Pumpkin

Начало книги

She had spent most of that morning and early afternoon shopping in Half Moon Bay, and it was almost two o’clock when she pointed the old Dodge pickup south on Highway One. She watched for the sign at the farm road, as she always did; finally saw it begin to grow in the distance, until she could read, first, the bright orange letters that said SUTTER PUMPKIN FARM, and then the smaller black letters underneath: The Biggest, The Tastiest, The Best – First Prize Winner, Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival, 2006.

Amanda smiled as she turned past the sign, onto the farm’s unpaved access road. The wording had been Harley’s idea, which had surprised some people who didn’t know him very well. Harley was a quiet, reserved man – too reserved, sometimes; she was forever trying to get him to let his hair down a little – and he never bragged. As far as he was concerned, the sign was simply a statement of fact. “Well, our pumpkins are the biggest, the tastiest, the best,” he’d said when one of their neighbors asked him about it. “And we did win first prize in ’06. If the sign said anything else, it’d be a lie.”

Читать дальше →