"The pumpkins are ripe!"

The announcement went around the Longtreader family. Jo and Layra Longtreader were the first to hear it, kicking a ball around in the field when Lallo announced it.

"Yes!" the two of them cheered in perfect unison, picking up the rubber ball and racing over to their house, where their family was gathered, preparing for tonight's dinner.

"Ma, Ma!" Layra shouted, dancing around Weezie Longtreader excitedly. "Lallo says the pumpkins are ripe!"

"Oh, they are now, are they?" Weezie smiled down at her youngest daughter. "Okay, go and get your father. He's in the back garden."

"Yes, ma'am!" Jo and Layra gave each other grins, thick as thieves as they always were, and bounded out into the garden. "Daaad!" Jo called. "Pumpkins are ready!"

"Oh, of course they are!" Picket stretched a little, having been hunched over Weezie's herb gardens nearly all morning. It was that time of year, wasn't it? The cusp of autumn - the trees just turning red and yellow, the winds becoming a little more chilly, the sun setting earlier and leaving the land in dim candlelight.

As per tradition, the Longtreaders would divide the pumpkins depending on their uses. Most of them would go to Weezie, for her baking, to make roasted pumpkin seeds, pumpkin pie, cookies…and the others would go to the children, for their jack o'lanterns or their smashing activities. Needless to say, it was a fun time amongst the family.

The field was full of crops ready to be harvested. Lallo waved them over. "Just ripe," he said, nodding to Picket. "I'd imagine you'd get some good pies out of this one."

Picket laughed. "Jo, can you get the wheelbarrow?"

"Yup!" the buck bounded off, disappearing into the crops.

"They're bigger than last year," Layra pointed out, running a hand over it.

"Yes, we did very well this year," Picket nodded, sighing with content. "What are your plans for your pumpkin this year? Smashing…jack o lanterns?"

"It's a little early for jack o'lanterns," Layra said, tilting her head. "I think we'd go with smashing. Or maybe I could try my hand at making a pie."

Picket would have protested this, remembering the disaster two years before where Layra had attempted to make a pie and only ended up in making Lallo violently ill for a few days. But she was older now, definitely more careful around the ingredients, and could make a decent enough pie. As long as an adult was watching her, he supposed.

"We'll see what everyone else says, though," Layra said, watching as Jo arrived with the wheelbarrow, careful not to trample any other crops in his hurry. After a little bit of struggling and a lot of encouragement, the pumpkins were loaded one by one onto the wheelbarrow, ready to be slowly pushed back to the house.

"I want to smash it this year," Jo complained. "We've had jack o'lanterns for the past few years, and the last time you made a pie..." he made a show of gagging to annoy Layra.

"I'm better at cooking now!" she threw her hands in the air exasperatedly. "Anyways, then...fine, I guess we can do some smashing. As long as I get to keep the seeds. I like pumpkin seeds."

Jo narrowed his eyes, but he shook her hand anyways. "Deal."

better late than never lol

I always thought it would be sweet for Weezie to name one of her daughters Layra :)