THE PATCH: By Robert C. Eccles
Monday, October 31st, 2011Year after year, the humans traipsed into the patch near the woods with their long, sharp knives and severed pumpkins from the vine. One fall, the pumpkins decided there would be no more killing.
“It’s an outrage!” bellowed Atlantic Giant. “Who do they think they are?”
“What gives them the right?” asked Happy Jack.
Little Boo scrunched up his face. “How would they like it if we strutted into their homes, sliced off their heads and carried them away?”
“Then it’s settled,” said Standard Orange. “This year we fight back.”
“But how?” squeaked Sweetie Pie.
Autumn Gold looked determined. “Leave that to us,” he said. “This year when the humans come, we’ll be ready for them.”
***
Soon the day came when the shiny metal boxes brought the humans to the patch.The warning was sent along the vine.
“The humans are here!” said Happy Jack.
“It won’t be long now!” squealed Little Boo.
“This time they get a taste of their own medicine!” growled Standard Orange.
“Hush, now!” warned Atlantic Giant. “They’re almost here!”
Humans of all shapes and sizes sauntered into the patch that afternoon. They chatted excitedly amongst themselves, and many of them carried knives.
The first hint of any trouble that day was a muffled “Ooommph!” as a tall man tripped on a vine and fell to the ground. Of course, he hadn’t really tripped. The vine had snaked around his ankle and yanked him off his feet. The knife the man had been carrying skittered away. Another vine closed around the knife’s handle. Sunlight glinted briefly off the blade as the vine lifted the knife into the air and brought it down in the man’s chest. The man screamed, and the others in his group turned at the sound.
“Daddy, what’s wrong?” asked a child. A vine, lightning quick, whipped out and wrapped around the child’s neck, snapping it. The body fell limp to the dirt.
A woman ran into the patch.
“Oh my God!” she cried as she fell to her knees next to the child’s body. The vine holding the knife brought the blade swiftly across the woman’s throat, and blood sprayed out, soaking the earth. Some of the warm fluid fell upon Atlantic Giant, who smiled as it soaked into his skin.
Scores of other humans raced blindly into the patch, screaming and shouting.
“What the hell?” asked a large man just before a vine bound his ankles and brought him to the ground like a great tree. The man fell forward onto theknife he had been holding, lodging the blade deep in his gut.
Several children stood at the edge of the patch, watching in horror. Almost quicker than the eye could follow a set of vines reached out and wrapped themselves around their small legs, yanking the children off their feet and dragging them into the patch. One second the children were there, the next, a cloud of dust.
Humans continued to run into the patch. Sweetie Pie couldn’t move out of theway fast enough, and a man’s boot-clad foot clumped down on the tiny pumpkin’shead. Sweetie Pie’s guts and seeds spilled out onto the dirt. Standard Orange saw this and shota vine out and around the man’s throat and pulled him to the ground. Standard Orange squeezed and squeezed, and the man’s face turned first bright red, then purple. The man’s tongue stuck out and his eyes bulged, and then finally he stopped moving.
The farmer who tended the patch heard the screaming. He came running with abright red can in his hand. The farmer splashed smelly liquid from the can in awide circle around the patch and then lit a fire-stick and threw it into the liquid. Flames shot up, following the liquid’s path. Soon the entire patch was ablaze. For a while there were more screams, and then only the sound of the crackling fire.
***
Standard Orange, Atlantic Giant and Happy Jack watched from the woods as the farmer’s hands werebound behind him and he was led away to the metal box with the shiny lights ontop.
“They got what they deserved,” said Standard Orange.
“I miss Sweetie Pie,” sniffled Happy Jack.
“This is war,” grumbled Atlantic Giant. “Collateral damage.”
The patch was a charred ruin. Some of the body parts of the humans who had diedthat day would never be found.
Legend has it that on dark, foggy October nights a strange light can be seen inthe woods near the burnt-out pumpkin patch. If you explore its source, you’ll find several pumpkins sitting in a circle, their faces lit by an odd, red glow. In the center of the circle, flickering candle light shines from within a hollowed-out human head.
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©2011 Robert C. Eccles
