Lester of Two Evils

Halloween

Saturday's edition of The Giles Hollow Mosquito featured a large front-page photograph of the collapsed pumpkin display above the headline, Costumed College Kids Create Catastrophe. Within its pages, there were no less than three separate stories dedicated to the riots that had occurred the night before. In short, the mayhem was being blamed on a group of disorderly students and a mix of what authorities were calling "various outside agitators."

According to the reporting, the police had sealed off Main Street and spent the rest of the evening carting van loads of people to the local precinct. The published mugshots of several of the offenders did little to convey the intended gravity of the situation, however. While they certainly seemed appropriately somber, the putrid green of their zombie makeup made them look like the captured henchmen of an incompetent comic book villain.

The dean of the college publicly condemned those responsible, insisting that these were not the values they tried to teach their students. She went on at length about the need for the school's community to do a great deal of soul searching as to how they could regain the town's trust.

The Elmwood City Board of Selectmen had called an emergency meeting, and there was already talk of canceling next year's celebration.

It was, by far, the most exciting thing to happen in the area for years. The reality that the vast majority of people attending the festival had left by the time the trouble started, meaning almost no one had actually been in any real danger, did little to slow what was sure to be a lucrative news day.

Though he'd been caught in the middle of what was now being dubbed The Pumpkin Riots, a completely different set of concerns occupied Lester's thoughts as he tossed copies of the double-thick edition into the quiet of the early morning. His head swam with questions. Not the least of which was why his father and Mr. Poole had been chasing the boy from the accident?

When Ben had dropped him at home, Lester's mother had been waiting up. She'd somehow heard about all the commotion and was concerned when he came limping in on his sore ankle. Deciding it would be best to keep his story simple, Lester had explained how he'd twisted it in one of the bounce houses. This seemed to satisfy her, and she'd helped him up the stairs to bed. As she'd tucked him in, she'd told him that his father wouldn't be home until much later due to an emergency at work. Lester felt fairly confident he knew what that emergency was. When he'd left for his paper route the following morning, his father's car still wasn't in the garage. Did that mean Truck Boy had escaped?

The Ditch's paper landed perfectly in the middle of his walkway with a satisfying thwack, and Lester coasted his bike into an arc that sent him back up the other side of the road.

Passing the dark forest, he didn't have to peer searchingly through the shadows of evergreens to try and spot Amanda's estranged aunt hiding behind a tree. This time she stood out in the open, the rising sun glinting off her white-blonde hair like a beacon.

Lester thought about continuing by without stopping, but he had no real reason to be rude. What did he care if the Poole siblings didn't get along?

"Good morning, youngest North," Jennie Poole said in her velvety voice, watching Lester coast to a stop several feet in front of her. "You can come closer. Don't worry. I don't bite — much."

She looked exactly as she had the other two times Lester had seen her. Her silky hair spilled down onto the shoulders of her long dark coat, which draped over her body like a cloak. Lester wondered if she owned any other clothes.

"Good morning, Ms. Poole," he said, rolling his bike a few tentative steps forward.

"So, you've discovered who I am. I knew a smart boy like you would be able to work it out."