Page 49 of Love and Lattes at Pumpkin Hollow
‘I don’t think you need to be,’ Sabrina said.
‘But tomorrow, the local press is coming, as well as Steve’s sister and her social media friends – all first thing, and then we’ll have the first paying customers in the afternoon and Paul will arrive with the café van – all of them need to have the best first impression or we will be finished before we even start,’ I told her, needing to suck in a deep breath after talking so quickly thanks to my nerves.
‘Let’s just go inside, love,’ Dad said.
I glanced at Dylan. He gave me a reassuring nod. I hadn’t seen him much today. He had been on his laptop or phone most of the time, working on publicity and selling tickets while I’d been outside, but knowing he had come back and was there helping us had given me an extra boost, even though I didn’t want to admit it. Dad and Sabrina hadn’t been all that welcoming to him but he had pretended not to notice and when everyone had left, he joined us at the field and seemed determined to stay. ‘Okay then,’ I agreed finally. ‘Let’s go into Pumpkin Hollow!’
We began to mark out the journey the customers would take: as they entered the field, they’d see the table we would be manning and then in front were the polytunnels as well as the crates of large, orange pumpkins. Sabrina had made another Pumpkin Hollow sign for the outside of the patch and we’d placed hay bales in front of it with a pile of pumpkins at either end so people could take a photo there as well as it signposting the way into the autumn trail.
Then there were the five tunnels that people could walk through that we’d connected to make one long trail that you’d walk up and down in. Once out the other side, visitors would see the food van and benches, and I had placed another couple of crates of pumpkins there as well. Dad had found an old bathtub in the barn so we had also filled that with pumpkins for a fun end to the trail.
The four of us walked inside the first tunnel. The floor was covered in hay and the first tunnel had two photo opportunities and one of the planter tables for the unusual pumpkins – this one had the white pumpkins on it. The next tunnel had the scarecrow couple and autumn décor in it as well as the green pumpkins, then we moved into the Halloween tunnel with the warty pumpkins and Munchkin pumpkins, and Halloween photo opportunities. We had skeletons and cobwebs and witches. We’d also set up an old table for a creepy dinner that you could sit down and have a picture at. This was the one where I’d repaired the hole with a cobweb and we all agreed that people wouldn’t think anything had gone wrong in there.
Next, we’d set up activities – we had two barrels for apple bobbing filled with red, juicy apples, a table with pumpkins that kids could sit and carve at. Another one had face paints that people could use to create Halloween-themed characters, and finally, we had an area where kids could colour in pages we’d printed out online with autumn and Halloween themes on.
The final tunnel was filled with pumpkins. They were on the floor and on one of the wooden planter tables I’d made; we’d stacked more hay bales up with pumpkins on so people could again sit and have a picture, and we’d also created an arch using wires draped in autumn leaves we’d foraged from the farm and in town, in which I’d stuck small pumpkins. I’d also laced fairy lights around so the whole place twinkled happily. This was the last thing visitors would walk past, or have a picture with, and it was a stunning end to the tunnels. I looked up at it and smiled. I was sure people would love it.
The four of us then stepped outside to what would be the food area. The sun was dipping in the sky now, painting it a golden hue that matched the birch trees, and I held my breath as I turned to Sabrina, Dylan and Dad with a raised eyebrow, heart thumping as I waited to hear what they thought about it all.
‘You did it.’ Dad was the first to speak. He was beaming. ‘I know I had my doubts and wasn’t fully on board when you came up with the idea but it’s great, love. I think anyone who even enjoys autumn a tiny bit would have fun in there. Kids will love it. The pumpkins look so appealing. And even I want a photo at the Halloween table.’ He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and gave me a squeeze. ‘I’m proud of you.’
Sabrina clapped her hands together. ‘Yes, it’s amazing, Willow! I should have told you to go for it as soon as you suggested it. It’s so much better than the pumpkin patch we went to a few years ago.’
‘Really?’ I asked, smiling, but then my eyes seemed to automatically go to Dylan as much as I wished they hadn’t.
