The Whole Story is in One Chapter
The Pumpkin Patch Mystery
It was a crisp, cold, windy, mid-October New England fall day, and the leaves on the trees were orange, red, yellow, and maroon. About half of the leaves had already come off the trees, and orange, sweet-smelling pumpkins were on the ground, just barely thawing from the night before, preparing to be refrozen in the night to come. Leaf piles covered lawns, and next to them sat rakes, leaf bags, and dogs, waiting for the right leaf to come fluttering down to the pile for him to chase. Squirrels chattered with each other, gathering acorns for the long winter they knew was coming, and birds sang as they migrated to the south.
Olivia, who was 15, rode her bike through the vines of pumpkins that shone brightly as if each one was a star. Every morning before work, she rode through the patch, checking on all the pumpkins and evaluating the situation in case a crime occurred. Her long brown hair swayed side to side, as the wind pushed strongly onto her face. Moments before, she had just tiptoed out of bed, careful not to wake her twin sister, Keagan. They had been sleeping in since it was Saturday, and they didn’t have school. As she rode past the pumpkins, she started to realize that a few of the pumpkins were missing. She didn’t think anything of it, and she carried on through her ride toward the cashier counter as she started the workday.
Suddenly, Keagan sprang up from bed just realizing it was noon. “ How did I just sleep that long?” she said to herself, who was running around her room, throwing clothes everywhere, and trying to find the perfect outfit for working the pumpkin stand today. After she got ready, she ran to the stand, her long brown hair, just like Olivia’s, swayed in the wind which kept her running all the way. When she finally got to her destination, Olivia greeted her. “You’re late,” she said.
“Yes, yes, I know I’m late, but I overslept, and I hustled, and I’m here now and-” Keagan started, but Olivia stopped her abruptly: “It’s fine, and you don’t have to worry, just start getting the pumpkins gathered”.
As Keagan ran toward the pumpkin patch, she realized that many of the pumpkins were missing, but Olivia didn’t think to stop to make sure everything was ok.
At the end of the day, the twins were counting the money made for that day. They were looking back at the typical trend for the month and noticed that the pumpkin sales were down nearly 80%. They knew this wasn’t right and finally,
Olivia said: “ What is wrong, this never happens, even at the end of November it’s never down this low.”.
Keagan thought to herself for a few moments and realized that it made sense. She thought of the times she went out and the pumpkins were missing from their patch.
“We need to go check the pumpkin patch!” screamed Keagan as she quickly grabbed Olivia’s arm and started sprinting off.
“ What are you doing?” Asked Olivia.
“You’ll see., Rright now, we need to make sure the pumpkins are still there. I’ll explain when we get there.” Keagan puffed out, struggling to breathe from the ¾ mile run.
As soon as they got there, both girls knew trouble had happened. All of the pumpkins were gone, and only a few yellow-turning vines were remaining.
“Keagan what happened?”
“ I- I don’t know, this morning when I was on my way to the stand, I noticed some missing, but didn’t have time to stop and check on everything.”
“ We need to go tell mom and dad and have them call the police.”
“Let’s go, as fast as we can”
The girls ran as fast as they possibly could toward their house and began yelling for their parents. “MOM! DAD! MOM! DAD!” They screamed.
“What is it, what happened?” Their parents asked running down the stairs.
“The pumpkins, they’re missing,” Both girls said at once trying to catch their breath from the run.
“What?? Let’s go, get the golf cart, and bring it around front.” As they arrived at the patch, the twins’ parents said: “ Get my phone, call the police right now, there’s been a robbery”.
About an hour later, when the police arrived, they were gathering the information needed and asking all the questions that a typical investigation would need:
“Have you seen any suspicious people around here today?”
“What exactly have you seen?”
“When did you notice this?”
“ Have any customers said anything?”
“Do you have security cameras?”
These are the questions that the police asked, while more sirens continued to blare across the town and got louder, and louder as they grew closer. What seemed like hours later, the police wrapped up their interviews and started searching the fields, patches, and buildings. They didn’t find anything except for tracks that looked like human prints, but weren’t.
“Keep an eye out, and we will be back tomorrow and try to figure this out for you folks,” Officer Gosselin said. “ Have a good night”. The family went back to their house, careful not to touch anything that could have fingerprints on them.
The next day, the police came back and they ordered the girls to start looking in the wooded areas for any clues. “ Look through the North Woods and see if you girls can find any clues, or best case scenario, the pumpkins.” As the girls ran into the woods, they noticed the same trails as what they found yesterday. They decided to follow the footprint trail and face any danger they might come across. “Look over there!” Keagan said. The girls ran to where the trail ended and couldn’t believe their eyes. “Oh. My. God.” They both said together. Both girls looked at what they had just stumbled in front of. They found a small, wiry, sad, cold dog staring at them. And next to him? Every. Single. Pumpkin. Every pumpkin that was missing, the girls were staring right at it and returning the stare was that little dog. Those beady eyes looked back up at them, afraid.
