The warmth is finally approaching as spring is making everything warmer here in the central valley. I have always enjoyed the fresh scent of spring and the smell of flowers and fresh cut grass. After just moving back to the central valley in California and buying our first house I have decided to finally plant a little vegetable garden. I have always wanted my own little vegetable garden so I can enjoy fresh organic vegetables that I have helped grow. So, I break down and go to my local nursery to buy all my favorites. Bell peppers in red and orange, hot chili peppers, tomatoes especially the cherry type, yellow squash, and my all-time favorite zucchinis.

            The next day I wake up and the sun is shining bright, I can feel its warmth as I walk outside. I put my wide brimmed hat on and gather all my gardening tools to begin planting the garden I have always wanted. I dig the holes and add some mulch, mixing it into the soil before taking my already half grown plant out of the plastic container I bought it in. I place the plant into the ground and fill the hole around it with soil. I continue with this until I get to the squash plants. I build a mound for those and continue with adding in the mulch and planting them in the holes on top of the mounds. Now is the most challenging part of this journey, the waiting game for my beautiful plants to grow and bloom.

            Days and nights go by and the plants grow and get bigger and bigger. The nights are often eerie in a strange way. The neighborhood cats seem to be disappearing every evening. Nobody can seem to find out where they are going and my neighbor Patty is starting to get worried about her cat Peter. “Have you seen him anywhere?” she asks me as I wheel my trashcan out to the street.

“I’m sorry Patty I haven’t seen him anywhere. If I find him I will let you know.” She gives me a disappointing nod and walks back inside her house. I walk out to my backyard to check on my garden. It is growing beautifully. I can’t wait for my husband to get home to see the amazing job I have done. He drives a truck and is often on the road for days at a time and comes home on the weekends. I walk through the garden and can see small bones poking out through the soil near the zucchini plant. Maybe one of the cats grabbed chicken bones out of the trashcan and ate them near the plant. I didn’t give it second thought and walked inside the house.

            Weeks went by there were many rainy days and still no sign of any of the neighborhood cats. Many of the racoons that would often sift through our garbage cans and make a hell of mess were no longer showing up. Patty came up to me just about every other day to ask me if I have seen Peter. “Nope,” I would say. The plants were growing bigger and bigger, especially the zucchini plants. I hadn’t checked to see if any zucchinis had bloomed so I figured I would go check today. “Oh my goodness!” I exclaimed out loud to myself. Never in my life had I seen a red Zucchini. “They are red! Why on earth are they red?” I asked myself. “A red zucchini? How in the world did they end up red?” I picked the two that were ripe and took them inside the house.

            I washed the zucchinis and decided I was going to give one a try. I grabbed a pan, turned on a burner and put a teaspoon of olive oil in the pan. I chopped up a couple cloves of garlic and some fresh basil. I finally sliced the zucchini and the inside was a beautiful golden color. Were they old I wondered. What are wrong with these? I threw them in the pan and sautéed them in the olive oil. When they were almost soft I added in the garlic and let it cook. When everything was done, I turned off the stove and put them on a plate then added the fresh basil and some fresh shredded parmesan cheese as a garnish. Even with such a weird color they were beautiful.  I took a fork out of the drawer and with all hesitation tried the beautiful dish. “Mmmmm!” I exclaimed. They tasted amazing. The flavor was unlike anything I had ever tasted. They had a sweet taste, yet they were savory, the color didn’t alter the flavor in any way. They were plump when I picked them and slightly juicy when I cut into it. I couldn’t believe the amazing flavor these were giving out.

            They started growing like weeds in well fertilized dirt field. What was I going to do with all of these zucchinis and why were they red? I had never had much of a green thumb, maybe that was why they turned the color they are.  The county fair was soon going to be upon us and I figured since the community I lived in was a farming community I would enter them in. My mind was still trying to comprehend the color the beautiful plant was producing. How on earth was it coming out in such a beautiful bright red color? Was it from too much sun?

