October, the wind is cooler, sometimes cold; the trees are shaking off their leaves; the days are shorter. Halloween is coming.<\/p>\n
I am working on a story which might be finished by Halloween. Here’s the first part:<\/p>\n
The pumpkin patch was almost bare. That was a good thing, actually. The three of us had waited weeks for all the people to pick their pumpkins–cars driving up, families pulling wagons, picking big pumpkins, orange, green and even white pumpkins. White pumpkins showed up this year in the patch. \u00a0I couldn\u2019t see wanting a white pumpkin but people were buying them up like hot cakes. Daycare buses rolled in and little kids who could hardly walk, stumbled around in the rows of pumpkins–day trips. Pickings were slim now and come evening, we could sneak out of our house, climb the fence and see what pumpkins were left for us–the poor kids next door to the pumpkin farm.<\/span><\/p>\n It was hard to hold Sammie back, she was so excited about getting a pumpkin to carve. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cShh, Sammie, keep quiet or we won\u2019t get a pumpkin,\u201d Linwood told her. He was the oldest, fourteen years old and being the oldest he always carved the pumpkins. This year, I could help, I was ten and Linwood said I could use a knife, if I was real careful. I grabbed a hold of Sammie\u2019s hand and pulled her back from the fence.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou hush up Sammie, now or I\u2019ll bop you one good,\u201d I whispered. <\/span><\/p>\n Linwood looked at me real hard like and so I told Sammie I was sorry. \u00a0She is only five and she can\u2019t help it, I reckon–being excited. Linwood lifted her over the fence and then we jumped it. It was barbed wire, so you had to be careful. Jerry, a friend of mine in school had put his eye out on a barbed wire fence. His bad eye was sort of a smokey color and kind of dead looking. He didn\u2019t seem to mind. He could see okay, he said. But even so, it\u2019s best to be careful when it comes to barbed wire fences.<\/span><\/p>\n It \u00a0was getting dark and Linwood and I switched on our pen lights. Linwood pulled out another pin light from his jeans pocket, turned it on and handed it to Sammie. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cShine this on the ground, Sammie. Don\u2019t shine it on me or Dale, ya hear? \u00a0We don\u2019t want old man Davis catching us out here, even though there\u2019s only–mostly rotten pumpkins left–he’s a stingy old fart. He wouldn\u2019t give his own mama a glass of water if she was dying of thirst.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Sammie nodded and whispered, \u201cokay\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n She\u2019d do exactly as Linwood said. She always did. It was me she wouldn\u2019t listen a lick to, no matter what. She can be hard headed if she wants to. <\/span><\/p>\n We wandered around on the edges of the field and found four pumpkins that were not all busted up or rotten. \u00a0Linwood put them in a old pillow case and we headed back to the fence when we saw the tractor lights flicker on. \u00a0Linwood handed me the pillow case.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cRun quick, Dale. \u00a0Put this sack under that bush over there and high tail it back to the fence. You wait for me there, don\u2019t let Sammie climb over it or under it. \u00a0Just wait. I\u2019ll be along in a minute.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n So I did. I grabbed a hold of Sammie\u2019s hand and for once she minded me and we ran to the line of bushes that bordered the field. I stuck the sack of pumpkins under one of them and spread some leaves over them. Then we went to the place in the fence where we\u2019d come over and waited. We sat down and both of us were real still. Sammie was still holding her light so I took it from her and turned it off. I put it in my pocket. She was about to whine about that but I just gave her one of those looks like Linwood uses and she shut her mouth and got still<\/span><\/p>\n I could see the tractor coming, straight up the field and its lights shining on Linwood. He just stood there facing the tractor until it stopped right in front of him.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWho\u2019s out there?\u201d old man Davis called out.<\/span><\/p>\n Linwood put his hand up to his eyes so he could see and he yelled back. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just me, Linwood Sprouse from next door, Mr. Davis.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhat ya doin out here in the dark, in my field?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m looking for our cat, she\u2019s done gone off and she\u2019s got herself a litter of kittens that needs feedin, so I\u2019m out looking for her,\u201d Linwood said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHumph, you sure you ain\u2019t out here stealing pumpkins?\u201d Mr. Davis yelled over the sound of the tractor engine..<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cNo sir. I ain\u2019t got no use for pumpkins. And by the looks of it, you ain\u2019t got no pumpkins \u00a0worth stealing out here in this field,\u201d Linwood said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t get sassy with me boy. Just get on home. Ain\u2019t no cat around here. And you stay out of my field, ya hear.