A Pumpkin Spiced Life
Flowerbud Village is a small, quiet town; relatively untouched by the outside world and retaining an image that one would describe as "old-timey" and "quaint." Decorated with cobble-stone roads and tiny cottages, it is the kind of place your mom would want to stop and visit during your family vacation to buy some homemade apple butter. As if it had been frozen in time, the village looked just as one would imagine it did fifty years ago. But among the quilted landscape of golden red trees woven between the patches of green farmland in the rural, mountain town there is something very out-of-place. Among the vibrant, autumn trees looms a metal tower—reaching three times higher than even the tallest maple tree—and it flashes periodically, shooting out invisible beams of energy that are changing the lives of the villagers.
Elli is small and adorable, just like the town she lives in. She runs the local bakery and has always found it to be the perfect outlet to unleash her creative side. But lately, she hasn't been feeling very creative, and her baked goods have been pretty vanilla (both literally and figuratively). On a cool, autumn morning she finds herself bored in an empty bakery. Brushing her short, chestnut strands of hair behind her ears, she leans onto the front counter and pulls out her phone to pass the time.
"I just don't understand how people can spend so much time on their cell phones," she says aloud as she struggles to figure out how to access the Internet on her brand new iPhone 6, "it's so complicated!"
Eventually she figures it out and awkwardly types with both index fingers. She hunt-and-pecks a query into Google: "yummy recipes for fall." She then finds herself on a website called "Pinterest" that, not only has endless recipes, but also has beautiful pictures of the end results! Cakes, pies, cookies... all of them meticulously decorated and gorgeously displayed. Oh, she was so envious! Before she knew it, an entire hour had passed and she hadn't even looked up from her phone once.
After scrolling through about 2,000 photos, she finally looks up from her phone and around the bland bakery. The mid-morning sunlight is now cascading through the front windows, causing her to realize just how much time has passed since she last looked up from her phone screen. Frantically, she scurries into the kitchen with her phone, hoping that somewhere she has some pumpkin pie spice.
Even though everyone else in town has been awake for hours, Karen has just woken up; her caramel-blonde hair is matted on the back of her head and her eyeliner from the night before is smudged far from it's intended location. Nonetheless, she confidently makes her way down the stairs of the old villa, not at all caring about her appearance since she is in the comfort of her own home.
"Uhh... the coffee is cold," she groans as she reaches for the cream, too lazy to reheat the liquid and ready to just drink it cold. One sip of the concoction and she is wide-awake because something is terribly wrong with this cup of Joe. Dramatically, she spats it out all over the counter and looks into the creamy fluid, catching a whiff of an unfamiliar smell.
"Oh, well good morning, sleepyhead," calls out her mother, Sasha, in a sing-song voice. Once she notices the mug in her daughter's hand, she pleasantly asks her if she likes the new flavor.
"New flavor?" Karen repeats as she grasps the bottle of creamer and reads the label aloud, "'new fall flavor'... 'pumpkin spice'." She throws the bottle back onto the counter and shrieks, "oh my Goddess, MOM! Pumpkin freakin' spice. Really?!"
Terribly confused by the outburst, Sasha just perplexedly watches as her daughter dumps out the rest of her coffee and runs back upstairs to her room.
Later that day, a young, redheaded girl hastily makes her way across the fields of the Green Ranch and into town. She's carrying something with her—a present for her best friend, Karen, whose birthday is in the Fall... or is it in the Winter? She pauses for a minute to ponder this, but she can't remember for the life of her if it's in Fall or Winter!
"Err... I might as well just go and wrap it now... I'll look her birthday up on Facebook later..." she mutters to herself, not realizing that someone is just within earshot.
"Look up what on Facebook?"
"...?! Oh, uhh. Heh-heh, heyy, Karen!" replies the redhead nervously as she quickly hides the gift behind her back. Karen had been in a foul mood prior to their encounter, but her best friend's suspicious behavior was irking her even more.
"Why are you acting so freakin' weird, Ann? And what are you hiding?"
Karen moves to look behind Ann, but she turns in a circle, causing Karen to follow. Still eye-to-eye with each other, they keep spinning around in circles ridiculously until Karen swipes at the mystery object, accidentally smacking Ann in the face as the redhead attempts to dodge.
