Pumpkin Leaves

Sitting on top of our pile of leaves, I look at mom and say, "Just don't fall in or you'll get all gooey, mom. The Evil One will eat you."

"Jules, watch out where you point that finger. You don't wanna poke the Evil One's eye out."

Mom and I have always talked about how most of the leaves we rake into a huge pile sorta make this huge pumpkin looking thing 'cause the leaves are mostly orange. For a while now, we've been joking around about how once you've carved a face into a pumpkin, you've created only a mere image of the Evil One.

When I was little, my mom would sing me "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" as she would hold an orange leaf gently in her hand. She'd scrape some dirt up from the ground with her other hand and would place the leaf in the little scarfed out hole. With her arm crowning my forehead, she'd then go on to tell me how this little orange leaf is like a seed and will grow into a pumpkin. I guess this worked on me 'cause the leaf was orange just like the pumpkin. Mom would go out and buy this huge pumpkin and when she picked me up from daycare the next day, she'd convince me that the pumpkin had already grown that big.

She'd tell me, "Jules, we'll soon be able to eat it and carve evil faces in it and scare off any kids that come on our porch to get candy. Then you'll get to eat all the Twix you want!"