CHAPTER 27
FALL HARVEST
COLE'S POV:
I've been on after school duty all week and I am exhausted. I couldn't sleep in on this day, though. It was the first day of fall harvest and I planned to take Carol out to it. Getting out of bed and putting my clothes on, I started to head out the door, but the phone rang before I could even leave the house. Oh, it better not be Borg or else I'll just throw the phone out the window and make sure that he never calls this home again. Leaving me no choice but to answer, I walked over to the phone. I really wish technology around here was a lot better. It's better to have caller ID than none at all. I picked up the phone, hoping it wasn't Borg.
"Hello?" I asked.
"Cole, it's me, Cyrus Borg," Borg said. I'm gonna throw this phone out the window.
"What do you want this time?"
"Well, looks like someone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. I just wanted to call and check in. Are you enjoying your new home?"
"Yeah. I'm loving it here."
"I can here that sarcastic tone in your voice, Cole."
"Listen, Mr. Borg, I really have plans for today. I really don't have time to talk."
"Cole, allow me to say that I'm very proud of you for going around and seeing the world in a different view. I'm really glad your enjoying it there."
"Okay, Borg, you wanna talk. Let's talk. Listen, I'm enjoying it here, but I can't seem to enjoy it when you keep calling here all the time. Your the reason I'm in this whole fiasco in the first place. I've already made the choice to never see anyone that I've known ever again. I just wish you all would just leave me alone."
"Are you saying that you'll never be in contact with anyone again? You won't even come to visit?"
"Nope. Don't even expect me for visits. Tell my team if you want. I don't care. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to head out. I've actually made a friend here that I really care about and I don't want to be late picking her up for what we planned to do today. Here's my message. Never call here again. Goodbye for good." I ended the call and slammed the phone on the receiver, making that and the entire table break in half. Once I did that, I took the broken phone and threw it out the opened window. I sat on the couch for a moment to calm myself down. Once I got my head straight, I grabbed my keys and headed out the door to Carol`s place.
My head was still raging with fire with the blood boiling at a maximum level to my head. I'm hoping this fall festival will keep me on my feet and help clear my head. Once I got to Carol`s, she was already standing outside her front door, searching through her purse. I decided to play a little game and sneak up on her. I made sure she didn't see me when I hid behind the tree that stood in the yard. Without making any types of noise, I walked carefully over to Carol and placed my hands over her eyes, making everything hard to see.
"Guess who?" I asked playfully.
"Cole, what are you doing?" Carol asked, giggling.
"Just playing around. You ready to head out?"
"Yeah. I'm just trying to make sure I have everything." She look straight into my eyes. "You look pretty tired there, Cole. Have you been working late or something?"
"Yeah. I was scheduled for after school duty. I have to stick around for three hours and then stay for another hour and a half to finish grading papers. It's not fun, but I don't think my boss cares."
"I'm sorry. Hey, I'm sure you'll have a good time at the fall harvest. That should help keep your mind off things."
"I hope so. For the sake of what it's worth, I hope your right."
Carol laughed. "Come on. We've got a big day ahead of us."
Once we got into the village center, I felt as though this place looked more like a festival than a harvest. Game booths, food stands, hay rides and shows were actually part of other mixtures of activities. I'd rather it be a festival than anything else. Once we got there, the first thing we did was pass by the game stands. A lot of the stuff around here were just your normal average carnival games. I saw a game of so skee ball that was left unoccupied, so I led Carol up to it.
"I used to play this game all the time when I was young," I said, "I used to think of myself as an expert."
"Really?" Carol said, "Well, if your so good at it as you say that you are, then prove it to me. Show me some skills."
"If you say so." Holding the ball, I swung my arm back and released it, scoring it into the five hundred points pot. "Guess I've still got the skills."
"I have to admit, you're pretty good at this game."
"You wanna give it a try?" I offered her the ball.
"No thanks. I don't wanna waste any of those points."
"What are you talking about? I bet you can roll this thing as well as I can."
"There's a problem with that. I've never played this game before. I don't know what I'm suppose to do."
"You've never played skee ball before?"
"I've never played any carnival game before. Whenever my family and I went to any kind of amusement park, I was always in it for the rides and food. The games I just kind of shunned out."
"I think it's time you start learning from the master. Here, let me show you how it's done. All you do is just hold the ball like this. Then, you swing your arm back, like so. When you see your target, you just release and let it roll." I did so, aiming it at the five hundred points pot. "That's the name of the game. You ready to try it out?"