            The sun was making its way around the planet and was now beginning to set in my area. I decided I wanted to hang out in the yard this evening. It had been such a long and hot day and the cool breeze making its way through my hair felt great against my sweaty neck. I wondered if my neighbor Patty had ever found her cat, but I didn’t feel like going over to ask her. I could see the large leaves of the zucchini plant swaying slowly in the wind, their gorgeous bright green leaves looked amazing in this dim light. I had also noticed the flowers on the plant were coming in bright orange instead of the yellow they usually are. The plant seemed to be growing a lot bigger than it had in previous years.

            I continued to sip the glass of wine I had brought out with me while just looking out into the garden. I could see a small field mouse running across the grass towards the garden. Yuck, how those things gross me out. I’m glad they never end up in the house. The zucchini plant began to move its giant leaves, the field mouse moved closer to the plant and in an instant, it looked as if the plant had scooped the mouse into a trap within it. I never did see the mouse come back out. I got up and walked back inside. Did that plant really just move on its own? I tried not to think anything of it and figured I had just enough wine for the night. I dumped the rest of my glass down the drain in the kitchen sink and made my way to bed. “I think I just need sleep” I said out loud.

            I woke up the next day and decided I was going to go outside and look at the plant. I still could not believe what I had seen. I had a dream of the plant grabbing me with its large vine and pulling me into the soil crushing my body. I quickly woke up afterwards and had a hard time getting back to sleep afterwards. The plant looked bigger than it had the day before. The orange flowers on it were so beautiful I didn’t know what to think. I ran my fingers through the shallow soil around the plant and felt small bones. “Where the hell did these come from?” There were so many small animal bones in the soil. Many of the bones were beginning to be crushed until they were almost a powder and put back into the soil. “Damn, that’s where all those small animals have been ending up. The zucchini plant has been killing these small animals and using them as a compost. No wonder the color and size are unlike something I had ever seen before.

            I picked the ripe fruit and ran inside. I did not want the dream I had to come true. Could you imagine that headline in the newspaper, ‘Woman Dies in Zucchini Plant Accident’, sounds crazy to me. I decided to go online and enter my zucchini into the fair, it was coming soon and I wanted to register ahead of time so I knew I would get a for sure spot. I went online and registered before taking the ones I picked to Patty’s house next door.

 “Sorry Patty I still haven’t seen your cat,” I lied, I was almost sure the plant had taken it and used it as its homemade compost. It must like the taste of small animals.

“These are so rare and odd. Are you going to enter them into the fair?” she asked me.

“Yeah, I was unsure if I was or not but I decided it may be a good idea since I have never seen anything like it before.”

“That’s a great idea,” she said, “I hope you win!”

“Thanks so do I!”

            The day of the fair was quickly approaching I took my basket of squash in with me and went to the judges table to submit it. I had already entered it online and now just had to bring it in for tasting also so they could look at them. I was so nervous. I stood there watching them as they examined the zucchini, they took notes on the color, the size, the weight. They even smelled it, did the zucchini really have a smell? They soon cut into and took a taste. The one judge named Jan with the small black glasses at the end of her nose, her hair was the color red, just like the zucchini. She looked at it with such amazement and intrigue. She looked as if she could not believe the color and the size of the squash.

“Do you put anything special in these to get them this color?”

“I do not” I said. “There aren’t any pesticides or specials dyes. I just try my best to take care of them. I have no idea why they are red rather than green like normal one.” I looked down at the floor after answering her question.

She kept looking at the squash and I was so nervous fearing what she was going to say. The judges continued scribbling their notes onto a small sheet of paper. Until finally handing them over to the person who was going to add up all the numbers before announcing the winner.

“Thank you. You can come back in 2 hours when we announce the winners for best produce.”

