The Haunted Trail Part 4 It's The Great Pumpkin

Posted on Sun Nov 12th, 2023 @ 7:45pm by Commander Chalan Kendri & Captain Ryhl th'Zeles & Crewman Ki'ana

1,794 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Mission Zeta: An Eerie Evening
Location: Arboretum
Timeline: Halloween 2396, 1504 hours

Up ahead the older children would turn left for a scary part of the trail. The younger children would turn right, to enjoy more the trail that was free from scares, but full of more candy and surprises.

At the first bend in the trail, holograms were reenacting scenes from "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown."

Kas collected Keena and Leena's candy bags, so the girls could run through the holograms. One of the fathers told Kas that parents used to check the candy to make sure it was safe. Kas wasn't sure what danger could come from candy, so he just smiled and nodded.

Feeva looked at the other father. "Danger? What sort of danger would replicated candy present?" She asked the man. She looked to Kas, questioningly. Maybe he knew?

"I'm unfamiliar with holiday." Kas smile.

Petty Officer Eason in a padded colorful mushroom costume joined the conversation. Her daughter Joe was Leena's age and her son had had a rough run-in with Keena a few months ago so she knew both of these parents.

"Checking candy is a tradition that comes from a morbid urban legend, in practice it's an excuse for parents to sample their kid's candy." Eason smiled popping a piece of candy into her mouth.

"Thanks for that explanation, Eason..."

"Please call Maya we're not duty on Kas" She smiled.

"Alright, Maya..." Kas said. "I will ask Keena before taking Keena's candy."

Feeva was suddenly a little self-conscious. She realized how close she was standing to Kas-though it was to hear him better over the noise in the room. Vissians were a fairly plain race-she didn't have advanced hearing or sight, nor telepathy. Maybe it was her imagination, but she thought the woman had given her a LOOK just now. Still, she smiled. "Thank you for explaining. That seems...unlikely on a Federation Starship," she said. Her eyes darted to the girls-they were ok, and then back to the adults. "I was planning to recycle most of it," she said. "And let Leena keep what she likes the best." Fee was doing this alone, and she couldn't handle a child hyped on sugar 24/7 for the next however many weeks it'd take to run out. "But perhaps, I'll drop it off at Engineering or Ops," she said.

Maya chuckled, "Just don't bring the shuttle bay, that's where I'm unloading Asher and Joe's candy."

"How's Asher's wrist, Maya?" Kas' face was neutral as asked the question.

"It healed up nicely," Maya answered. She paused... She didn't know how to read him. "Keena showed how to get out of a wristlock and I've had to tell him not to wrestle with his friends in our quarters."

Kas laughed, "Children will frolic. At least she's not taking Joe up into trees."

Feeva laughed. "I think we've scared her off of climbing trees for awhile," Feeva said. "Certainly we-I- have for Leena," she said. "His daughter took mine up a tree early on; had me in a right panic. They both got scraped up but ok, but they got a firm talking-to about leaving the rest of the school group without an adult's knowledge. So far as I know, there's been no other instances," she said. She wanted to add that Keena might not've had her son in a headlock if he didn't deserve it, but she didn't. Her eyes darted to the kids again. They were moving on. "Time to go further along. Nice to meet you formally, Ms. Eason. Feeva Drylo," she said, pointing to herself.

"Good to meet Feeva," Eason nodded as she followed behind them.

The Linus hologram walked up to the girls, dragging his blue blanket. "Hello, friends. I'm Linus," he said. "Did you know that each year, the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch that he thinks is the most sincere. He's gotta pick this one. He's got to. I don't see how a pumpkin patch can be more sincere than this one. You can look around and there's not a sign of hypocrisy. Nothing but sincerity as far as the eye can see."

He looked at the girls his eyes wide with wonder. "Don't you agree?"

Leena nodded. "It's the BIGGEST one!" She said. She looked at Keena. "Wight??"

Keena looked thoughtful, "Yes it most be the big one!"

Another small child walked up to the girls, "can I play too?"

Keena smiled, "Of course, you can join our quest, Joe!"

Kas laughed, watching his daughter leading a small group of children.

Leena was still twirling around, but stopped when Joe came. "Yes. We're deciding which pump-king the Gweat One will choose. I think it's this one!" She pointed to a nearby, large jack o lantern.

"That pumpkin certainly does look sincere!" Linus said, following the children with his blanket.

From another direction a black and white holographic dog came sniffing around in a zig-zag pattern, followed by none other than Charlie Brown. "Where are you going, Snoopy?" Charlie asked as he chased after him.

Snoopy stopped in front of the children and barked excitedly.

"Yes, Snoopy, where are you going?" Leena parroted. She looked ahead. There was more candy!

