On Horseback

Chapter 12: Basket Full of Vegetables

I'm not the greatest fan of the Harvest Festival, but I do enjoy all the food, chatting and dancing that occurs at it, so I go every year. The Harvest Festival was always held on Autumn 12th, rain or shine. I really hated it when it rained on the festival date, because it was such a lively festival. Again, not one of my favourites, but overall, a fairly good festival indeed.

Gray had already left for the city with Popuri, so they weren't going to be at the festival. That meant that Gray was instantly unable to become the Harvest king of the year that would soon come. That meant Elli, as the town baker, only had to bake five cakes this year: Harris's, Jeff's, Kai's, Cliff's and Jack's. Less tense for the males, less baking for Elli.

"I hate these hideously cold autumns!" my father exclaimed the morning of the festival, at breakfast.

It had turned out to be quite the cold autumn, despite the fact that most of our autumns were pretty warm.

"You're telling me," I replied, scratching my nose. "I just hope that it's warm enough to head on over to the Square." My father picked up the newspaper from the city. Flower Bud didn't have a paper, but the city sure did! The newspaper was entitled The Silver Arms. I think it had something to do with the name of the city, being Silver Sapphire, or something like that.

My father nodded after what I figured was reading a story somewhere in the middle of the paper. "Popuri made the picture of this story!" At the time, I was sipping tea, and quickly gasped, spitting it all up. It landed on the floor, which I then quickly cleaned it up.

The story was entitled Young Couple Wins Mansion.

Dad had missed the title before and screamed, "WHHATT?!!" when he saw it. I was alarmed. Popuri was in the picture and she was standing in front of a mansion. She had her usual perky expression on, and was holding a ticket in front of her that looked like it was a normal 8'11" piece paper.

While Dad started writing a letter that he was going to send to Popuri, I changed into my usual outfit and set off for the festival.

I quickly checked the mailbox and looked inside of it to find two pieces of mail. One was from the carpenters in the mountains sending out their monthly advertisement. Yeesh. The other one was actually a postcard. A picture of Popuri was on it and Gray was barely, but was, recognizable. I knew that it was going to have something to do with that mansion, so I read what Popuri had written.

I entered a competition to win a mansion. Why? Dunno, I was bored. We, the people, got little silver slips of paper with nineteen, yes, nineteen numbers on each. Gray didn't enter; he figured it was all stupidity and there was no way I'd ever win. Well, anyway, over two thousand, and I mean TWO THOUSAND people showed up for the big draw. The winning numbers were: 11 2 9 34 2 7 4 44 42 9 6 67 54 1 65 22 9 7 35. And those numbers were on my ticket! I couldn't believe I'd just won!!! Gray was stunned, and he spoke the most words he'd spoken in years. I was basically speechless! The mansion contract is under my name! And from the current looks of it, Gray and I aren't going to be coming back to Flower Bud for a looong time! We might even just stay here and start a family! I like it here, anyway. So, Ann and Hall, I hope that you're both doing well and I'll write to you soon! Bye bye!!!

-Popuri & Gray (Letter written by Popuri)

I, too, was stunned. I quickly ran inside to show Dad the postcard that we'd received. He was mortified and said that he was going to respond to them. "Do you want to write the letter, Ann?" he asked me.

I shook my head. "Dad, I've got to go now!"

The autumn was a beautiful time of year, and at least now the temperature had went up. It felt like it was hovering around the 15 degrees point. I stopped by Jack's farm, but he wasn't home. He had probably already gotten to the Square for the festival. That meant I'd have to get there now, or I'd miss the cake drawing! I didn't want to miss that.

Arriving there felt good. I looked over at the big stage that had been set out in the middle of the square. The youngest men of the village were standing on it. I knew that it'd be the youngsters turn this year. Every year the crowning of the king goes back and forth between the younger men or the older men. That explained why the potion dude became king the previous year. Thank the lord that I didn't have to dance with him.