“Thank you,” I said with a hint of disappointment in my voice. I walked out and into the bright sunlight. The warmth of the sun beat down on me and I checked the time. “eleven-thirty.” I whispered to myself. I decided to go ahead, look around and try to enjoy the fair. My favorite part was looking at all the animals that are here every year. Last year I got to see a calf being born it was both exciting and slighting nauseating at the same time. I walked in to see the birds of the farm, beautiful chicken, hens of tan and white, cute little chicks all chirping loudly. Then onto the turkeys who seems like grumpy old men who have yet to have their coffee. There were even pigeons which I was surprised to see, since they were not there last year. I love when they add new animals in to look at.

            Although I felt slightly nauseous I decided to grab a corn dog with lots of mustard. I sat under a tree on a bench watching the people pass me by. Little kids with their tiny hats and their parents pushing them in their strollers packed down with stuffed animals they had won from the games. Older teens who were holding hands while talking about which ride they thought was the scariest. Older adults in their 50s discussing the band from their youth, that was going to be playing at the stage later. I felt lonely without my husband here to enjoy this day with me. He has been working nonstop and hasn’t had much time off lately.

            One-thirty had finally approached and I walked back to the building where the competition was taking place. I found a seat on a fold-up chair and waited for others to show up so they could announce the winners of the vegetable competition. I had entered in the summer squash category. The announcer had made her way to the front and grabbed the microphone that was there. “Welcome everyone. I will be announcing the winners of the vegetable competition. There were many amazing and interesting entries this year and we think you all for participating.”

            She paused and grabbed a few sheets of paper from a gentleman that brought them over to her and whispered in her ear. The announcer was a short pudgy woman, with long auburn hair, that was wrapped in a loose bun. She had on red and pink striped Bermuda shorts and a red shirt. She didn’t show much expression on her face and reminded me of someone who was only there for a paycheck, though I’m sure she was just volunteering. She brought the microphone back up to her lips. “Ok I have the results here with me. Let’s get to it!” Her voice was monotone and boring I prayed I wouldn’t fall asleep sitting here. “In the category for best watermelons in third place Henry Jones. In second place Harriet Jenkins and in first place Albert Hinzill.”

There was an applause in the audience as the winners went up to accept their ribbon and then to the back to get the checks for the “cash” prizes that are awarded. First prize is 100 dollars second prize is 50 dollars and third gets a 25-dollar gift card to spend at the fair. They went through many other categories such as: best cantaloupes, hottest chili peppers, best bell peppers, reddest and juiciest tomatoes and finally best summer squash. I could not wait to find out if I had won or not. It seemed as if they were taking forever to find the paper with the names of winners on it. I could feel the corn dog I had eaten earlier slowly working its way back up my throat. I could taste the extra mustard like I just chewed and swallowed it.

            The announcer came back up to the microphone and as if she was moving in slow motion grabbed it and putting it up to her lips. she began. “Now for the winners of the summer squash competition. In third place Lindsey Humphrey.” The crowd began to applaud as she walked up to grab her ribbon. Her yellow squash was not only a beautiful bright sunny yellow but it was also huge and I’m sure chalked full of flavor. “In second place Duncan Monroe.” I could really feel my nerves taking over now Duncan was ahead of me in line with a zucchini that was bigger than mine in size and a beautiful bright leaf green. I was sure he was going to win first place. The crowd applauded as he went up to accept his ribbon. “Now in first place for the best summer squash. This was an unusual squash as we have never seen one with this unique color before,” the announcer began to say. Right then I knew it was me who had won first place. A mix of excitement and disbelief hit me, like a baseball player hits a ball out of the park.  The announcer continued, “So in first place is Lucy Tisdale.”

            I was in shock that I had won. It had to set in for a minute before I stood and walked up to get my ribbon. I shook the announcers hand and grabbed the ribbon before exiting to the table in the back to collect my prize money. My zucchini would be on display for everyone to see for the next week until the fair ended. I left the fair still in shock from the events that had gone on today. Every year from here on out, I will make sure my zucchini plants have a few little rodents to feast on, so they can grow and thrive into the beautiful red delicious fruits that they are.