"LOOK!! Up there!" She pointed ahead. "Are we going there, Snoopy dog?"

Snoopy barked again and wagged his tail and walked in a circle.

Keena furrowed her brow, she didn't know this 'Snoopy.' He looked like a friendly character from a story Bella read her. "Where are we going Snoopy? We will follow at a distance."

Kas smiled at his daughter questioning everything with such an open heart.

Leena wasn't as weary of the character as her friend-perhaps because she was younger and more trusting, or because she simply had ingested more sugar in that one night than in her entire four years combined. She followed the cartoon dog, though.

Snoopy wagged his tail and led the girls through the pumpkin patch, sniffing his way along as he went.

Up near where the trick-or-treating started back up, Lucy was waving her arm. "There's nothing worse than not getting enough Trick-or-Treats on Halloween. Follow me!"

"What kind of twicks?" Leena asked the hologram girl. "My mommy said it's not nice to play twicks on people." She said.

"You only play a trick if you say 'trick or treat', and you don't get a treat. Ummm" Lucy thought for a moment. "Perhaps you could untie their shoe. But I don't reason you will have to - look at all the treats!" she exclaimed.

Joe, a human around Keena's age was more interested in the holograms than the candy it seemed. She was walking in circles around the pumpkin patch seeing if he could trigger any more characters to pop up. She found a blonde-headed hologram sitting patiently behind a pumpkin. "Did you see him? The Great Pumpkin?" Sally asked with wonder, standing up and looking around. "Linus, is he here?" she called out.

Lissa was laughing to herself as the kids who had been walking by interacted with Lucy. Some of them asked the most peculiar questions. The hologram's algorithms had been coming up with clever answers all evening. She waved at Leena and Keena, holding up her bag of candy. She was sitting with a group of nurses, all characters from Fairy Tales, waiting to hand out more candy before the kids had an option to take a short hayride.

"Come on, Keena, let's go look at moe things," she said, leading Keena towards the group of nurses. "Hewwo. I am Leena and this is Keena. Twick or Tweet," she said, sweetly.

"Well hello, Leena and Keena," Lissa said dropping candy into their bags. "What great costumes. Are you nice princesses?" she asked.

"Well. I am pwincess, but she's a Mawtian," Leena said, pointing to her friend. "I am nice, though. My mommy said I have to be nice to everyone," she said.

"Well that is very good, I might be scared if you were a scary princess," Lissa joked, as she put candy in Leena's bag.

Behind them, Feeva laughed, but mouthed a quick "sorry" to the nurses.

Keena stepped forward and held out her bag, "I'm a Martian Princess, may I have some candy?"

"Of course. Me, and all of my friends all have a different type of candy, so make sure you see each one of them," Lissa said, winking at the child as she dropped a cherry flavored taffy into Keena's bag.

Kas smiled seeing his daughter's excellent etiquette, he nodded in approval.

Leena Drylo lingered a little bit, chattering away with the nurses. Fee kept a close eye but wasn't worried. She knew Lissa would alert her to any danger, in case.

"Awe you weady, Keena?'" Leena said to her friend, leading the way to the next group of candy-givers. Soon, they'd arrive at the hayrides. Leena was excited about that, but she didn't know if Keena was-Keena sometimes liked the big kid stuff better.

"Yes!" Keena said. She moved to pick up her smaller friend, but Kas stopped her.

"It will be safer if I do it," Kas lifted the little girl onto the wagon. Keena climbed onto her Papa's back and Kas jumped onto the wagon and offered a hand to assist Feeva up.

Fee smiled as they all hopped on the "hayride," with a smile. It was a fun evening, but she was tired, and looking forward to taking Leena home and then doing some adult activities.

"Hey guys." Kendri waved at Kas and Fee. "Stuff on the hayride for kids of all ages. You'll have fun."

The motley crew of Wizard of Oz characters as well as some other kids that the girls recognized from school and daycare were starting to climb up onto the anti-grav units loaded with hay. Kendri had Shan and Zeke helping her with showing where the kids were to go and making sure the units were functioning properly as weight was being added to them as the kids climbed aboard.

The anti-grav unit started and Fee held on tightly to Leena for a moment, and then they started up the trail. It was a fun way to end the party for the girls.

Kas leaned against a bail of hay, Keena sat next to him. His little girl cuddled up with him she was content. He was better at family things than he realized.

Leena smiled and waved at everyone as they sailed past. The little girl was having a good time. *Mommy," she said. "I am getting tiwed.* Feeva smiled. "Ok, after this, I'll take you back. You'll stay with the Turners tonight," she said. "I have to work in the morning, as well, so you'll be there until I see you tomorrow evening," Feeva said.

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