Zadie’s Pumpkin Bumper League — Every evening after chores, Zadie tied twine goals between fence posts and rolled striped gourds through them with a broom handle. Read the full story →
Every evening after chores, Zadie tied twine goals between fence posts and rolled striped gourds through them with a broom handle. She wanted the first Pumpkin Bumper League to have real rules, not the “bonk-and-hope” her cousins kept playing. Her rule cards smelled like pencil shavings and cider, and she tucked them under the tractor seat where even the wind couldn’t cheat.
Until one day, the wagon hit a rut with a ka-THUMP, and Zadie’s cards fluttered out behind the hay bales. Because of that, the pumpkins bounced loose and began obeying the wrong rules: three points for landing in corn, five for bumping a sunflower, ten for making a jack-o’-lantern grin wobble. Because of that, the whole lane turned into Zadie’s game, only bigger, bumpier, and much louder.
“New rule!” Zadie shouted, laughing as dust tickled her nose. She drove slowly, gathered each card, and tucked pumpkins back with straw cushions. Finally, she nailed the rules to the wagon rail, right below the pumpkin faces, proud as a prize ribbon. If you spot the wagon lanterns, you can almost hear the first official bonk-and-hope.
