Horror fiction

Excerpt from The Pumpkin Patch

Dan pulled up to the next spot in the pickup line and put the car in park. It had taken him 3 months, but he finally got the hang of the Orangewood Elementary end-of-the-day pickup process. “Somebody’s Watching Me” by Rockwell played on the radio as Dan scanned the mass of students for the first-grade line. He spotted Nicky walking over to the car from his teacher and popped the door locks. Nicky was easy to spot today,  he was wearing his bright orange jack-o’-lantern shirt. When Dan learned of Nicky’s newfound love of Halloween, he jumped at the opportunity to go shopping for the shirt with him. He was delighted to let Nicky wear it the next day, even though it was still September. Halloween was in two weeks, and Nicky had been wearing the shirt as often as possible since they had bought it for him. Dan turned down the radio as Nicky got into the car.

“Hey buddy, how was school?” said Dan starting the car. Nicky buckled his seatbelt.

“It was good,” replied Nicky. Dan drove over to the line of cars exiting the parking lot.

“What’d you learn?”, asked Dan.

“A bunch of stuff, we made a bag monster for Halloween,” said Nicky

“Oh yeah, which one did you make?” asked Dan excitedly. Dan exited the school parking lot and headed home.  

“I made Frankenstein,” said Nicky. He put his arms up in the air to impersonate a large monster. “He’s my favorite; even though he’s big and scary, he’s really a nice monster,” answered Nicky.

“Yeah, that’s true,” said Dan. “My favorite is Drawhgula,” said Dan doing a classic vampire impersonation. They laughed together. “Vhat? Vas it somevhing I said?” said Dan continuing as the vampire. Dan noticed that traffic ahead seemed to be stopped. He could see flashing emergency lights. “Uh oh, looks like an accident.”

“A crash?” asked Nicky.

“Yeah, it’s okay,” assured Dan. He could see a police officer standing in the road diverting traffic. “Better get over,” said Dan. He made his way over to the right lane, so he could turn down the detour route. “Oh, yeah they’re sending us down Holler. Haven’t gone home this way in a while.” As he made the turn, Dan glanced over at the wreckage in the intersection. A small four-door car sat with its front end crumpled. Not far from the car’s front end, a black SUV was flipped over onto its roof. “Whew! That’s a bad one,” said Dan. Once they got onto Holler Street, traffic cleared up.

Dan followed the detour signs and turned down Morgan Road. Off the right side of the road, there was a sign that read: Pumpkin Patch Ahead. Dan looked at Nicky and couldn’t help himself. “Wanna stop and look at some pumpkins before we go home?” he asked.

“Yeah!” exclaimed Nicky.

“Alright!” Dan exclaimed back. Dan spotted another pumpkin patch sign a little way up the road. “There it is,” he said. Dan began to slow down as he got a good view of the lot. There were pumpkins, but the lot looked abandoned. There was a black tarp covering that looked like it had been through a storm. The frayed pieces hung down like strings He carefully pulled into the grassy lot and parked. “Okay buddy, here we go.” He unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car. He locked the car and looked out over the lot. It was a mixture of grass and dirt. There were no other cars around or people looking at the pumpkins. Nicky came around and stood by Dan. “We got the whole place to ourselves,” said Dan still staring at the patch. “Let’s check it out.”

They walked over to the pumpkins and began to make their way down the rows. Nicky ran over and squatted down and put his arms around a large pumpkin. “This is a big one!” he exclaimed.

“Wow, yeah. I don’t know if I could even pick that one up,” said Dan. “Let’s keep looking. We gotta make sure we don’t miss the perfect one.” Dan continued to walk slowly, as Nicky ran back and forth touching as many pumpkins as he could. Dan glanced over his shoulder hoping to spot someone working the patch, but still, no one appeared. They went up and down the rows of pumpkins one by one.

“This is it!”, shouted Nicky, “This one is perfect.” He stood pointing at a good looking pumpkin with one side that was almost perfectly flat. “It’s not too big and not too small, right?” asked Nicky.

“Yeah that one’s pretty cool,” said Dan. He squatted down and examined the pumpkin. “Looks good to me; this side will be perfect for carving. Wanna get it?”

“Yep,” answered Nicky. Dan stood up and looked around. He began to make a complete circle as he tried to spot anyone else in the patch. As he did, he noticed an area by the back fence covered by large tree branches.

“Ah, I bet they’re over there in the shade,” said Dan. He squatted down and picked up the pumpkin. He held the pumpkin with two arms and started walking down the row toward the back fence. “C’mon Nicky stay with me,” he said struggling a little to keep his grip around the pumpkin. When they reached the back fence, they could see there was a whole other hidden row. The branches of the large trees on the other side of the fence hung over into the pumpkin patch. They created a sort of shaded tunnel all the way down the fence line. Beneath this shaded tunnel, Dan could see that there were more pumpkins and some other potted plants at the end. “This is pretty cool right?” said Dan as they walked under the tunnel.

“It’s like a tree castle,” said Nicky running ahead. When they came to the corner of the lot they could see a tent and chair by what looked like a small garden. There were pumpkins, but they were all badly misshapen. There were also some odd, potted plants with bright red and purple flowers. In the back of the garden, there was a tall figure with arms covered with a blanket. Dan glanced around at the little garden, as he carefully walked through it towards the blanket. When he got to the tall figure, he gently put the pumpkin down.  

“Nicky check this out. What do you think this is? said Dan pointing to the blanket. A scarecrow? Dan carefully reached up and grabbed the blanket to remove it. “Ow!” he yelled. He drew his hands back shaking them. He examined his left palm. “Geez, something sharp under there,” he said. A little blood began to come out of a puncture in his palm.

“Careful,” said an old woman suddenly standing to the left of them.

“Oh, hello,” said Dan startled. He turned towards the woman. She was short and had dark hair up in a bun. Her brown, wrinkled face was the only skin visible in the mass of dark blue robes she wore.