Tradition
A Word: Cass and Damian not understanding traditions and trying to figure it out for themselves.
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"This is disgusting," Damian says as he looks at his hand and the fist full of vegetable innards. It squishes uncomfortably and is slimy. Feeling the ropy strands dangling from between his fingers is not something that he finds himself enjoying at all. Neither does Cassandra going by the nonplussed look on her face as she adds her hand full of orange goop to the bowl they were provided with when they brought the pumpkins in and explained their intentions.
Damian looks doubtfully at the pictures they printed out earlier to help them in this. The process is explained in several pictures filled with laughing and smiling people that have to be lying. There is nothing enjoyable in this activity at all. Even the carving doesn't look like it will be fun.
"This will work," Cassandra says but it comes out questioning as she picks up one of the many tools they bought that claim to be specifically made for carving pumpkins. The metal of the pick she's holding bends as she puts the slightest bit of pressure on it, and Damian does not see how they are supposed to use it carve a face into the rather thick shell of the vegetable. Soft as it is the metal tools look even weaker.
"The instructions say it will," Damian says doubtfully as he finally sees the sense in the large scraping tool that he had ignored earlier. His hand is still in contact with the messy innards but it helps some. It's also easier to scrape the inside clean with the plastic tool which all the instructions have informed him he must do before inserting the candle or the pumpkin will ignite itself. Personally, Damian thinks that sounds much more fun, but they are both determined to understand this tradition as it is.
"What face do we use?" Cassandra wonders as she holds out a variety of stencils that Damian hadn't wanted to use but is now changing his mind on. The kit is clearly the way to go and second guessing it is not in his best interest.
There's a variety of stencils though and Damian looks at them with his sister. They range in a variety of stages of ridiculousness and Damian doesn't see that any one of them is better than the others. He eventually stabs one finger at a stencil in the middle of the stack that seems the least offensive and Cassandra nods her agreement. She tapes it onto the outside of the pumpkin and takes one of the tools provided to outline the shape.
It bends alarmingly before snapping in half when she stabs it in. Damian frowns and reaches for one of the other kits they bought. There were a dozen available and they hadn't been able to pick out one as being superior to another, so they bought one of each. "One of these will have to work."
And maybe they'll understand this obsession with carving vegetables by the time they are done.
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