4

   Randy grabbed Peter’s sleeve and pulled him off to the side, then looked around to make sure no one was within earshot. “There’s a pumpkin patch in the woods.”
   “All…right…,” Peter said.
   “No one really knows about it that we know of, but someone’s taking care of it, obviously,” Randy said.
   “Yeah,” Doug said. “We came across it a few weeks ago. We’ve gone back a lot. But we’ve never seen anyone close to it. But it’s obviously taken care of and it’s being weeded and stuff.”
   “Yeah…okay. So, what’s the big secret? And why are you going there tonight? Why not just go after school or something?”
   “Because,” Randy said. “We have to go at night to see who keeps it.” He looked at Peter with a crooked smile. “Whoever’s keeping it, does it at night, we think.”
   “And we need to find out who’s keeping it,” Doug said. “Because whoever’s keeping it..." he paused a moment, looking at Peter, "...is a murderer!”
   “What? How do you know that?” Peter asked.
   Randy jerked his head toward a corner behind a dumpster near the school and then led Peter and Doug there, looking around as he went. The school yard had emptied by this point, school having started already by now. Randy unzipped his backpack and opened it, then held it out, showing Peter its contents.
   Peter gasped. Inside the bag was a skull. He looked up at Randy in shock.
   “We found it in the pumpkin patch,” Randy said.
   “Is it real?” Peter asked.
   “Oh yeah,” Doug said. “It’s real.” Randy nodded as he zipped his bag closed.
   “Uh…we need to go to class,” Peter said. “I don’t want to get in trouble my first day. But…you say you’re going tonight?”
   “Yeah,” Randy said. “We’re going to see who it is, and then we’ll go to the police with the evidence and we’ll get him thrown in jail.”
   “How do you know he’s there at night?”
   “He has to be. We waited around all day on a Saturday once. No sign of him. But the next day when we went back, there was definitely more work done. Every time we’ve gone two days in a row, there’s been small changes. He has to be working at night.”
   Peter nodded as the three of them turned and walked out from behind the dumpster and toward the school. “Okay then,” Peter said. “Well, can I come with you then?”
   Randy and Douglas looked at each other with grins on their faces. “Ten o’clock,” Doug said. “We’ll meet you in our back yard.”

end of 4

Chapter one is finished. This is a real challenge. I'm not sure where this is going to go at this point. I know I wanted to do something with pumpkins. And, because it's what I like, I want it to have some sort of fantasy element. And I want some sort of mystery element to it. Beyond that, I'm really making this up as I go. The skull from the pumpkin patch came to me as I wrote it. I kind of like it. In fact, I actually do have an idea about this that may help me open up the story. I won't share that idea yet, however, because I want to keep some elements of secrecy for the story. That being said, coming up with the skull from the pumpkin patch does give me a sense of direction now. Who's keeping the pumpkin patch? Why was there a skull there? Why is he keeping it only at night? I'm excited to move in this direction and find out (a.k.a "make up") the answers to these questions. Hmm...gotta bring the freckled girl into the adventure somehow.