Page 49 of Trick or Tease

“Holy shit,” I breathed.

“How did you even…” Madison started, then trailed off.

“Dude, that’s not fair,” Tyler protested. “You’re like a professional pumpkin carver or something.”

Garrett shrugged, looking almost embarrassed by the attention. “I just remembered doing something similar with Mom when I was a kid. It’s not that complicated.”

“Not that complicated?” I repeated incredulously. “Garrett, this is museum-quality work.”

“Well, I guess we have our winner,” Billy announced, though he didn’t sound upset about it. “Garrett takes the hundred dollars.”

“No,” I said quickly. “Mine should still be on Hollow Hank. We should put Garrett’s on display somewhere else. Maybe here at the carving station. That is not a face.”

Garrett nodded slowly. “She’s right. Hers is better suited for a scarecrow head.”

“Mine can go on the refreshment table,” Billy said cheerfully.

“That’s not going anywhere near the refreshment table.” I laughed. “But we can find a spot for it. Doesn’t someone collect the pumpkins for their pigs?”

“Hey!” He protested before laughing.

“Come on, we need to let these dry before we put them on the scarecrows in the maze,” I said. “I do not want bugs.”

18

GARRETT

An hour later, I found myself elbow deep in straw, trying to stuff a burlap sack that would become the torso of our next scarecrow. This wasn’t exactly how I’d planned to spend my afternoon, but somehow I’d gotten swept up in the project.

And when in Rome…

“More straw in the shoulders,” Sabrina called out from where she was working on another scarecrow about ten feet away. “They need to look substantial, not like deflated balloons.”

I packed more straw into the shoulders, accidentally getting a piece stuck in my hair. When I reached up to brush it out, I caught Sabrina watching me with an amused expression.

“What?” I asked.

“Nothing,” she said, but she was fighting back a smile. “Just never thought I’d see the day when Garrett Hogan would be playing in the hay again.”

“I’m not playing,” I said, though even as the words came out, I realized how ridiculous they sounded. I was literally stuffing straw into a sack to make a fake person. If that wasn’t playing, I didn’t know what was.

Billy appeared around the corner of the corn path, dragging another wooden post behind him. “How are we doing over here?”

“Good,” I said, lifting my completed torso. “Where do you want this guy?”

“Follow me. We need to name him.”

“Name him?”

“I told you,” Sabrina said with exasperation. “We name them so we can divide the maze into sections. It makes it easier for us to monitor the maze. If people get lost, they can call us or call out and tell us what scarecrow they are looking at. Then we come and save them.”

That was smart.

“Makes sense,” I said.

“So, what name should we give him?” Sabrina asked.

“Big Boy Bob.” I had met the other scarecrow, Hollow Hal. There was also a Jumpy Jim. Big Boy Bob seemed like the next best one.