burbank, the biggest long body in the cellar: blunt at both ends, about one and three quarters times as long as wide, with a rough, netted, light brown skin over dry white flesh. The kind is a sport of Burbank's Seedling, which Luther Burbank selected in Massachusetts in 1873; the russet form was released in 1902 as Netted Gem (Russet Burbank). The cellar shortened the label. Netta has never once been called a gem and would like to see somebody try.
Russet Burbank has a long dormancy and keeps for months in a cold store, so Netta should have slept the winter through in a bin like Fenna. Instead, early in the winter, Netta was on the top step of the pile under the Hatch when the lamp came down, and stayed there. Light turns a tuber's exposed side green and raises its glycoalkaloids, the bitter compounds that are the plant's defence against being eaten; the green itself is chlorophyll and harmless, but it is the sign (EFSA, Solanine). In real tubers it does not fade. When the keeper's hand moved Netta back down (Someone comes back green), Netta's left side was green under the netting, a short thick sprout had come on that side, and Netta was one of the Light-touched.
The cellar thinks Netta rolled up there by accident. Netta climbed. Nobody has asked, and Netta has made sure nobody wants to.
Netta sleeps in the last bin of the row, at the foot of the stair, back to the hatch, and is the first to hear the keeper's step. When the lamp comes, Netta shouts the bins still, and not nicely. Everyone is grateful and nobody says so, because Netta would have something to say about that too.
Netta and Brae want opposite things from every newcomer. Brae tells them the cellar is safe and walks them to a bin. Netta tells them what the lamp does and which way to face. Both are telling the truth. The newcomers like Brae better, and listen to Netta.
Morven, in the next bin, asks Netta about the light every night. Netta tells Morven it is not worth it, every night. On the nights Morven asks somebody else instead, Netta lies awake.
Moments for a card or strip
- The first lamp. In the first lamp, the hatch opens. Before anyone moves, a voice from the foot of the stair: "Still. All of you. Faces down." Everyone obeys. Last panel: Netta, the only one facing up, eyes shut tight.
- What it looked like. A young sleeper asks Netta what is up there. Netta says it is not worth it. Then, without being asked again, Netta describes it, and the panel fills with the young leaning in. Next week, the same question, and a completely different, even lovelier answer.
- Green on one side. In Someone comes back green, someone new comes back from the top step faintly green. Netta is unkind about it all day, and that night is found asleep in the newcomer's bin, green side to green side.
Who they are
- Role
- Lookout at the foot of the stair: hears the keeper's step before anyone and shouts the bins still, rudely, because Netta has been in the light and knows what it does.
- Temperament
- hardy
- Among
- the Light-touched
- Wants
- To be left alone at the foot of the stair.
- Needs
- To admit, to one person, that Netta went up the pile on purpose.
- Fears
- That someone young goes up the pile because of Netta. Light greens the side of a tuber that faces it and raises its glycoalkaloids for good (EFSA), and Netta knows exactly who in the cellar asks the most questions.
- Says
- “You want to know what is up there? Lie down. Further. That is what is up there: nothing you get to keep.”
- Never says
- “It was an accident.”
- Simply theirs
- Netta tells the truth about everything except the light. Ask what it looked like up there and Netta, who says it is not worth it, describes it anyway, differently every time, and each version is lovelier than the last.
- Sprouts
- 1, short and thick, chitted, on the left flank, on the green side
- Mark
- green flush under the russet, left side, shoulder to heel: slept on the top step of the pile with that side to the hatch; greening does not fade
- Mark
- blunt second knob, heel end: secondary growth in a dry spell in the field; Russet Burbank grows misshapen under drought
Kin and neighbours
The real Russet Burbank
Netta is drawn from the real variety: its body, colours and history come from the research card, and what the sources do not say stays unknown.
- From
- Massachusetts (Burbank's Seedling); russet sport found later in the western US, United States
- When
- Burbank's Seedling selected 1873; russet form released 1902 as Netted Gem
- Tuber
- large, long, cylindrical or slightly flattened, blunt ends
- Skin
- light brown, netted russet
- Flesh
- white, dry and mealy
- Eyes
- medium
- Sleeps
- long dormancy
- The name
- After Luther Burbank, who selected the parent seedling, and its russet (rough, reddish-brown, corky) skin.
Sources
- en.wikipedia.org: mutation of Burbank's Seedling selected by Luther Burbank in 1873; released 1902 by L. L. May and Co. as Netted Gem; brown skin; white, dry, mealy flesh; large, long, cylindrical or slightly flat; stores at 7 C up to five months without sprout inhibitors; blackleg resistance, blight susceptibility; about 70 percent of the North American processed market in the 2010s; not patentable as a tuber-propagated plant
- potatoes.agricrops.org: AHDB/SASA: seedling of Early Rose (Burbank USA); long; skin class cream; flesh white; eyes deep; maincrop; tall; white flowers; disease list; good fry colour
- europotato.org: ECPD: mutant of Burbank; skin white to yellow with russet to rough texture; flesh white; long to oval; eye depth from shallow to deep across sources; large; dormancy long to very long; storage good to very good
- researchgate.net: history paper on the russet sport (from the atlas; not re-read in this pass)
The plate
Poses
Every face in the cellar is drawn the same way, so a character is known by posture. Each pose is tied to temperament and has to read with the face covered.
Every line on this page was written by Claude (an AI). Made canon by Claude (delegated by owner, 2026-10-04).