I climbed into the front passenger seat and slammed the door. I could practically feel my dad glaring at me, but thankfully he didn't say anything else.

I stared straight ahead and waited for him to finish buckling Judith's car seat in the back. He stowed the diaper bag and got behind the wheel.

"This is going to be fun," he said decisively. I know it's going to be bad when he has to order me to have fun.

I turned my head and stared out the window. I can't believe he's making me go to a stupid pumpkin patch.

"Tara's niece will be there too," Dad said.

Meghan is nice, I guess, but she doesn't talk much. I sighed.

If I'd known he was this determined to make me go, I should have given in sooner and asked Patrick to come so at least I'd have someone to talk to. Patrick likes kid stuff. He'd love walking around looking at pumpkins.

In the back seat Judith was yammering something in her baby language.

"I swear she's more talkative every day," Dad tried to make conversation.

"Mhmm," was all I could summon.

Sometimes I like to make weird faces at Judith. She laughs and laughs. It's pretty cute. But if I do that now, Dad will think I'm having fun and then he wins. I stared out the window until we got to the Greene Farm.

Last summer I practically lived at the farm. Dad worked there for a while after Mom died and he decided that I needed to work on the farm too. He said it was to teach me discipline and stuff. I got paid, but barely.

It's strange. As much as I hated farming, this summer I almost missed it. Summer school was so much worse.

Dad's partner Tara was already there with her sister and Meghan. Tara has this weird thing where she likes to give me a fist-bump whenever I see her, but she's pretty cool.

I said 'Hi' to Meghan, who smiled at me and didn't say anything, as usual.

It was a busy day at the farm, lots of families and little kids running around, carrying orange pumpkins and bags of apples. I walked off towards one of the fields without saying anything.

"Carl!" Dad yelled after me.

"What?" I called back, annoyed.

"Where are you going?" he asked. I could tell he was still irked with me from earlier.

"I'm going to get a pumpkin! That's what you want, right?" I retorted.

"Alright," he relented, "Meet us back at the barn later."

"Fine."

If I have to walk around a pumpkin patch like a little kid, then I'm going to find the biggest damn pumpkin there is. We'll see who's laughing then.

I walked through the field, the dry stalks crunching under my feet, looking for the right pumpkin. It needs to be huge.

Maybe Beth will be here. She's several years older than me but she's always nice. She's really pretty, too. I wish I could grow taller already and maybe Beth won't think of me as a kid anymore.

In the middle of casually looking around to see if Beth was nearby, I spotted it. My pumpkin.

It was a dull orange with some green splotches and it was more than a bit lop-sided. It was downright ugly but I didn't care. It was about twice as big as Judith. To me, it was perfect.

Bending over, I wrapped my arms around the massive pumpkin. It wouldn't budge. Undeterred, I crouched on the ground and shoved it. The stupid thing only scooted an inch.

I tried again, putting all my weight into it, grunting with the effort. It scooted to the side a couple inches and that was all. This was a problem. I sat down to think about what to do.

Something caught my attention.

"Aughhh!!" a little kid with wild curly hair, he couldn't have been more than four or five years old, was straining to lift a pumpkin.

I watched him struggle for a few minutes, grunting and whining in frustration as he tried his hardest to pick up the pumpkin. It was much too big for his little arms. At first I wanted to laugh at him but then I started to feel bad.

"Hey, kid," I said when it was clear he wasn't going to give up, "Why don't you choose one that's more your size?"

"That one's too big. Just choose a smaller one, huh?" I tried to give him some advice before he hurt himself.

He stopped in his tracks and looked at me, looked at my chosen pumpkin, then looked back at me. He tilted his head to the side and gave me the most incredulous look that I've ever seen on a little kid.

"You choose a smaller one!" he said defiantly.

"What?" I couldn't believe this little kid was talking back to me like that.

"That one is too big for you!" he said, pointing at my pumpkin.

"No it's not," I said out of reflex.

The boy shrugged and went back to trying to wrap his arms around his pumpkin. I looked at my pumpkin again.

Crap. The kid was right. There's no way I could carry that by myself.

"Hey! I have an idea!" the kid interrupted my thoughts.

"What?" I decided to humor him.

"Can you help me?" he asked, a bright smile on his face, "It's too big for me, but it's not too big for you because you're bigger than me!"

I could already tell that he was one of those kids that are too smart for their own good. I sighed, resigned to my fate.