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAlright, I\u2019m going. But if you see my cat, can you\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cGet, I said,\u201d Mr. Davis yelled. \u00a0He revved up the engine and moved the tractor a little closer like he was fixin to run over Linwood. <\/span><\/p>\n Linwood turned and walked away–slow. He didn\u2019t look scared or nothing. Old man Davis watched him for a while and then turned the tractor around and headed back to his house. \u00a0When Linwood reached us he grinned real big. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhere those pumpkins?\u201d he asked. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOver yonder,\u201d I pointed. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWell leave \u2018em for now. We\u2019ll get \u2018em later. Let\u2019s get outta here.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n It was too dark to be jumping over the fence, so Linwood held up the barb wire making a space for us to crawl through. And then I held it for him and he crawled through. We headed for home. We didn\u2019t need no light to find our way, across the field \u00a0to our house. We could get home with our eyes closed. <\/span><\/p>\n When we got to the porch, Sammie stopped dead and wouldn\u2019t go up the steps.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with you?\u201d I asked her. She just put her hands on her hips and stamped her foot. <\/span><\/p>\n Linwood stooped down in front of her. What\u2019s wrong Sammie?\u201d he asked real nice. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI thought we was gonna carve jack-o-lanterns,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe will, but not tonight. We\u2019ll go back tomorrow and get the pumpkins from under the bush–then we\u2019ll carve them up. Okay?\u201d he smiled at her.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOkay, I guess.\u201d she said and walked up the steps. \u201cCan I have the flashlight, Linwood?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSure, Sammie.\u201d Linwood got the light out of his pocket and switched it on. \u201cHere ya go. Whatcha need the flashlight for? We\u2019re going in the house, now.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m gonna look for the kittens,\u201d she said and started shining the light under the porch chairs and Mama\u2019s potted plants.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhat kittens?\u201d Linwood asked.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe ones the mama cat needs to feed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Linwood laughed and then when he saw the look on Sammie\u2019s face–she thought he was making fun of her, he stopped short. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSorry Sammie, that\u2019s just a little white lie, I told old man Davis so he wouldn\u2019t think we was out there stealin–I mean gettin some of his pumpkins. There ain\u2019t any kittens or mama cat.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOh,\u201d Sammie said. I could tell she was disappointed but she didn\u2019t cry. She only cries when she is mad. She\u2019s that way. You don\u2019t want her to get mad enough to cry, I tell you. It\u2019s something fierce and you better just clear out of her way.<\/span><\/p>\n She handed Linwood the flashlight and we went on in the house and had our dinner. Mama had made us stew in the crock pot. It\u2019d be a couple hours before she\u2019d be home from work at the factory. Mama is in charge of all the shipping that goes on there, so sometimes she has to stay late–paperwork and stuff. Linwood gave me a hard time about doing my homework but I did it so we could watch T.V.. \u00a0It won\u2019t nothin but a dumb old sheet of arithmetic–multiplying. Linwood tore out a page from Sammie\u2019s exercise book and had her sit down with her crayons and do homework, too. It wasn\u2019t real homework–preschool don\u2019t have homework. But she likes to pretend. I don\u2019t get it. Homework will be coming soon enough–ain\u2019t no need in pushing it. <\/span><\/p>\n When Mama got home, she asked us about school and checked our homework. Sammie almost let the cat out of the bag about being in old man Davis\u2019s pumpkin patch. But then she yammered on about wanting some kittens. She wanted to know what a white-lie is and Mama looked at us boys real suspicious like. We don\u2019t usually keep stuff from Mama but we really wanted those pumpkins and besides she\u2019d find out soon enough when she came home and see the porch all lit up with jack-o-lanterns. Course we\u2019d have fess up and Linwood would do what he called \u201cout logic\u201d her. He was real good at \u201cdebating\u201d, he said. You just have to do it nice.<\/span><\/p>\n …to be continued<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a9 Glenda Kotchish<\/span><\/p>\n October 2018<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" October, the wind is cooler, sometimes cold; the trees are shaking off their leaves; the days are shorter. Halloween is coming. I am working on a story which might be finished by Halloween. Here’s the first part: The pumpkin patch was almost bare. That was a good thing, actually. The three of us had waited […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[157,158,77],"class_list":["post-560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-short-story","tag-halloween","tag-pumpkins","tag-short-short"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/landscape-3294496_1920.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":563,"href":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560\/revisions\/563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}