Chapter 15: The Pumpkin Regatta

Four hundred people stood on the town beach on Saturday, waiting for somebody to sink.

The Tern Lake Pumpkin Regatta runs once a year, from the public beach to the marina docks, two hundred yards across open water.

Every boat is a giant pumpkin, hollowed out by hand, and every pilot sits inside one with a canoe paddle and a life vest.

I had never watched it from the shore as a grown woman.

I had a coffee in my hand and a man's flannel on my back.

The chat was so thick I had to look through it.

【Pete: Weigh-in is done. Thirty-one entries. The heavy money is on the Lions Club, 640 lbs, and a dark horse called THE MODERATOR.】

【Sue: The Moderator is the Auxiliary's entry. The pilot is a woman who is sixty-nine and wearing a fanny pack as a flotation device.】

【Helen: I made pumpkin bars for the finish line!】

【Pete: Helen, you've baked every flavor but regret.】

Dolly sat in her pumpkin at the water's edge, in a pink life vest, with her glasses on a chain.

She had painted a tiny pinned-note icon on the side of the hull.

"If I sink," she said to me, "pay Pete."

"You are not going to sink."

"Everybody sinks eventually, honey. I'd like it to be after the finish line."

Down the beach, Emmett stood at the helm of the marina's rescue skiff, with the engine idling and his cap pulled low.

He was the safety boat.

He hadn't asked for the job, and the Dettmers' father had handed it to him from a wheelchair in a flannel blanket.

He saw me looking, and he lifted two fingers off the wheel.

I lifted my coffee.

【Pete: Did you see that?】

【Sue: I saw two fingers and a cup. I'm not extrapolating.】

【LakeLou: THEY WAVED AT EACH OTHER!!!】

At noon, the announcer climbed the lifeguard chair with a bullhorn.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Tern Lake's most honorable event! Let's meet our final entry!"

A pickup rolled onto the sand, towing a trailer.

On the trailer sat the biggest pumpkin of the day, eight hundred pounds of it, painted gold, and carved into the shape of a bus.

It had windows and headlights, and a front sign that lit up with a battery.

On the sign, in glowing letters, it said BRITTA, ONE WAY.

Four hundred people went quiet.

I felt every one of them turn and look at me.

Shayla climbed out of the passenger side in a gold sash that said MRS. WEDDING OF THE YEAR.

She had a ring light strapped to her wrist and her phone live.