Page 12 of Let’s Give ‘Em Pumpkin to Talk About

Six

J osh didn’t think of himself as having much swagger, except when he rode Shadowfax into town.

Residents and tourists alike relished the idea of a place where people still rode horses as legitimate transit, and it was good exercise for Shadowfax.

Having spent a childhood in the thrall of fantasy novels rife with horseback journeys, he was delighted to discover that there were places downtown where he could safely hitch a horse while running an errand.

Conveniently, one of the safest places to hitch Shadowfax was between the coffee roaster and the library, just outside of the bakery that purchased his pie pumpkins.

He hoped Sadie and whoever she’d been sitting with enjoyed his greeting. When he saw her clad in all black outside the coffee shop, it tickled him to realize that she really lived here for now. He could run into her anywhere.

He wasn’t sure if stopping the herd of hogs would win her over.

But she did want justice, and Josh was determined to deliver.

The public library’s Ask a Lawyer session was the first step to hog heroics.

The lawyer, PJ, was a regular customer of his at the farmers market, and Josh knew they’d be handy with all the local ordinances and zoning laws.

Inside the library, Josh passed a low, square table near the entrance to the children’s section.

He had built the special rimmed table last year and supplied it with tiny gourds that could be spun as tops.

A toddler was squealing in delight as their parent sent one spinning over the smooth oak surface.

Children who learned the skill could get a badge that read CERTIFIED GOURD SPINNER from a librarian, and the library even held contests to see who could spin one the longest. Unsurprisingly, Josh did not hold the record because some of the teens hanging out in their area of the library wanted in on the action.

So he built a table for them, too, and increased his tiny gourd production to keep them supplied.

He was proud to add to the town’s quirkiness. No one celebrated the way Big Tech made the Bay Area an unaffordable playground for billionaires, sucking its vitality rather than adding to it. He owed the world some counterprogramming.

As Josh walked toward the designated legal help desk, he spied one of the all-purpose rooms, where a distinctive group of people gathered, and it had something to do with textiles.

It was mostly retirees, but he saw some younger folks among them.

Some people held knitting projects and others, smaller work.

What was unmistakable was the variety of fabrics people wore on their bodies and carried with them in tote bags.

Big vibrant shawls and scarves, and structured jackets that it would soon be cool enough to wear outdoors. Someone even wore a kilt.

No doubt Sadie would fit in, knowledge-wise, but she would be a gorgeous little crow in a parade of peacocks and flamingos. Josh smiled. He liked that little crow. She was genuine.

The room’s schedule for the day was posted beside the door. This meeting was the Blossom County Spinning and Weaving Guild. Josh tapped his forehead so he could remind himself to tell Sadie about it later, and continued on his way to the local history section and PJ’s desk. He had business to do.

PJ spotted Josh and waved him over. They had warm olive skin, a mop of curly hair, glasses with circular frames, and nail polish that was the metallic green of a beetle’s carapace.

PJ was a regular at Josh’s Squashes. Josh sometimes threw some extra zucchinis into their bag as a thanks for being a loyal customer, and in return Josh regularly received a loaf of zucchini bread studded with dark chocolate and flaked coconut.

He got more satisfaction from returning customers at the farmers market than from selling the tech that made him rich.

Of course, he knew those riches paved the way to make this simpler life so smooth, so he couldn’t get too high-minded about it.

“Josh!” they said. “It’s been a slow day.

Come be a client. Want to sue somebody?”

“You know Fox Family Farm?”

“Of course, but there’s no way I’m suing Stu. If I get on his bad side, he won’t sell me chanterelles and then where would I be? In the forest finding them for myself? No thank you. Shame about what happened to the pumpkin patch.”

Josh may have mentioned the hogs’ handiwork to someone while he was at the Gas ’n Go. Of course the whole town knew already. “That’s why I need your help. His farm isn’t safe unless we can make sure Go Hog Wild never opens. I told Sadie I could do it… I assume you know Sadie.”

PJ pointed to the row of Pea Blossom High School yearbooks on the local history shelf.

“You see how thin those yearbooks are? I know everyone. Check out 2010. She was a senior when I was a freshman. It’ll give me a minute to think about our options.

” PJ paused, shaking their head. “I have been dreading the opening of Go Hog Wild. I thought they’d gotten everything sorted last year when they allowed themselves to be annexed into the town for water and sewer, but maybe there’s a loophole. ”

Sure, annexation. Loophole. These were the kinds of words Josh was hoping for.

PJ locked in on their laptop while Josh plucked the yearbook off the shelf and turned to the senior portraits.

They were standard stuff: boys in tuxes and girls in black smocks with wide V-necks.

He flipped to Sadie Fox’s entry. She hadn’t changed much.

She’d committed to that blunt bob and bangs early, though the color portrait showed she preferred bright blue hair dye back then.

She wore a stud in her nostril, a Marilyn piercing, and an eyebrow ring.

She certainly dialed back on those in the intervening years.

Sadie wasn’t smiling in her photo—why on earth would she—and her grim look utterly delighted him.

Her quote was by Baudelaire. “Remembering is only a new form of suffering.” Josh laughed aloud. He quoted something from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in his own yearbook, something Sadie would probably roast him for.

