The Route of Extra Cheers — By the first rattle of the gravel road, Della had already set her challenge: wave at every scarecrow between Clover Bend and the white barns before the church bell rang noon. Read the full story →
By the first rattle of the gravel road, Della had already set her challenge: wave at every scarecrow between Clover Bend and the white barns before the church bell rang noon. Her red truck bumped past bare-limbed trees and round-topped oaks, smelling of dry hay, pumpkin vines, and warm dust. “That’s three!” she called, flicking two fingers from the wheel as a straw fellow tipped in a bean field.
The road dipped, rose, and curled between stone-speckled fields. Della spotted scarecrows in patched coats, tin-pail hats, and one fancy fellow with cornstalk hair. Each time she waved, the pumpkins behind her gave a soft thump-thump, as if the whole load approved. Joy fizzed in her chest too big to keep under her overalls.
At the last hill, Della glanced in the mirror and burst out laughing. The pumpkins had rolled their stems sideways, making tiny waving arms over the wooden rails for every farmhouse window they passed. So Della slowed the truck and shared the game with the whole valley, and if you follow the cargo next time, you may catch one more thump-thump from the first rattle of the gravel road.
