Pumpkin DreamsThe ocean is filled with pumpkins. I'm standing on the beach with a net trying to scoop them up. They drift close to the shore, but when I try to get my net around them they drift away. I call them, but the pumpkins don't listen. I swing my net back and forth wildly. Then I toss it aside and run straight out into the water, stepping on pumpkins as I go. I keep running. There are thousands and thousands of pumpkins, floating like great orange beach balls. I find myself singing "The Muffin Man," but the words are different. What I'm singing is: Oh do you know the pumpkin man,I'm running faster than I've ever run before. The wind is blowing. The moonlight is shining on the tops of the pumpkins. I look over and see my brother running a few steps behind me. He holds a finger to his lips. I ask him why I should stop singing. "Because music freaks them out." I hear a strange chanting sound and look down. The pumpkins now have eyes and mouths. I say to my brother, "Do these pumpkins look pissed off to you?" "They're not pumpkins, they're jack-o-lanterns!" He draws even with me, then vanishes below the surface of the water. When he reappears moments later, he has a pumpkin on his head, and he's shouting, "I am the Pumpkin King; I can do anything!" I dive under the water too and come up with a pumpkin on my head. The world around me is now lit by a strange orange glow. I follow my brother as he springs from one pumpkin to the next, jumping higher and higher with each bounce. I hear my mother's whistle calling us home for dinner. My brother takes a giant leap and springs across the ocean onto the roof of our house. I follow him. My father is down in the yard, pointing at us and saying, "These are the kind of imbeciles I have for children." My brother and I look at each other, smile and pelt him with our pumpkins. Just before they hit him, the pumpkins disappear, and we lose our footing and fall off the roof. My father catches one of us in each hand. He carries us into the house and puts us on the mantle. We have turned into orange birthday candles. We try to tell him we're alive, but he just frowns and moves us slightly to the left.  |
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