"I guess so. Give me that ball." I handed her the ball and let her take her full concentration and time on her target. When she saw what she was looking for, she released it and let it roll. Unfortunately, it didn't pot for five hundred points. It did for fifty points. That's always a good start. "Aww. I was aiming for more than that."
"Your only a beginner at this game. Once you get a lot more practice in, you'll get better. As for you trying, I'm gonna do something special for you." I took out a dollar and stuck it in the machine.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm playing for the prize. If I can get three balls in the five hundred points mark in just forty-five seconds, I get the grand prize. Let's roll this." Once the timer started, I started the game. By ten seconds, I was able to get two balls for a thousand points. I turned towards Carol. "I know you haven't practiced much, but I want you to try. You just need one more ball for another five hundred. There's only twenty-five seconds on the clock. Go for it."
Holding the ball, she didn't pay attention to the timer. She kept her eyes straightforward, swung her arm back, then released and rolled when she found the target. It hit the hundred points mark. "Darn it."
"Fifteen seconds left," I said, "His is your last try. Make it happen."
Taking the final ball, Carol did the same thing as before and rolled it right on the line, making its speed accelerate and almost catching on fire. By three seconds, the ball landed for five hundred points. "Oh, my gosh. I did it."
"All right, Carol." The game owner handed over a teddy bear that I decided to give as a gift. "You deserve this. That was some good playing out there."
"Thanks," Carol said, "I have to say that I'm glad you stopped by the fruit stand that day."
"Your glad that we met?"
"I'm really glad."
After a few games, we stopped to eat lunch. I'm glad this place has regular food than anywhere else. I didn't have time to eat this morning, so I was starving. Afterwards, we went to go see a dog race. I accidentally bet some guy that if his dog won, I'd have to pay him ten bucks. That's always a thing about a race. You don't know who's going to win, but you still end up betting anyway. When his dog lost, he told me she was all mine.
"Why do I always end up getting into bets?" I asked, "I may have kept my ten bucks, but I didn't think I would be keeping the dog."
"She didn't look like a dog," Carol said, "She looked like a three month old puppy that was forced into a race."
"I'm not good with pets. I had a goldfish who didn't last very long. I had a hamster who ran away because I forgot to put him in his exercising ball. Then I had a cat who didn't like me very much and decided to go live with the neighbors. I have a terrible connection with pets."
"I'm sure it'll be different this time. A dog has always been man's best friend. You can't argue with that."
"I hope she's been trained."
At that moment, the dog was mine. She didn't have a name, so I decided to name her Lucille. She was only three months old and and was trained to use the bathroom on newspaper. I think the best option would be to get her toilet trained. I took Carol home and made sure the dog was on her best behavior. She was, though, and stayed when I commanded her to stay.
"I think having her around the house will keep you less lonely," Carol said.
"I hope so," I said, "I guess I'll see you next weekend."
"You know Halloween is next week, right?" I nodded. "Well, I was hoping you could do a favor for me. I throw a haunted house every year for the kids and I'm wanting to do something that will really scare them away. Do you mind dressing up like a zombie for Halloween?"
"The scariest monster of all? I'll do it."
"Great. See you Friday night."
"Same here."
Taking the dog by the leash, I watch Carol go inside the house. The dog looked at me funny, but I led her on our walk home. I was hoping this dog was house trained. I remembered that I was not allowed to have dogs in the house. Actually, I wasn't allowed to even have pets. I hate getting myself into bets. I hope I'll have enough energy to keep her.
THE FALL HARVEST IS IN TOWN. COME SEE ALL THE ATTRACTIONS. I'M NOT VERY GOOD AT BEING A RINGLEADER. COLE PLAYED A GAME AND TAUGHT CAROL HOW TO PLAY. HE WON A PRIZE AND GAVE IT TO HER. THAT'S WHAT YOU DO WHEN YOUR TAKING A GIRL TO PLAY A GAME, BOYS. YOU WIN THEM SOMETHING. WE GIRLS ARE VERY SENSITIVE.
COLE BET A GUY AND WON, BUT HE HAS TO KEEP THE GUY'S THREE MONTH OLD PUPPY THAT'S ALREADY HALFWAY HOUSE TRAINED AND DOESN'T THINK OF COLE AS A STRANGER. EVEN THOUGH HE'S NOT ALLOWED TO HAVE PETS, HE'LL FIGURE SOMETHING OUT.
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