About Hayride

by Zoey Daniels
10 pages / 3800 words
Available file types - html, lit, pdf, prc

Kyle's had his eye on Raleigh for a long time, and on Halloween he's ready to make his move. He's shy, but he goes for the hayride of his life anyway, stumbling over Raleigh like and eager puppy. The problem is that Halloween is all about tricks; is Kyle the victim of a prank, or is his hayride going to be the happiest night of his life?

Sample

He's there, all right, just like the locals swore he would be.  Kyle's not made a habit of listening to the townsfolk, as they're generally fuller of shit than a milking stall, but be damned if they weren't right this time. Kyle can see the man with his own two good eyes, perched on the edge of a wooden cart at the far edge of the field, legs swinging over the gate, a cigarette clasped loosely between two fingers and a devil-may-care grin at something. Kyle doesn't know what; that amuses him.

Raleigh Brown.  Kyle half feels like he should take his hat off or something.  The man's a legend.

He chews the ragged edge of his thumbnail without thinking, tasting the coarse, grassy flavor of the hay he's helped lug since the sun went down, bale after bale until they'd filled a full dozen old-fashioned wagons.  The strange things folks do for Halloween these days, he swears.  Nothing like how they celebrated when he was a kid, though doesn't that seem like forever and a day ago?

Wonder if they still go playing "tricks" on the treat-blockers or the folks who don't cotton to the holiday?  Or maybe they've had that trained out of them along with a lot of the fun that Kyle sees gone missing these days.

Which isn't to say the hayride isn't a good time for all concerned. Even them who, like he, spent the night working up a sweat and a case of sore muscles in their calves and back.  Kyle likes listening to the younger kids squeal and laugh, and he's inclined to look indulgently away from the almost-teens who're just now starting to figure out how to approach the object of their crushes without punching them and running away.

They've called him a romantic fool for his ways more than once.  Kyle doesn't care.  Who's to say one of these gawky kids won't grow up with memories of this hayride as the best night of his life?

Anything can happen, Kyle figures, and most often does.  It's how the world works.

A group of wild young'uns, screaming and giggling, are running through the maze of mostly-emptied wagons.  Raleigh Brown, from his perch, looks like he's laughing at them while he smokes, not mean, more tickled at their exuberance.  Kyle does like a man who knows how to smile.

He wants to go over there, yeah.  He's wanted it for he doesn't know how long now.