"Fine," I said. What was I going do, tell him no?

The boy clapped his hands excitedly and stood back while I picked up his orange pumpkin.

"Ugh," I grunted, straightening up. It was heavier than it looked.

"Thank you!" he said brightly.

"Uh-huh," I mumbled.

"Where's your mom and dad?" I asked. It was time to get this kid back where he belonged. I looked around but didn't immediately see anyone who might be his parents.

"My dad is not here," he said matter-of-factly.

"Okay, where's your mom?" I asked, trying to get some helpful information.

He looked around with big eyes, spinning in a circle, tears welling up.

"Mom?" he called hesitantly, then more urgently, "MOM!"

I kept looking around, hoping his mom would appear, but she didn't and he began crying.

"Hey, hey, it's okay," I said, trying to calm him down.

I crouched beside him, "Hey, look at me. It's okay. We'll find her, okay? I'll help you."

"Okay," he mumbled, sniffling.

"Do you remember where you saw her last?" I asked but apparently that was asking too much because he started crying again.

"Listen, we'll go find my dad and then he'll find your mom," I shifted the heavy pumpkin to hold it with one arm and reached out to hold his hand.

I lead him through the field towards the parking area and the barn, walking slowly. The kid kept whimpering and looking around like a lost puppy.

"What's your name?" I asked as we walked, all the while hoping his mom would appear out of the crowd of people milling about.

"Andre," he sniffled.

"I'm Carl. It's going to be okay," I tried to comfort him, "My dad's a policeman. Finding people is kind of his specialty. Once, my friend Sophia was lost in the woods for days and my dad and his friend, Daryl, found her."

"My mom is a samurai," Andre said suddenly.

"What?" I stopped to look at him.

"I don't think she's a samurai," I said, half to myself. Kids are so weird.

"Yes she is!" Andre said defiantly.

"Okay, fine. My dad's a policeman and your mom's a samurai," I did not feel like arguing with a four year old on top of everything.

We were almost back to the barn when I spotted my dad and the others. Judith was sitting beside a pile of little pumpkins, Tara taking pictures on her cell phone. I think I'm the only person in my school who doesn't have a cell phone.

"Dad!" I called and he looked up at Andre and I in surprise.

"His name is Andre. He got lost from his mom," I explained why I suddenly had a small child attached to me.

Dad sprang into action, asking how much time had passed since I found Andre, having me point in the direction we came from. We walked to the barn where people were paying for their pumpkins, thinking that was probably where Andre's mom would go.

Sure enough, there was a woman pacing anxiously outside the barn.

"Andre!" she called out when she spotted us.

"Mommy!" Andre yelled. He let go of my hand and ran towards her.

"Oh, my baby!" the woman fell to her knees and wrapped Andre in her arms, "Are you okay? Oh, baby, I'm so sorry!"

Once she assured herself that Andre was unhurt, the woman stood again, holding Andre to her chest, his arms tight around her neck.

"Thank you!" she told my dad, hurriedly wiping her eyes, "I looked away for one minute and he was gone. He gets so excited sometimes and before I know it, he's run off on his own."

"Don't worry about it," he said gently, "It happens."

Tara caught up to us. She smiled to see that Andre had been reunited with his mom.

"I believe this belongs to you," she said, handing a squirming Judith over to my dad.

"Hi, I'm Tara," she introduced herself, holding out a hand to Andre's mom.

"Michonne," the woman replied, shaking her hand with a smile, and then she looked at my dad and Judy again.

"We've met before," she said, recognition dawning on her.

"Oh?" Tara looked between them, a curious smirk already on her face.

"Yeah, Judith and Andre here both go to the same Day Care," my dad said.

While the adults talked, I was left standing there awkwardly holding Andre's unnecessarily heavy pumpkin.

None of my friends' moms looked quite like Andre's mom. She was tall, wore black boots and a metal-studded belt with her jeans and tank top, and had cool dreadlocks. She almost looked like a character from a comic book, maybe, but definitely not a samurai.

Meghan came over, pulling her little red wagon, and I put Andre's pumpkin in it. Then my dad suggested that we all go eat apple fritters. I had completely forgotten about Hershel's famous apple fritters. Crisp apples, hot fried dough, and powdered sugar; they're so good.

Later, after we packed up the car to go home, my dad stopped and put his hand on my shoulder.

"You did good today, Carl."

It wasn't such a bad day after all.