The Pumpkin

   As Ann was about to cut into the pumpkin she realized that it seemed to be getting some what brighter. She pulled the knife back and studied the pumpkin closely. The brightness was coming from inside, ”But how,” she wondered. She noticed that it was not a constant source, but actually it seemed to be strobing as if there was a party inside. Ann quickly reassured herself that was not the case. A party inside a pumpkin! “Nonsense,” she thought. “Maybe I am asleep and dreaming,” She thought. Ann decided to pinch herself. She felt the pinch, but remembering a dream she had before in which she felt a pinching feeling while she was sleeping, she again wondered whether or not she was sleeping. Ann decided either way, if she just went to sleep she would wake up and then she would know.

    After a couple of hours Ann was awakened by a loud noise. She jumped from the couch where she had been resting and quickly looked around. Kind of still dazed, she rubbed her eyes and looked toward the kitchen where still radiating on the table was the pumpkin. Ann walked to the pumpkin and put her ear to it. The pumpkin was not only radiating, but also had what seemed to be music coming from inside its walls of orange flesh. Ann was now getting frustrated and annoyed by this pumpkin. She wanted to do something, but she wasn’t sure of what and was also a little scared. All sorts of different thoughts raced through her mind. “There is some gasoline out back,” she thought. Then she reconsidered thinking maybe the house could go up. Ann still doubted her own mental condition and tried to remember if she was on medication, or if she had taken any mind-altering drugs. She concluded she was ok. “Now what,” she wondered not wanting to do anything she might later regret, so Ann thought for a little while. “Well a baseball bat wouldn’t damage the house,” Ann decided. Ann trying to end the situation quickly went and got her bat. She got to the table, positioned herself, and got ready to swing. Her shoulders went up, her back twisted with tension, and her arms extended over her right shoulder. She released her stance and with a full force swing, pulled up just before she would have hit the pumpkin. “What am I doing,” she said aloud. “This could be some sort of bomb”, she thought. “I must be really stupid,” she said in a lowly voice to herself.

   Ann now really confused about the entire situation had absolutely no solution in mind. The only explanation Ann could come up with was, maybe someone was playing a joke on her. Who it was, was beyond her knowledge. Ann once again decided to try something else. Taking the knife in her hand and approaching the pumpkin, She was ready to take care of the situation. Ann angled the sharp serrated edge of the blade so that it would cut into the top of the pumpkin but not penetrate its inside portion. She lowered the knife and began the sawing motion of the blade against the waxy orange surface. The knife went in about a half of an inch into the three quarters of an inch of fleshy orange before Ann withdrew. She was once again scared of the result. Ann thought about moving the pumpkin and decided to try. She put her hands around it and started to lift. Ann again withdrew from her action, this time because of the rumbling inside which sounded like music.

   Ann was really starting to get stressed. She only had about two hours of sleep and it was close too 3:30 in the morning. Ann was supposed to wake up at about 5:30 for work but it didn’t seem like she was going to get to sleep anyway. Ann being distressed and worked up about the whole thing began to cry. She was on the verge of having a nervous breakdown, and thoughts went through her mind like: No one is going to believe me, they will all think I am on drugs, they will all think I am crazy, and I will probably lose my job.

   Ann smacked herself, actually hard enough to make it count and said, “The hell with this damn pumpkin!” Ann was tired of all this and beyond the point of caring what would happen when she did what she had to. She wiped the remaining tears from her still reddened freshly smacked face and clenched her teeth. A psychotic look of madness was in her eyes, bloodshot from lack of sleep and her crying. She was not going to take this any more so she grabbed up the bat furiously in a fit of rage and charged toward the pumpkin. No turning back, this was it. Ann took about the same stance as the previous time and cocked her arms back. She was absolutely enraged and gripped the bat hard. The veins in her neck, and arms were bulging from the tension as she forced the bat forward with everything she had. The bat, in the split second it took, seemed to be going in slow motion. It lined up perfectly with the side of the pumpkin. At the point of impact the bat imploded the side of the pumpkin shattering pieces of it into the air, the walls, on the floor, and even some of it on Ann. The main body of the strobing orb of orange ended up on the tile floor after a mid air collision with the cabinets adjacent to the table.

    Ann didn't see any of the mayhem due to her over exertion of force. She slipped and ended up looking at the ceiling. She shakily lifted herself from the floor, uninjured, and looked toward what was left of the pumpkin. She looked at the table first, then at the floor and walls. She laughed in rejoice. “Now that it is smashed all over the place,” she thought, “It can’t be harmful.” She decided to take a closer look and find out what was behind all of this confusion. She approached the now deadened pumpkin on the floor and examined it from a crouching position. She was absolutely amazed at what she found. Inside this pumpkin that seemed to have a miniature party going on inside it, she found nothing at all. “What!,” she wailed. She was completely blown. “Nothing, nothing” she mumbled repeatedly, “Nothing at all.” “What had happened last night, was it me?” she questioned herself aloud. She couldn't get over the fact that there was nothing there. She just couldn't believe all of that came from her mind. Due to the trauma and her exhaustion, Ann collapsed to her knees in front of the remaining pumpkin scraps. Now in a state of complete devastation all she could do was cry and run her fingers through the orange mush. Ann did go to work that day. She said nothing of the events the night and morning before, but no one seemed to notice anything wrong anyway. Ann went on living a normal life, although she never did get another pumpkin after that.