Chapter 26 HEY THERE, PUMPKIN #2
Turning her attention back to us, Keiko offered the pitcher around, then poured herself and Soraya a glass.
‘Careful, or you’ll confuse Molly even further,’ said Lara. ‘You definitely don’t want to add an extra possibility to the mix.’
‘Here, we need more pumpkin-carving space,’ said Soraya definitively. She steered us over to a green velvet booth with bench seating in the back corner.
‘Still no luck with your whole Finn and Noah situation?’ Keiko slid into the booth, carefully managing her pitcher and drink. Great. Everyone in town had heard about my romantic woes.
‘It’s not really about luck,’ I said, rolling Gourdy onto the table. ‘They’re both great. Which is the whole problem.’
‘You two are single, right?’ said Lara, jabbing her elongated pumpkin in the direction of Soraya and Keiko. ‘King Richard here wants to know your take on this whole thing.’
‘The king would not meddle in the affairs of peasants,’ said Tiff with a huff. ‘He’d say choose neither. Go join a nunnery.’
‘Ignore her,’ I said, threatening to roll Gourdy at my sister.
Soraya chuckled. Propping an elbow on her own pumpkin, she launched into storytelling mode.
‘Well, I had a dalliance in Paris that was great until he ran off with my passport and this incredible wheel of cheese I’d bought at the market.
So I guess I could’ve chosen smarter, instead of just going for someone really good-looking, and so French.
But I got Ernie out of the deal, so no regrets. ’
‘He’s the literal best,’ said Tiff, picking through the pumpkin-carving knives on the table. She pointed a serrated-edged one at me. ‘Although Molly, don’t go getting any ideas.’
I shot Keiko a pleading look. ‘Keiko? Please save me.’
Keiko spun her pumpkin on the table, assessing its sculptural possibilities. ‘If you want my input, singledom suits who I am and how I want to live my life. I’m happy with my cereal dinners and my British murder mysteries.’
Hmm, this was not unconvincing.
‘Cereal dinners sound very compelling,’ I offered.
‘None of this healthy cereal stuff, either,’ said Keiko. ‘If it’s not cake in cereal form, I don’t want anything to do with it.’
‘So you’re saying that I could bypass this whole decision-making issue and just become a hermit?’
Keiko pretended to be affronted. ‘Are you calling me a hermit? I’m literally sitting with four other people in a bar.’
‘I think the true measure of your hermit-dom rests on your choice of pumpkin carving,’ said Lara. ‘Flowers – not hermit. Rocks – definitely hermit.’
Keiko held up a pencil and began sketching swirls and whorls into her pumpkin’s orange flesh.
‘It’s going to be Jupiter,’ she declared.
‘Hermit,’ we all said simultaneously.
‘I’m doing a rain frog,’ said Soraya, who was already attacking her pumpkin. ‘Those fat, grumpy-looking frogs that waddle? Ernie will get such a kick out of it.’
I grinned, thinking about the rain frog memes that my dad had sent me a few days back. Kids and big kids weren’t so different.
‘So, my thing with singledom is it’s an amazing way to live if that’s the thing you’re running to,’ said Keiko. ‘I like my space. I like my routine. I like my macaroni-art bracelets. I like living a life that’s mine and mine alone.’
‘Preach,’ said Lara, toasting.
‘But if you’re running from something, that’s a whole other story.’
Lara, Tiff and I all winced.
‘I saw that collective grimace,’ said Soraya. ‘Maybe I should change my pumpkin design to that.’
‘Excuse me,’ I said, feigning indignation. ‘Existential dread is my theme.’
‘Don’t change the subject, Molly.’ Lara tapped my arm with King Richard. ‘Keiko’s trying to speak directly to your soul here.’
‘The only thing worse than choosing the wrong thing is choosing nothing at all just because you don’t want to deal with the fallout,’ said Keiko, deftly working away at her pumpkin.
‘That’s when your life actually passes you by.
My mom desperately wanted to be an animator, but she was so afraid of what my dad would say that she just didn’t pursue it. ’
‘My cousin got into like all of the Ivy Leagues, and then freaked out so much about which one to accept that she deferred and went backpacking through Europe for so long that all the offers expired,’ added Soraya helpfully.
‘I’ll always regret not buying that Harlot red lipstick,’ chimed in Lara.
Tiff shrugged. Not one for knives, she was quietly etching her pumpkin with the help of her magic. ‘I have nothing to add.’
After what I’d seen from her during this vacation, I wasn’t sure I believed that. But Josephine’s ring was fizzing on my finger in a way that said, Listen to them, damnit! ‘All right, I get it. I have to make a choice. Even if that choice isn’t Finn or Noah.’
‘Or if it’s both,’ said Lara.
Lara, always with the both.
‘I still think neither is the obvious move,’ said Tiff, for what seemed like the hundredth time since we’d arrived in town. ‘In fact, the continuation of our Summerweens probably depends on it. What about him? He’s cute.’
She pointed to a floppy-haired guy wearing thick-framed glasses. Tiff definitely had a type.
‘Could be fun,’ added Lara, giving the guy an appraising look. ‘What’s one more?’
‘I wouldn’t complain,’ called a guy with a strong southern accent. He was leaning against the bar with a few other friends, all of whom looked way too young for me. Were they even old enough to drink? Maybe they were just here for the pumpkins.
‘That’s our sign to get back to carving,’ I muttered, grabbing a knife from the table and setting to work. Which was the safest thing I could think to do with a sharp implement right now.
‘I hope you’re carving a pros and cons list,’ whispered Lara. ‘Because I think that’s just what you need right now.’