You could hear the first knife plunge into the first flesh. Then zzzippp, come back out. It was a fine serrated edge.
“What are you doing out there?” I went to the cat lady in the kitchen. Lilly still had her cat ears on from work.
She was on top of the first pumpkin when I came around the corner, the knife going back in deep.
“I thought we were doing that tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow’s Halloween!” she said as she thrust it in, “I want to see these Jack-o’-lanterns lit up tonight.”
Holy batclocks, Batman! “Tomorrow?!? Halloween?” I stammered as all the Halloweens Past rushed by me with Charlie Brown and Snoopy walking along behind the parade eating candy off the street. Mostly taffy. How did Halloween sneak up on me this time? I was looking out for it.
“Indeed,” I said. “Tis’ the Eve of Halloween. Let’s carve…” Searching for & carving pumpkins is something that we’ve always done together. Sometimes there were corn mazes and hay wagon rides. So I grabbed a knife and joined her. I gutted the tall one and we saved all the seeds for toasting. Lilly carved Jack out of the fat one and Lanny out of the crooked one–completely freehand and totally winging it, yet I think she really captured the essence of each pumpkin’s character, she has a knack–and I made the ampersand, the logogram that represents the coordinating conjunction “and” because I really screwed it up last year when my pumpkin caved in on the second night due to poor planning and less than inspired carving. It was structurally unsound from the start. I’ve had all year to think about its execution so I’m much happier with this year’s iteration.
Jack & Lanny say Happy Halloween!