‘I think it’s going to draw lots of people here this month,’ he said in his sensible way. ‘I don’t know exactly what kind of profit you will make, it’s all dependent on how much people will spend on pumpkins and if we can sell enough tickets, but I have no doubt you’ll get great publicity and people will recommend it, so I don’t see why it’s not possible to do well. And we’ve sold two hundred tickets now.’
‘Is that good?’ Sabrina asked.
‘It’s a promising start,’ Dylan said. ‘But looking online, some of the most popular pumpkin farms and patches can have over three thousand visitors a day.’
My eyes widened. ‘A day! That’s even more than we’ve ever had in the summer season.’
‘It’s a more popular and profitable business than, I’ll be honest, I thought it could be,’ Dylan said. ‘But they are so popular on social media, it’s really grown into a big deal. The more I look into it, the more I think if you can spread the word, you can make good money from this.’
‘How many people do we need here this month to make a profit?’ Dad asked as I still leaned against my father, relief flooding through me that they all liked it. I had seen the pumpkin patch all in my mind but no one else had been really able to picture what I was thinking, but there it was in front of us now. I had created it. I felt a prick of pride. I knew my big dreams had often just been that – dreams – but this time, I’d made the dream come true.
‘We need to at least have a thousand people here each week in October and obviously, we want them buying pumpkins too. If you can get more than that, you’ll pay back everything Willow has spent and start turning a profit.’
I thought back to the spreadsheet we had made. ‘But even if we sell all the pumpkins, we’d need double that amount of visitors by the end of October to clear all our debts so that we can keep the farm profitable long-term.’ I thought about how popular our annual Halloween walk was in the town. ‘I did wonder if there might be a way we could tie the lantern festival into the patch somehow and then every time they publicise the festival or it’s talked about, so will Pumpkin Hollow.’
‘I’ll speak to the mayor,’ Dad said. ‘I went to school with Taylor, she was good friends with your mother, so maybe she’d be willing to help. Maybe part of the walk could happen through the farm or it could finish at the pumpkin patch.’
‘That would be perfect,’ Sabrina agreed. ‘You could light up the patch; it would look so cool and spooky.’
I yawned despite my best efforts to stifle it.
‘We should all get some rest,’ Dad said when he spotted it. ‘It’s been an eventful weekend.’
‘I need to go home,’ Sabrina said. ‘I’ll come over once school finishes for the day with Bradley and Dottie and my mum – we’ve booked for the last slot. I can’t wait.’
‘I’ll follow in a bit,’ I said, wanting to just have a minute alone here. They all seemed to understand. Sabrina and Dad headed off towards her car and the farmhouse. When Dad opened up the door, I heard Maple bark excitedly – she was likely ready for her dinner. She’d been running around with people all day so had collapsed in her bed an hour ago for a long nap. I was thinking that sounded good to me too right now.
Dylan hovered for a second when they left. ‘I know there is still lots to do in encouraging visitors to come here and to look after it all and keep it going for the month, but take a minute to see what you’ve already achieved. This place is great, Willow. I think you should be really proud of it. I’ll see you tomorrow. Goodnight.’ He strode off, his words leaving a warm, fuzzy feeling inside me.
I watched him go for a second, confused at how supportive he was. He seemed to want us to succeed and not lose the farm. But what would his brother say about that? I tried not to hope that Dylan had decided the farm was more important. Because that meant I was more important. And that just felt impossible. We had only just met and any burgeoning romance seemed over now. My heart ached a little bit for him still, though.
Looking back at the pumpkin patch, I wandered over to one of the benches the school had lent us and I sat down on it. Above my head, the sky was now dark and the stars had come out. When I was younger, I used to sit outside at night to look at the stars. There was no pollution or tall buildings to dim their light. One of the many reasons I loved living here on the farm. I used to make wishes on them. When I was young enough to think that wishes on stars could become reality. I never wanted to lose my dreams but I had lost them, bogged down from grief after losing my mother and then the troubles with the farm and hiding instead of facing them and trying to do something about it all. Finally, I had remembered to dream again but I’d also worked hard to make it come true; I hadn’t relied on wishing and hoping.