The blurb beneath her photo noted that she’d been in the Art Club all four years and did drama for her first two years of high school.

He immediately pulled the Class of 2006 yearbook from the shelf to see photos from the school musical.

It was Beauty and the Beast , featuring Sadie as Mrs. Potts.

Big mistake not casting her as Belle. She’d match wits with Beast way better than whatever goody-goody they originally cast.

It was foolish to let himself be so smitten by Sadie’s gruff charm, but he was nothing if not an optimist with a plan.

His first bit of profitable tech, another optimistic endeavor, was the video game he’d created for his own high school classmates.

That school’s yearbook would eat these Pea Blossom ones as a snack.

The game had been meant to appeal to his crush and get her attention in a unique way.

Josh had been a late bloomer, and a stereotypical nerd. Girls never gave him a second glance, and he had yet to learn the art of conversation. Instead of doing the smart thing and gaining some social skills, he thought the best way to channel his frustration was to make a video game.

When he heard his crush mention an interest in learning the constellations, he leaped into action.

While the game didn’t bring a girlfriend, fortune favored him another way. The game’s success on the App Store provided the seed money for his next venture: founding a small video game studio.

That studio was eventually acquired by a bigger one, which led to more money, but ultimately career burnout. Then he bailed on the Bay Area and dumped all his money into his farm.

PJ called Josh back over. “I have some ideas, but I need to do a little more research.”

If PJ’s work extended beyond the bounds of the library clinic, Josh wanted a more formal arrangement. “Should I come to your office? I’ll hire you to take this on.”

“No need. If nothing complicated comes in, I’ll probably have it sorted out by the end of the day.” PJ gestured to the yearbook Josh was still holding. “Can I see? That was before my time.”

Josh handed over the book, opened to the page with photos from Beauty and the Beast .

“Mrs. Potts with an eyebrow ring? Iconic!”

“Angela Lansbury who?” Josh replied.

PJ shut the book and handed it back to Josh. “It’s too bad Sadie and I weren’t closer in age. I think we could have been friends,” they said wistfully.

“Yeah? What was she like?”

“She always had that mad-at-the-world vibe, which I think was mostly mad at her parents, as plenty of teenagers are. But I found out there was a secret smooshy side to her. She delayed our mandatory health class until senior year, whereas I got it out of the way early, so that was the only class we had together. We had to do food diaries and trade them with a partner. Sadie was mine.”

“How’d that go?” Josh asked.

“You know how everyone thinks the way they grew up was normal because that’s all they know?

I didn’t really realize my family was dealing with real hunger problems. But Sadie did, thanks to my food diary.

After that class, she started bringing me loaves of zucchini bread because Stu had a couple of zucchini plants along with the pumpkins and they were always inundated.

That’s how she put it. She was like, ‘Would you do me a favor and take some of this zucchini bread? We have so much zucchini at my house!’ I was a full-grown adult when it occurred to me that I was not doing her a favor. ”

“That’s so sweet,” Josh said. “And now you share zucchini bread with me.”

“Not because I think you’re going hungry,” PJ said, laughing. “But yeah, it means a lot to me to share abundance, and that’s something I got from Sadie. This legal clinic is kind of like my zucchini bread for the community.”

PJ’s story made Josh want to do more. If there were people facing hunger in Blossom County, he had bumper crops of squash to alleviate those problems. What good was it to have money if the people around him went without?

At the same time, he was also a bit jealous. I wish Sadie would show me that soft side.

“You’re such a good egg, PJ. Let’s swap contacts and you can follow up with me. I appreciate your work so much, and I love that it circles back to squash. I gotta get back to Shadowfax, who is probably champing at the bit.”

“Does Shadowfax like squash?”

“Carrots and peppermints are his preferred treats.”

PJ opened the drawer of their desk and pulled out a container of mints from Sonic Drive-In, dumping them into Josh’s cupped hands. They dipped their head to make serious eye contact over the rim of their glasses. “My love for Nerds slushies and Tater Tots stays between you, me, and the horse.”

“Shared abundance,” Josh said, prompting one more chuckle from PJ.

Josh thanked them again and returned to Shadowfax with the treats. Saddled up, he could see Sadie and her companion gathering their things to leave the coffee shop. He slowed Shadowfax, who danced a little, happy to be moving again.

Sadie’s friend gave him a bright smile, while Sadie herself gave a less enthusiastic nod of acknowledgment as she pulled a backpack over her shoulders. She was wearing jeans and closed-toe shoes, so he went for it.

“Could I offer you a ride home, Sadie?”

“You’re fucking kidding me, right?” she asked. The other woman gasped.

“Do I ever kid with you?”

Sadie’s friend slapped her arm. “And you pretended like you didn’t know him, you sneaky little wench,” she chided.

So he’d been a topic of conversation. Either she was embarrassed by their association…or she felt shy about it for some reason. Interesting.

“I’ve got my bike,” Sadie said, gesturing at the rack near the curb. “I’ll catch you later.”

Touching the brim on his helmet, he rode back down the trail.

He couldn’t handle a yes from her anyway.

And not just because of the need for a second riding helmet.

The idea of being pressed that close to her sensational body sent flames licking up his chest. The reality might make him spontaneously combust.

But if this flirtation landed? Sadie was also thinking about being pressed against him at this very moment.