As someone who enjoys writing quiet a lot I’ve got a number of short stories kicking around on my laptop. I decided that if I’m going to be posting on a blog, what better chance is there to let my short stories see the light of day?
I don’t have enough stories written to put one out every week but I figure that on the First Friday of the month I can put up one of my short stories. Here to kick us off in an appropriate fall theme is :
Pumpkin Cult Membership Drive
“Jess!”
There’s a heavy thump and Jessica glances up from her ACT test-prep book as the picnic table she’s been sitting at shudders under an added weight. There’s a massive orange pumpkin sitting right in front of her. A moment later Laura’s head appears over the top of the pumpkin, grinning widely with blonde pigtails curling around her chin.
“You and your brother need to join our pumpkin cult!”
Jessica takes a long sip of her once hot, now luke warm, apple cider, staring Laura down. Laura’s grin doesn’t falter.
“Sounds fun,” Luke drawls, still scrolling on his phone. “Sign us up. Does it come with a membership card?”
Jess smacks her twin in the shoulder. “Don’t volunteer me for a cult. You haven’t even asked any questions.”
“You’re right,” Luke concedes, finally putting his phone away. “What benefits can this cult offer us?”
“Offer you. I am not involved in whatever you two plan.” Jess drains the last of her cider and gets up from the picnic table, looking for a place to throw out her empty cup. She spots the nearest trash can two tables away. If they were the only ones here she would have tested her aim to toss the empty cup into the garbage. As the other tables are occupied she wanders over, keeping one ear out for whatever nonsense Laura and Luke might get into. She has only made the mistake of leaving her brother and best friend unsupervised once. She does not want a repeat of the piñata fiasco.
“The benefits is pumpkins,” Jess hears Laura respond as she tosses her trash out, still a full five feet out from the garbage can. Nice.
Jess turns around to see Luke hold his hand out. “Fantastic, I’m sold. Consider me a new convert. How many members you got?”
Laura shakes his hand, like this is a real thing going on. It actually might be. Starting a cult is not something she would put past Laura. “You’re officially member number four.”
“Are the other two your cousins?” Jessica sighs as she comes back to the table. If they are, she won’t hear the end of this until she gets home. She shouldn’t have agreed to carpool, high gas prices or no. At least if she drove down herself she could listen to one of the test prep podcasts she has on her phone while driving back home.
“Yep!” Laura heaves the pumpkin off the table with a grunt – it’s as large as Laura’s torso and looks heavy. Neither Jess nor Luke offer to take it from her, childhood squabbles having taught them that if Laura doesn’t ask for help then she doesn’t want help, and she is willing to bite to prove it. Luke still has a scar on his elbow from when they were five and Laura bit hard enough to break skin. Five foot nothing Laura may be, but she is impressively strong and more than capable of hauling both of them around.
Jess tucks her test book into her over shoulder bag, slinging it on and grabbing the jug of cold cider from the picnic bench where she had left it. The three set off back towards the parking lot,
Jess trailing behind Luke and Laura as they chat about the membership log for their pumpkin cult. With them busy Jess turns to look out over the pumpkin farm.
The day had started out overcast, making everything look grey and dreary but with the sun finally coming out from behind the clouds the farm is much brighter and more cheerful. The grass looks greener and the pumpkins stand out as bright pops of color in the massive fields where the pumpkins on sale are displayed.
Despite her initial misgivings and desire to stay home, the day had been okay so far. The drive down had been fun, blasting the radio and catching up with what everyone is doing since they had last had a chance to hang out during summer. When school had started the hour long drive to spend time with Laura’s cousins seemed too long to make, between school, and sports, and family obligations. Even with her and Luke’s shiny new drivers licenses.
It had been nice of Laura and her cousins to invite Jess and Luke out to join them on their annual trip to the pumpkin farm.
It takes a solid ten minutes to make their way from the picnic area near the farm shop all the way to the sea of cars parked in long rows on the field in front of the farm. Finally making their way to the correct row of cars Jess notes the open back of Laura’s aunt’s big black SUV. Laura’s cousins, William and Jake, are lounging against the open trunk, the back visibly full of pumpkins.
“How much did you all buy?” Jess stops to stare. There is an impressive collection cluttering the trunk. To the left she can see a small basket where her own reasonable amount of pumpkins are set, three small pie pumpkins and one white heirloom pumpkin set delicately on top. Right next to them is Lukes’ own squat orange pumpkin, roughly the size of Luke’s head and destined to be set on the front step once he has a chance to carve it.
The rest of the trunk is full with three boxes of pumpkins of all shapes and sizes, and one massive pumpkin that the cousins have actually thought to strap down to prevent it from moving. Two of the boxes only have two or three pumpkins in them, moderately sized and all different colors; pale waxy green, striped yellow, deep wrinkled orange. There are even two bumpy pumpkins, and Jess has to clasp her hands behind her back to keep from picking one up to run her fingers over the bumps on the pumpkin’s skin. The last box looks to be full of at least a dozen different small pumpkins, yellow, white, green, smooth skinned and bumpy, even one that looks to be almost a pale pink color with green stripes.
