The Bald Goat

I awoke one day in the middle of a field.  I was surrounded by hundreds of orange things of all different sizes.  I did not know what was going on.  I heard someone say, “Wow this is going to be a big one!”  There was a man in overalls looking down at me.  He was talking about me!  What did he mean?  He rolled me over and I could see a small boy standing next to him.  “Jim,” the man said to the boy, “we have to roll them a little every other day so that they don’t get an ugly spot on one side.”   I was one of these orange things too!

I was a pumpkin!

Jim was very careful to help his dad to roll the pumpkins and he made sure that he did not let our stems get twisted either!  I really liked Jim.  He was such a good boy.  Always very careful and it felt good to be rolled every other day.  I knew I must be special.  It seemed like the man would bring people out to see me.  I could not keep count of how many people would come to the field where I grew and look around at the pumpkins.

One day I noticed that the people were not just looking at the pumpkins, but they would take the older ones and cut their stems and take them home with them.  The people looked so very happy that I hoped that someday someone would take me home with them.  But the man would always tell people that they couldn’t have me.  He said that I was Jim’s pumpkin!  I was so excited to know that Jim would be taking me home.

The day finally came when Jim would take me home.  He came to the field with a knife and cut my stem.  This didn’t feel too good, but I thought it couldn’t be that bad.  Surely the pain would go away and I would have such a good time living with Jim.  Jim took me home and set me on the front porch.  He went inside and when he had a strange look on his face.  I was excited, but at the same time, it made me nervous the way Jim was looking at me.  Jim sat down next to me and picked me up and put me in his lap.  I was so glad he was holding me.  I felt comforted to know that Jim cared about me.  Suddenly there was a sharp pain at my top.  Jim was cutting into me.  He cut a big circle all around my stem and opened me up.  He began removing my insides and scraping to get everything out.  The pain was excruciating.  I yelled for him to stop and begged, but he could not hear me.

I was just a pumpkin.

This was my fate.

It seemed like the torture would go on forever.  Jim must have spent an hour or two cutting, carving, scraping and gouging.  Finally, Jim put me down and stood up to look at me.  He had a smile on his face.  I could still feel the pain from his torture, but the smile on his face was not evil or menacing, but happy.  Whatever he had done to me had made him happy.  He ran inside and came back out with a candle and matches.  He put fire inside me.

It was warm.

It felt good to be warm…like when I used to sit in the field in the sun.

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I wrote this story back in 2004 when I worked at the Boys & Girls Club in Abilene, TX.  I love to pull it out at this time of year!  Hope you enjoyed a little trip into the darker parts of my mind!