beatrix bobbit and the pumpkin pop up

Beatrix was stuffed in the backseat of Mr. Bobbit's spluttering red car as it followed the very winding road through a pine tree forest. When Mrs. Bobbit had opened the front door to slide into her designated seat, she'd found Penny wrapped in a tiny orange scarf sitting on a pumpkin shaped pillow.

Mr Bobbit had made such a fuss about where to move her that Mrs. Bobbit had eventually sighed and joined Sybil and Beatrix in the backseat.

"Beatrix, dear, would you mind rolling down your window?" Mrs. Bobbit panted. The window on her side of the backseat hadn't been able to open since a Gemma flooded their yard.

"Here! I can fan you with my hat!" Sybil pulled the orange beanie off of her head and began waving it frantically at Mrs. Bobbit while Beatrix struggled to get the window down. Once she finally got the handle to crank, the window shot down in a gust of icy cold air.

Mrs. Bobbit sighed loudly, and Sybil immediately placed the beanie back on her head and snuggled closer to Beatrix.

"You could've sat up front, Judy. You just would've had to hold Penny's pillow just so," Mr. Bobbit grumbled.

"It's fine, Jack, dear. The window is helping," Mrs. Bobbit closed her eyes and leaned her head back as her pale hair twisted and twirled around her face.

"What are we doing again?" Sybil asked, with a barely contained giggle.

"Popping up pumpkins, Sybil, dear," Mrs. Bobbit tipped her head back while a particularly brutal gust of wind shook the car.

"We're not popping them!" Mr. Bobbit grunted. "We're scouting the competition. As soon as I can get the pumpkin patch going for next year. I need fresh ideas." Mr. Bobbit chuckled and glanced fondly at Penny.

Suddenly, Mr. Bobbit slammed on the brakes. A bright orange blinking sign flashed in front of the windshield. It read: Percy's Pop Up Pumpkins! Please Park Here!

"That's a lot of excitement for a grass parking lot," Beatrix whispered and Sybil nodded solemnly.

Mr. Bobbit pulled the car around and into a spot between two hay bales, then got out of the car with Penny and started looking around while his knees popped.

"Where are the pumpkins?" Beatrix squinted against the orange glare.

"Where are the people?" Sybil asked next and Beatrix realized that despite the smattering of cars in the makeshift parking lot, there were no people around, and no noises that indicated where the people had gone.

Mrs. Bobbit tottered over to the flashing sign, looked up, then shouted, "There's an arrow!" And began frantically pointing her fingers to the left of the sign. "Hurry, Jack, dear, before they take all the good pumpkins."

"We don't need any pumpkins!" Mr. Bobbit shouted back, but he began shuffling a bit faster though the grass, careful not to jostle Penny too much on her pumpkin pillow perch in his arms.

"I guess these pumpkins won't be ALIVE," Sybil made a face and started walking with her arms straight out front of her. Then, she stuck her tongue between her two front teeth and laughed, grabbing Beatrix's arms, and forcing her into a prance to catch up to their parents.

Mr. and Mrs. Bobbit were standing between two wooden posts wrapped in orange and purple lights with carved jack-o-lanterns sitting on top. One jack-o-lantern had a friendly, warm smile filled with orange candlelight. But the other was rather frightening with all kinds of curved, jagged black and purple teeth. There was a path on each side. The happy jack-o-lantern's path disappeared in golden trees, and the other path, sloped down a hill before disappearing.

"I don't care for the look of that pumpkin," Mrs. Bobbit shivered and pointed, then turned to walk into the dappled golden light of the forest.

"Wait! What if it's a test?" Beatrix's heart sped up at the idea of an adventure on this decidedly non-adventurous outing.

"A test?" Mr. Bobbit ran his free hand through his mustache and paced back and forth between the two posts. "Excellent idea to step--I mean use at our own pumpkin patch. Come on, let's try this way."

"The scary pumpkin? Really?" Sybil was bouncing up and down, and her cheeks were turning pinker with each bounce. "I'm so in!" She took off to the top of the hill then started squealing and running until she disappeared from view.

Beatrix still wasn't comfortable letting Sybil out of her sight. So she took off past her parents. At the top of the hill, her heart fluttered like a broomstick in an evening breeze. "Adventure," she said, and she started running towards the spectacle happening below.

As Beatrix ran down the hill, she began to see more about what this Pumpkin Pop Up entailed. And it was so much better than she'd ever imagined it could be.

There was a pumpkin castle. Surrounded by painted orange stalls and lined with bright orange swings. The smell of sweet spicy pumpkin filled her nostrils and she let out a whoop of glee before she realized one very strange thing.

There were no people at the pumpkin castle. No people working at the stalls or buying the delicious goods or swinging from the swings. No people at all.

"Sybil?" Beatrix shouted and propelled herself faster until her toes nearly hovered above the ground. At the bottom of the hill, her boot caught on something in the grass and she toppled over and over, landing on her back with nothing but the pumpkin castle rising above her. "Sybie?" she coughed.

Sybil's pale blonde pigtail braids swung in front of her face. "Are you okay, Bea?" Beatrix let out a sigh of relief and accepted her sister's small hands to get back up and take in the scene.

"Where is everyone?" Beatrix asked, looking all around.

The pound of footsteps caused her and Sybil to whirl around in time to see Mr. and Mrs. Bobbit come barreling towards them.

"Take PENNY!" Mr. Bobbit tossed the rabbit at Beatrix and kept running until he crashed into the orange gate guarding the pumpkin castle. Mrs. Bobbit joined him a moment later.

Beatrix and Sybil immediately ran to tend to their parents who were tangled in a heap of pumpkin goo. As soon as Mr. Bobbit stood, he took Penny back from Beatrix's arms and mumbled, "Sorry."

"I don't believe I've ever seen a pumpkin castle," Mrs. Bobbit said after a few moments of looking around with her shrewd gaze.

"It's so quiet," Sybil shuddered.

"Quiet is nice," Mr. Bobbit scratched his head. "But a quiet pumpkin patch cannot be good for business." Mr. Bobbit went up to the pumpkin gate and put a large hand on it.

At once, it swung open, and the candles in the pumpkin lights flared to life.

"Maybe we should go back, Jack, dear," Mrs. Bobbit huffed, clearly torn between staying in this eerie pumpkin desert or having to climb the hill again.

"Or you could come inside," a familiar voice called.

Beatrix and Sybil exchanged a look and walked towards the open gate, then inside, peering around the different orange pathways until they spotted a face they knew.

"Callum?" They said together.

"Where's Percy?" Mr. Bobbit grumbled.

"Right here. Hello, Jack. It's been a long time," a man who looked a lot like Callum only broader and slightly less unkempt stepped out of a stall and began walking towards the them. He was twirling a cane with a pumpkin handle.

Suddenly, Mr. Bobbit began laughing so heartily tears streamed down his cheeks. "You did it," Mr. Bobbit said.

Beatrix didn't know what this meant, but she followed eagerly as Callum and Percy beckoned them inside the pumpkin palace.