Suddenly, Elli appeared on the stage and shouted out to everyone, "Would the Goddess of this past Spring Flower Festival descend onto the stage to pass out the cakes!" There was silence for a moment and Elli then said, "That was me, so, here I am!" Everyone laughed, including me.

The men got onto the stage and a basket full of cake was brought out. "I baked these this morning, so, yes they're fresh. Each man will grab one cake and devour it. Whoever gets the mystical coin in his cake will become the king of next year. The king will play important roles in the Sowing Festival, Flower Festival, Spirit Festival and New Year's Eve!

"Also, next year, the king will also participate in the Thanksgiving Festival by going around Flower Bud Village and giving each women one strawberry cake with vanilla ice cream and a sweet, red strawberry on top of it. Okay, men, select your cakes!"

Harris, then Kai, then Cliff, then Jeff and lastly Jack, pulled out five cakes that resembled exactly what Elli said. They all devoured the cake at once. Jeff finished his first, but there was no coin inside of it.

"Jeff's cake doesn't have a coin in it!" Elli announced.

Good. That meant my two guys had 25 percent chances now of becoming the next Harvest king. I was hoping that one of them would get it. Kai was munching on his, when he suddenly threw it all up.

Across the Square, Karen made a gasp. "What the hell was in that thing?" Elli licked her lips and answered, "Um, yeah, about that. I decided to put a bit of nuts in it to knock some sense into the new king." After that answer, Karen began chasing Elli, and ran her right out of the Square! The Mayor had to take over where she had left off.

"Kai doesn't receive a coin! Three men remain!"

A 33.3 percent chance remained between Cliff and Jack. One of them had better gotten the coin, or else I'd be horrendously mad. I began praying. That's how anxious I was for one of them to get the coin.

All of a sudden, Jack coughed something gold up. Everyone looked up to the stage, and a coin was lying at his feet, surrounded by hundreds of crumbs and icing all around it.

The Mayor smiled. "Well, folks, we have ourselves a new king! Jack the farmer will play a role in the five festivals next year and will now throw out baskets full of vegetables at everyone! Enjoy the harvest folks! This sort of thing doesn't happen everyday!"

Jack was given ten baskets of vegetables. All of a sudden, tomatoes, corn, potatoes, cabbage and turnips from the Spring and Summer harvests were flying around everywhere. Even a few strawberries from Lillia's greenhouse flew out of the baskets. They landed among the crowd, and everyone dove at them to gobble them down!

"Okay, quickly grab a partner, it's time to dance!" the Mayor called out.

Before I had anytime to move, Jack quickly grabbed my arm. "Eeee!" I shouted out. Jack had a funny expression on his face and said, "Well, here we are again. Almost two seasons later, but let's dance!" I smiled and decided to give him a kiss on the cheek.

Then the music started. It wasn't the music from the Flower Festival, but it sounded an awful lot like it. It was called "Forever More". It was the couples slow dance! I was shocked. I didn't want to be seen dancing with Jack! I mean, technically, I did, but I didn't want Cliff to see me dancing with Jack!

I saw Karen and Kai (who had recovered from his allergy reaction) dancing and looking like they were ready to make out. Maria was standing on the sidelines all by herself, when Harris approached her. Yeesh. I can't believe that he'd do such a thing! Asking a tramp out!

Cliff did see me dancing with Jack, however. He didn't seem to mind, though. I winked at him and he mouthed, "S'no problem, Ann." I grinned at him and turned back to Jack.

I was relieved when they started casual dancing. I went over to Karen and we started twirling each other around. Elli was dancing with Jeff, still and Maria was just dancing on her own. I actually liked seeing Maria dancing. She was better than me, that's for sure. But she wasn't better than Karen.

Not one girl in the village was better than Karen.

The festival finally came to an end. I looked back on the day and decided that I would give it a thumbs-up. Not only because Jack became king, danced with me and threw a tomato which landed on my head (ouch!), but because I got to spend time with my friends. All of them. Yes, all of them.

Especially my new friend: Maria.