*slap slap "stop it!" slap "lemme see it" slap slap "no!" slap "stop it, Karen!" slap THOOMP*
Karen holds up the object the two had been fighting over and stares at it incredulously, her eyebrows now knitted together to display an emotion somewhere between disappointment and utter disgust.
"What the—? 'Pumpkin Spice Latte foaming hand wash', 'Sweet Cinnamon and Pumpkin bubble bath', 'Pumpkin Chai body cream', 'Pumpkin Pie scented candle', 'Pure Pumpkin Passion body spray'...?" the dirty-blonde holds the items in each of her hands and then demands of her friend, "WHERE DID YOU GET THIS?"
"Pfft, well, I'm glad you like it, but it was supposed to be for your birthday—"
"Like it? I don't like it! I hate it! I hate pumpkin spice anything and everything! This is contrived and fake and it's everything that's wrong with the world right now!"
Ann's mouth still hung open from being interrupted as Karen continued on with her rant, "no one thinks for themselves anymore, everyone just jumps on the bandwagon and does what everyone else on the Internet is doing. Pumpkin stupid spice is so trendy, so everyone likes it. Well, I don't like it! I'm going against the system! I won't subscribe to this 'Pumpkin Spiced Life' and if you're my friend, you won't subscribe to it either! This world needs change, and if we all just keep liking pumpkin freakin' spice nothing in this world is ever going to change!"
After the outburst, Karen throws the cursed pumpkin' scented items back at her friend and leaves without any further explanation. Still stunned, Ann just stands in the middle of the road, contemplating if she should keep the gifts for herself.
Meanwhile, Popuri is walking across the street from her family's flower shoppe to take a break at the local bakery. As she opens the door, she is pleasantly bombarded with a thick, spicy aroma that has filled the modest little shop.
"Oh. My. Goddess! It smells, like, so freakin' good in here! It smells, like, I don't know, like… pumpkin? Uhh, I just can't even!" exclaims Popuri in the new dialect that she has obtained from the Internet.
"Yep, you're right, that's pumpkin that you smell! I've made pies, cakes, cookies... and I can make you a pumpkin spice latte of course!" Elli's tone is enthusiastic until she notices that the pink-haired girl's face is now buried in her phone, "uhm, are you listening? Helloooo? POE-PURR-EEE!"
"Yeah, uh-huh," she responds dryly as her pink, glittery fingernails click monotonously on the cracked screen of her iPhone 6s Plus, most likely typing out a response to a text that absolutely cannot wait until later.
Elli lets out an exasperated sigh as she begins prepping the ingredients for the pumpkin spiced latte. Even though she vehemently disapproves of the younger girl's behavior, she chooses to not express her feelings as she is afraid it will make her seem "uncool" to the social media butterfly. As she steams the milk for the latte, she cannot help but watch Popuri; her long, thick hair cascades down her back in perfectly formed waves as if each spiral has been curled by the hands of the Harvest Goddess herself. Elli continues to watch, wondering how in the world someone could type that fast, and also mesmerized by the flash tattoos on the girl's hands that matched the gold, glitter encrusted case of her phone. Viewed at the right angle and with the proper filter, Popuri was an image straight from Instagram's pop page. Although Elli did not wish to be Popuri, she did wish that she could be more like her: more trendy, more hip, and more fashionable. But Elli barely had time to brush her hair in the morning, let alone curl it and put on makeup. Elli and Popuri, both lost in their respective silences, were abruptly brought back to reality by the loud crash of the front door.
"Oh my Goddess, Elli! Not you too!"
Elli looks over the counter to see Karen stomping through the bakery while Popuri continues to type on her phone.
"Uhm, what's wrong, Karen?" asks Elli hesitantly, unsure if she wants the girl to answer.
"What's wrong?" she exclaims as she points at Popuri who is still engrossed in her phone screen, "this is what's wrong!" Karen then points at the pumpkin-spiced latte in Elli's hands, "and that is what's wrong! Can't any of you think for yourselves?! Ever since we got cell service in this town, everyone seems to have lost the ability to think for themselves." Karen stares at Popuri now, waiting for a reply from the girl which never comes, "well, some of us never had the ability in the first place."