The largest one, straps wrapped around it like Will and Jake want to dress is up like a mummy, is a deep orange with a bright green stem, like it’s just been picked. It fills nearly half of the trunk, over two and a half feet across and at least three feet tall. How Will and Jake got it into the trunk, let alone how they are going to get it out, Jess isn’t sure.
“The pumpkin cult demands pumpkins!” Laura happily drops her own pumpkin into the trunk in the last open space and pats it gently. “And Aunt Sarah said we could go wild, she wants to do a harvest themed display in the yard and on the hearth.”
“You’ll have to send us pictures,” Luke leans into the trunk to admire the large pumpkin, tapping on it’s skin gently. “How much did this cost?”
“Don’t ask.” Will checks that Laura’s pumpkin won’t roll around too much and then shoos them all away so he can close the trunk. “I’m pretty sure we’ve all cleaned out our last few pay checks to cover all this.”
“Worth it,” Laura nods sagely and Jake agrees, the two high-fiving. Jess considers the cost of her own pumpkins and decides she really doesn’t want to know. While Luke, Jake, and Laura hang around the trunk to chat – about the pumpkin cult, apparently they were trying to settle on the name? – Will and Jess head for the front of the car.
“I’m disappointed in you,” Jess grouses at Will, only getting a laugh in response. “I am! I trusted you to not let Laura and Jake do anything stupid!”
Will just grins. “Are you talking about the number of pumpkins or the cult?”
It’s easy to forget, because Will acts as the other voice of reason when they all get together, but it’s times like these that Jess has to remember that Will is an absolute enabler for his little brother and cousin’s stupid plans. A conscientious and logical enabler, but an enabler all the same.
“C’mon, it’ll be fun!” Will unlocks the car doors and pulls open the drivers side, being the only one of the cousins anyone really trust to drive. At least, the only one Jess and Aunt Sarah trusts to drive. Jake and Laura think they are fantastic drivers. She’s not sure which of the two will give her grey hairs first, Laura’s lead foot or Jakes absolute inability to focus on the road. “’sides, it’s not going to cause any harm. They’ll just send each other pictures of pumpkins and memes for a few days and then forget about it. Maybe Laura will make a few pins for them and then they’ll just have it as an in-joke.”
Jess rolls her eyes as she stomps over to the passenger side door. She is not getting trapped in the back seat. She pulls her purse off and drops it into the floor of the passenger seat before having to give a little hop to get enough momentum to get into the seat proper. She drops her jug of cider next to the purse and pulls the door closed.
Will hops into the drivers seat right after her and pulls his door closed, then sighs. “Jess.”
Jess ignores him, focussing on first buckling in and then on rearranging her purse and jug of apple cider on the floor by her feet. The cold jug is pressing against her ankles, distracting her.
“Jess,” Will reaches out and presses a hand to her arm, stopping her from adjusting the jug. “It’s just harmless fun. They haven’t really started a cult. We used to joke like this all the times when we were kids.”
“Yeah, when we were kids,” Jess shoves the jug away from her feet and flops back against the seat. “We’re seventeen now! We’re going to college in a year! They should be serious and paying attention to things like their college scores and applications, not making up religions about pumpkins!”
Will leans on the steering wheel, smiling a little sadly. “Jess, goofing off and having fun on the weekend isn’t going to stop us from going to college. Growing up isn’t all about being serious and studying. Don’t you want to have fun?”
Jess slumps back, staring up at the ceiling. Despite her misgivings today has been fun and it’s been nice to spend time with her friends. Even her brother, who has been so busy recently that they only see each other in passing at school and for half an hour at dinner. With a long sigh she slouches down even further. “I’m thinking too much about this, aren’t I.”
“Yep, but I’ll forgive you.” Will rolls down the window on the drivers side and yells at Laura, Luke, and Jake “Get in or get run over!” He rolls the window back up to cut off their complaints and turns to grin at Jess. “And they will, too.”
Jess slowly straightens up as Laura flings open the back door behind her and then scoots across all the seats to claim the door side seat behind the driver. Jake opens the door a moment after she has already buckled in and groans. “Really?”
“I’ll take the hump,” Luke climbs in through the door Laura used and slides over the the middle seat in the back.
Jake let out a relieved sigh. “Thanks. I hate that seat, there’s no room for my legs.”
They all stay quiet as Will maneuver them out of the field parking lot and onto the highway, willing to give him the quiet as he battles through unevenly parked cars, four lanes of traffic, and the numerous people crossing between the pumpkin farm and the corn maze situated right across from it. Jess glances down at her bag, the corner of the ACT test book poking out of the top, then at Will. Taking a deep breath Jess turns around in her seat and glances over at the three in the back.
“So, tell me about this pumpkin cult.”
