Page 38 of Ginjuh

“Stop saying that word.” He growled.

“Fine.” I shrugged. “But Grandpa has done nothing but love and respect me, dad. You can feel however you want—you don’t have to call him ‘dad’—but don’t ever imply he’s not my grandpa.”

Dad sighed. “Okay, son.”

“Well,” I slid my hands into my pockets, looking away, “I’ll be out there tonight. I might be home a little late if that’s okay? The corn maze is open until midnight.”

“That’s fine.”

“If…if you want to come check it out, I can get you in for free.” I chuckled. “I know a guy.”

Dad smiled but didn’t respond.

“Guaranteed chills and thrills.” I stepped backward, starting my exit. “If you decide you want to.”

Dad didn’t respond and I didn’t say anything. Instead, I went and got my things and left without trying to convince him further.

The corn maze wasn’t exactly a huge success, but it did pretty well for the first Friday night it was open. Grandpa collected money up on the porch, dressed like a zombie hillbilly, which got more laughs than screams, but he enjoyed every minute of it. Seeing the teenagers and young adults and his friends from the community bring their kids for a scare made him smile bigger than I’d seen him smile in a long time. Austin and I were in charge of guiding groups through the corn maze, making sure no one wandered off and got lost and that they found the exit easily. We worked in tandem, just as he’d exit the corn maze with one group, I’d guide another in and he’d run over to wait for me to exit so he could guide another through.

Our friends from the high school, male and female, had strategic hiding spots in the corn maze, jumping out and scaring people who had paid to walk through. I think Jay, Mandy, and Katie had the most fun jumping out and scaring people, especially the people who we knew from school. Every time one of them got an extra loud scream, I could hear them cackling maniacally from their places in the corn maze. The night was clear, a nearly full moon beaming down on Grandpa’s farm, millions of stars twinkling down on us as we did our best to make the corn maze the most fun it could be. Grandpa had strung eerie orange and green lights through the maze, adding to the effect of walking through a haunted corn maze. The lights cast eerie shadows everywhere and the pumpkins were a nice touch.

Yeah, it was a little honky-tonk, but it was fun. A lot of people said they’d be back the following day for the hayride through the corn maze. Even though the last group went through the corn maze at ten o’clock and there was no one else to guide through, Grandpa said he considered it a success. Probably because he made enough money to pay himself back for all the money he had paid Austin to work on the corn maze with us. We still had Saturday, Sunday, and three more full weekends, so it seemed he was going to turn a profit on his project. That made me happier than almost anything. Besides my new boyfriend, of course.

Once it was clear that we weren’t going to get any more customers for the night, Grandpa thanked all of our friends for coming to help. They were all more than happy with their volunteer jobs at the corn maze, promising to come back every night to scare the pants off of anyone who wanted to pay to go through it. Grandpa was beaming and shaking the hands of our friends, then waving as they all drove away from his farm, hollering “you kids drive safe, now!” Austin and I hung back, standing on the porch with Grandpa as we watched our friends drive away, nearly as happy with the night as we were. I’d never seen Grandpa so enthusiastic and…young.

“Well,” he finally said, once all the cars were out of sight, “I don’t think we coulda done no better if we had tried twice as hard. You boys done good.”

“Thank you, sir,” Austin said.

I gave my Grandpa a bear hug, eliciting an “ooph” sound from him.

“I’m so glad we did this, Grandpa.” I smiled at him.

“You’re gonna squeeze what little life I have left out of me, son.” He patted my hair, all smiles. “Thank y’all so much for your help.”

“Well, you paid me.” Austin chuckled with a shrug.

“Fair ‘nuff.” Grandpa said as I let go of him. “Will you boys do a quick walkthrough and make sure all the lights is out? I don’t want to pay for any more electricity than necessary.”

“I’ll do it.” Austin nudged me. “Talk to your Grandpa. This won’t take long.”

He gave me a sly smile and a wink and dashed off toward the maze. Grandpa and I smiled after him, watching him dash across the yard and disappear into the entrance to the maze. I turned to Grandpa, all smiles to see him looking down at me.

“What?” I said.

“I don’t know much,” he said, “but I suspect that boy is expecting you to come find him in a minute.”

“Grandpa.” I felt my cheeks warm.

“Well, that’s what your grandma woulda done.” He shrugged with a wink. “Nothin’ like smoochin’ under the stars.”

“Stop it.” I reached up to run my fingers through my hair, embarrassed.

“All right then.” He nudged me with his elbow as the sound of gravel came from the end of the driveway.

We both turned towards the driveway and the unmistakable lights from a car were slowly coming towards the house.

“Well, shit.” Grandpa cleared his throat and spat off the porch. “We’ll need to go take that sign down so people know we’re done for the night. I hate to turn people away…”