Brie gave in, and followed Jinny into the kitchen. Jinny was already sitting at the table; watching her expectantly.
“Get a knife, a spoon, a pencil, and a bowl.”
Brie got three of the items, but Jinny spotted a pencil by the phone.
“I got the pencil. I’mma draw the face!” Jinny paused after her exclamation, and figured that she should let Brie draw the face; even if she was the baby. She held out the pencil.
Brie took a seat at the table. She had always wanted to carve a pumpkin, but never had the chance. In fact, she hadn’t even noticed the pumpkin in the house until Jinny pointed it out. Had she brought it with her? Was her dad planning to use it for something? Brie took the pencil.
“What do I do wi’ff ‘dis?”
“You draw a face, I changed my mind; I’ll let you do it.” Jinny turned the pumpkin so that the cleanest side was facing Brie.
“I ‘fought we were gonna carve it?” Brie stared at Jinny quizzically.
“We are, silly, but we’re gonna draw the face first; that way, we’ll we know where to carve.”
“Oh.”
“Well go ahead,” Jinny slid the pumpkin a little closer to Brie. “Draw whatever you like.”
Brie drew a simple smiley face.
“Good?”
“It’s okay, but just lines are gonna be hard to carve. Let’s add a little more to it.” Jinny fattened the shapes; making the dots into circles, and the smile into a crescent. “Wanna add anything else?”
Brie shook her head.
“Okay, first we have to clean it out.” Jinny took the knife and quickly cut a circle around the top. Pulling by the stem, she lifted the circle away, and set it aside. “Now comes the fun part.”
Brie stared silently, waiting for Jinny to explain further.
Jinny took the spoon, and began scraping around the inside of the pumpkin. After a minute, she set the spoon aside. Brie looked at her questioningly, but neither girl said a word. Sticking her hand completely into the pumpkin, Jinny pulled out a huge glob of orange mush.
“Here, grab it.” She thrust it toward Brie, who recoiled quickly.
“Eww, don’t get it on me.”
“It’s okay, it’s just pumpkin guts.” Jinny dropped the mess in the bowl. “Go ahead, you give it a shot.”
“No way, it’s too slimy.” Brie shook her head rapidly.
Jinny sighed. “I guess I’ll do it myself. Get a cloth, will ya?”
When the pumpkin was cleaned, the bowl was half full of seeds and slop. Jinny wiped off her hands and picked up the knife.
“Now watch.” Jinny pressed the knife, aligning it with one of the circles. With a sawing motion, she slowly cut along the circumference; popping out the circular chunk once it was free.
Brie hesitated when Jinny set the knife in front of her.
“Here, let’s do it together.” Jinny offered.
Brie took the knife, and with Jinny’s hand over hers, pressed the knife into the pumpkin. With some difficulty, they cut out the second eye hole. Brie smiled.
“Was that fun?” Jinny prompted.
Brie nodded with a grin.
They repeated the method, and cut out the shape of the mouth.
“You wanna add a nose, maybe?” Jinny asked.
“No, he’s good.”
“Okay then, just a little clean up, and we’ll be ready to turn him into a jack o’ lantern.” Jinny held out her slimy hands.
