Petey the Pumpkin

Big and plump Petey the Pumpkin grew in the magic pumpkin patch.

“Just you wait,” he'd say to the other pumpkins, “I'll be the biggest of all!” And so he drew in all the water and nutrients from the vine, becoming the largest pumpkin in the whole field.

When the farmer saw how big Petey had become, he took off his hat, wiped his brow, and exclaimed, “I do believe that's the biggest pumpkin I've ever seen!”

Petey was so happy. He smiled his biggest pumpkin smile and was the envy of every other pumpkin for miles around.

When harvest time came, Petey the Pumpkin was one of the first loaded onto the truck. “I'll be sold first,” he said to the other pumpkins. And when the truckload of magic pumpkins was unknowingly delivered to the supermarket, the big, plump Petey was indeed the first pumpkin sold.

“Oh boy, they're going to love me!” Petey said to himself as a little boy and his family took him home.

When Petey arrived, he was eager to see what kind of life awaited him.

“I want to do the eyes!” the little boy told his mother.

“Oh boy, I'm going to get eyes and I'll finally be able to see!” Petey thought to himself.

Then the little boy plunged a glistening butcher knife into the tough orange flesh of Petey's midsection. Petey shrieked in pain and horror, in his special magic-pumpkins-only” voice.

Again and again the little boy stabbed and carved, slicing away chunks of poor Petey, scooping out his guts and unceremoniously discarding them in a white trash bag.

That night, Petey the plumpest pumpkin had a candle lit inside his hollowed-out corpse, and he was left to roast and rot on a doorstep.

296 words