Elli just stares at Karen, unsure of what she is talking about when another patron comes through the front door of the bakery.
"Oh no, not you too Mary!" Karen pleads as the smartly-dressed librarian meekly makes her way to the counter, "please tell me you're not ordering a pumpkin-spiced latte too!"
Mary seems terribly confused by the question, her eyebrows knitted perplexedly behind her thick-framed glasses.
"Oh Goddess no, I always order an Earl Gray tea," she finally replies. Karen sighs, relieved that at least someone in this town is still thinking for themselves and not falling under the pumpkin-spiced spell. But then, Mary looks into the case of baked goods and says, "oh, but I may have to try one of those pumpkin cookies, Elli!"
Karen throws her hands up in the air with an obnoxious sigh then leaves the bakery in a huff, the door slamming behind her as she makes her exit. The three girls inside all look at each other, completely dumbfounded by their friend's outburst.
"Karen's such a hipster," states Popuri as she sips her pumpkin-spiced latte.
A little later that day, a brisk breeze rushes across the brown fields as Jack assesses his crops. Eggplants, eggplants, eggplants, he's so tired of eggplants; but they are pretty much the only thing that grows around here in the Fall. The other day though, Won had stopped by and convinced him to buy some pumpkin seeds. Jack was desperate for some variety in his garden, not to mention he had loved pumpkin ever since he was a little boy and first tasted his mother's pumpkin pie.
"Ugggh!"
He turns to see his girlfriend, Karen approaching him. A smile grows across his face as he waves for her to come over to his spot in the field. She looks angry, but her expression softens as they get closer to one another and, once they embrace, the vexation that once plagued her features almost completely melts away.
"What's the matter, love?" he asks in a tone that suggests this is a normal behavior from his girlfriend. She pulls up from their embrace and sighs again.
"Nothing. I'm over it. So, what have you been up to today?"
"I was thinking of planting these pumpkin seeds today," he answers honestly, completely unaware of the consequences of his words.
"WHY?! Why does everyone like pumpkin all of a sudden?! Even you? Jack, I thought you were different than everyone else!" She pulls away from him as if she is now repulsed by his existence.
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about how no one thinks for themselves anymore, everyone just goes along with the fad of whatever is 'trending' on social media. I hate it! I just want people to do what they want, not what they think everyone else wants them to do. This pumpkin-spice craze is exactly that; people just doing what everyone else is doing and not what they want to be doing!" She finally takes a breath since she has a bad habit of not breathing when she's complaining. A grin appears on Jack's face.
"Did you ever consider that, some people, actually enjoy pumpkin flavored things?"
"No, why would I do that? Who could think that horrid smell is actually pleasant?" she asks incredulously.
"Because it's true, some people actually like pumpkins. Like me," he states matter-of-factly as he pops a few of the pumpkin seeds into his mouth. "Pumpkin flavored stuff isn't my favorite, but I like things made with real pumpkins. And you know, not liking something just because it's trendy is just as bad as liking it because it's trendy. You should do things because you want to do them. Have you ever given pumpkins a chance? You might actually like them."
Karen's expression was both skeptical and curious. It was true, she had never really given pumpkins a fair chance. And if she did truly like them, she shouldn't refuse to admit it just because it happened to be the trendy thing.
"Well, I guess I never thought of it that way," she said as she picked a pumpkin seed out of Jack's hand, "I guess not liking something solely because everyone else does like it isn't any better."
The moment of truth. Jack watched intently as Karen put the pumpkin seed in her mouth. Their gaze met as she chewed it up slowly and swallowed it. She didn't seem to be disgusted, so that was a good sign. He waited patiently for her verdict.
"I don't like it."
"Fair enough," he replies as he pops a few more of the pumpkin seeds into his mouth, "at least you gave them a fair shot though. And now you can say you genuinely don't like them instead of being a hipster and just saying it because you think it makes you different. What makes you different is doing the things you want to do in this life. My mom used to make the best pumpkin pie, and if you ever ate it, you'd honestly love pumpkin spiced things."
Not a fan of being wrong, Karen crosses her arms and bites her lip as she thinks long and hard about what Jack had said. Maybe it is okay to like pumpkin-spiced things.
"Okay, so when your pumpkins grow, we should definitely make some of your mom's pumpkin pie."