"Yours is really pretty, too!" I said, admiring the tiered naked cake decorated with pine cones and orange and red flowers. "I just want to take a huge bite."
"I really want to eat them all!" she said, giggling.
Garrett came up to us, wrapping his arms around me as I was admiring the giant pumpkins.
"Are you going to make a giant pumpkin pie?" he asked, kissing my neck.
"Mmm, pumpkin pie. I haven’t had a real Thanksgiving in forever," I said, refusing to think about my mother and about how wonderful Thanksgiving at Mimi's had been.
"You can have it at our house. Usually we order Chinese food."
"You eat Chinese food? On Thanksgiving? Uh, no. That is not going to work for me. Come on, let's look at the booths. We have to change for the costume contest soon," I said as we walked arm in arm down Main Street. The festival was packed.
"Usually I avoid the fall festival," Garrett admitted. "I didn't realize it was such a big deal."
"It’s a huge deal," I said as we stood in line at a food truck selling lángos.
"Have you ever had this?" I asked Garrett, ordering two. "It's Hungarian. It's fried bread with sour cream, garlic, and grated cheese. It's basically all my favorite food groups."
"Apple cider! Hot apple cider! Two dollars! Support the Harrogate art retreat!" Ida yelled over the crowd as she roller-skated past us, wearing a bright-orange catsuit. Let's just say she did not look like anyone's Fall fantasy.
Garrett bought two, peeling off one-dollar bills from a wad of cash.
"Going to a strip club later?" Ida asked.
"No."
"I know of a good one! I'm actually thinking of doing a geriatric stripper class," Ida said, twirling on her skates. "You know, it's supposed to be good for your hips."
I sipped the drink so I wouldn't have to say anything. "Oh my goodness, this has a lot of alcohol in it," I said, coughing.
"Of course it does!"
"Ida, it's nine in the morning," I said. "I'm going to be drunk."
"No judgment here!" she said, skating away.
"I hope she didn't sell that to children," Garrett said with a frown.
"Too late," I said as I saw several of Garrett's brothers walking through the crowd. Archer had an armful of apple cider cups. He had several of the youngest Svensson brothers on leashes.
"Are you drinking all of that?" Garrett asked scowling.
"Dude, I had no idea it was alcoholic before I bought the whole tray from Dottie. I think she had been sampling the cider, if you know what I mean." He gestured to Garrett to take the tray. Then he proceeded to untangle the leashes on the kids.
"What am I supposed to do with these?" Garrett complained.
"Give me those," Meghan said, approaching us and holding out her hand for the cider. "I told Ida she can't sell any more. We aren't serving alcohol at the fall festival. This is a family event."
"Well shit, if there's no alcohol at this festival, I'm definitely not giving these to you then," Archer said, taking the tray back from Garrett.
The pumpkin judging was happening in thirty minutes. I bought a hot dog with the works, and we assembled in the stands. The rest of Garrett's brothers were there, along with Sebastian and his little brother Alfie. Ida, who was more than slightly tipsy, narrated as the pumpkins were measured.
"Now folks, the largest pumpkin ever was over two thousand pounds. Let's see if any of them are that big," Ida announced as the pumpkins were weighed. "Wow, eight hundred pounds! It looks like Ernest is the winner. Since I know none of us can math good, we have a visual. Would the best-looking group of brothers in the Northeast please step forward? I want to see how many Svenssons this pumpkin is equal to!"
The pumpkin was wheeled onto a balancing scale. Ida corralled Garrett, Hunter, Archer, and Mace to stand on the scale.
"Oh, not quite. Do you have a small Svensson to make it even?"
