The Fen Blow and the Pumpkin Kings, 10

The winner of the Pumpkin growing competition is announced.

The Crown is Passed
“Found them!” shouted a voice from behind the stage. “Someone must have hidden them behind these hay bales!”

Phil wiped his hand across his brow. “Thank goodness. A prank, I suppose.” He narrowed his eyes at the younger people in the crowd, not realizing the prank had been orchestrated by Bill, a small act of malice meant to disrupt the competition that was crowning Ted's rival.

“Now, can we please get on with it. Helpers, the first pumpkin, please.”

One by one, the massive gourds were weighed. Phil meticulously recorded the results on his cards, then turned to the waiting crowd.

He picked up the cards and read the results:

“3rd prize goes to Ted North, whose pumpkin weighed in at 250 lbs.” Everyone clapped generously, but there were ooh’s and aah’s all around the gathering. People were surprised, remembering that Ted had won so many times before!

2nd prize
“And the runner up prize goes to Pete South. His pumpkin weighed in at 273 lbs.”

Everyone clapped louder. Pete looked directly at Ted. The shingles still looked savage on Ted's brow, a visible sign of his suffering. In that moment, Pete felt the full weight of his shame and the complete resolution of his rivalry. He realized Ted's friendship, and Ted's eventual peace, was worth more than any crown. He looked at the huge pumpkins displayed on the stage and yes, one of them really was bigger …

“King Pumpkin for 2005,” continued Phil, “is our own Shirley Midnight, but it was very close this year! Pete’s pumpkin only beat Ted’s by 2 lbs. Well done, Pete! Shirley’s pumpkin weighed a splendid 295 lbs. Now Shirley Midnight, please come and receive the Pumpkin Crown and the mace. You are the very first Queen Pumpkin!”

As Shirley made her way to the front, the barn erupted in a cheer that was part surprise and part absolute delight, particularly amongst the women and especially from her sister Samantha and Ranjit her fiancé. She smiled as she collected the trophy, the Pumpkin Crown resting perfectly on her silver-streaked hair.

She turned to the gathering. “Thank you, everyone. I am very proud to win the coveted prize this year, but it would not have been possible without the help, experience, and guidance of my friend, Ted North. I am truly grateful, so I would like Ted to make the lap of honour with me this year.”

Ted was surprised and delighted. He went up to the front and stood beside her. The crowd made a road around the hall, and then, Stephen stepped forward to wheel the winner. Shirley sat in the wheelbarrow and Stephen, strong and vital, wheeled her around the hall three times, each time a bit faster than the last. The crowd whooped with joy. Ted accompanied them, getting cheers along the way too.

Sensing his disappointment, Mary turned to Ted and said: “I love you Ted. You’ll be back again next year." She squeezed his arm.

The band struck up the tunes again, and the revellers began to dance.There was so much noise in the barn that no one really noticed how bad the wind outside was getting, .

The pieces are all in place. The friendship rivalry is resolved, the Queen is crowned, and Bill has returned from the crossroads, fully possessed.

10.30 p.m.

The barn dance was coming to an end as Bill returned from the crossroads, his eyes hollow and dark.

He had approached the ancient well with caution, first to arrive for his clandestine meeting, but the one he waited for, Nicholas Veldi, was late.

Bill leaned on the cracked, moss-covered wall surrounding the well and stared down into the dark depths. The moon came out from behind a black cloud and shone in the stagnant water below. Bill was full of a self-pity that was rapidly curdling into malice.
'My life is going nowhere,' he thought. 'Alison doesn’t love me. She’s only going through the motions. I’ve seen the way she looks at Stephen. It’s him she’s in love with, not me. I hate him for it. If I had his looks, I might stand a chance, but as it is, I might as well give up. Living in this dead hole of a place is doing my head in. There is nothing to do and nowhere to go, and I need excitement. Thank God that Nick Veldi has come and given me some thrills.”

It was not God that Bill should be thanking, but his adversary in Heaven, the black Angel that had taken root in the Fen soil centuries ago. The power of the Fen Blow was pouring into him, replacing his self-pity with the cold, murderous jealousy of William from 1450.

The Gathering Storm
The barn dance was truly over now, and the clearing-up process was underway. Mary and Shirley were filling black bin liners with all kinds of rubbish.

“Tell me, Shirley, how did you get your pumpkins to grow so big?” Mary asked.

Shirley smiled a wicked, knowing smile, the Pumpkin Queen who understood the earth. “I used Viagra, Mary, but don’t tell Ted.
Next year he will want to wear the crown.”

Mary laughed. “Is that cheating?”

“Oh no. It doesn’t say anything about that in the rules.”

“It’s getting very stormy outside. I’m worried about the church. The lightning conductor needs replacing. We were warned about it in the last Quinquennial Inspection Report.”

“That’s not the only thing that needs repairing,” added Shirley. “There is a large crack in the wall at the foot of the turret stairs.”
“Yes, it costs so much these days to maintain these ancient buildings.”

Meanwhile, Stephen, Charlie, and their friend, Sam, had drunk too much cider and were feeling the worse for wear. So it was in that condition that they took their leave of the party and, together with their girlfriends, Alison and Sally, left the barn. They decided to take the shortcut through the graveyard at the side of the church.

While they were in the barn, dancing, they hadn’t noticed the Fen Blow whipping up the dry soil. The weather forecast had been ignored: the tail end of a hurricane, which started in the Gulf of Mexico, had arrived in England and was set to blow wild and create absolute mischief.

The old yew trees in the graveyard swayed and bucked in the wind, making gigantic, mournful, sweeping movements. Some of the branches bent so low that they touched the youths’ heads as they walked by. They wandered into the part of the graveyard which had been empty for hundreds of years, an area shunned by the locals for fear of disturbing the spectres of the Black Death.

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