It was getting colder and Kerry loved it. She loved wearing long sleeved shirts again and being able to keep her hair down without having a near heat-stroke experience.
But this was Michigan, and it was Kerry and soon the weather would be icy and she would be dreaming of summer. Still, Autumn was always nice.
She walked down the sidewalk looking at the leaves blowing around. Bright orange trees lined the street and their leaves made excellent background noise when the wind blew, it all made Kerry feel a little less stupid.
She hadn't gone to college like everyone else. She should have been running around with her friends, going to class and worrying about exams, but she decided to take a year off.
College was going to be a big change and she had too much creativity to let it be stifled any longer.
She couldn't go to class and study and all that, it wasn't for her, not yet. She'd take one year, find herself, write, get it all out of her system, and then she'd start college, then she'd be ready.
That was what she had told everyone, that she needed to get it out of her system, she needed to be free for a little while. The actual plan had been much different.
She would write, be discovered, and never look back.
But it was October, and she was lost. Sure, she had ideas, lots of them, lots of stories up inside her head. But she had never really taken the time to sort them all through.
There had always been school and some friends and a few boys, and she had always known that it would take a lot of time, a lot of alone, to go through her thoughts, her stories, and get them down on paper.
It would have been smart to take a quick peek before she had abandoned all idea of a higher education.
Perhaps she would have found that writing was more make-believe for her than she had ever imagined. She should have at least given her romantic notions a closer examination, a little more scrutiny.
Walking down the sidewalk through Autumn helped Kerry come to terms. She had no where to go, but seemed unable to get through her thoughts when she was motionless, they always seemed to go at the same pace as her body.
Things would be ok. She was working, seasonally, but that was alright, there were lots of seasons, she told herself, and she would be able to find work after Halloween.
Christmas seemed to start at midnight on the 31st anyhow. She wouldn't write, or maybe she would one day, but it wouldn't be deliberate, just a necessary excretion of ideas and thoughts, that had built up for too long.
Now was not the time, and Kerry felt she was finally ok with that. She had screwed up, but Autumn was still wonderful, Halloween was still exciting, and life was still generally good.
It was almost five. She needed to be at work soon, but it was only a 10 minute walk.
Kerry turned into a drug store. She didn't have a particular drug store fetish, but she liked them. She liked small stores.
For some reason processing large spaces where hard for her and she got lost easily. Small stores where comforting. Even if they smelled like disinfectant, which this one certainly did.
The place was fairly crowded, for the type of store. Last minute candy buyers and the like. She walked through the aisles toward the back.
A man was holding a basket and pushed all the Halloween makeup from the rack into it. He was older than she was, by a lot. Middle aged. He turned and started walking toward Kerry, then he paused, turned again, and put two packages back on the rack.
Kerry gave him a puzzled look. "In case somebody comes here later wanting some. I just imagined some kid with his heart set on painting his face for Halloween, finding out there was none left."
"That's really nice of you."
"Well, it just makes the world a nicer place."
"Yeah, it does, it would."
They smiled and Kerry got drawn into his gray eyes.
"Well...I, uh, I'll see ya around maybe."
It was strange, she had nothing better to say, and was thankful that he had said anything so they could leave.
But they had been two people, comfortable, talking, sharing, and then they couldn't anymore. The conversation had ended and etiquette dictated that they not introduce a new one with a stranger, so they were stuck to their spots, until one had figured out how to say goodbye.
It made her sad. He had been nice, not that she had hoped to become involved with him, but sad because this was how you met people, this was how it happened, and the magnitude of distress that keeping something going would cause, scared her. How did people ever manage to date anyone?
The idea that she had screwed herself by not going to college hit her full force again. She didn't want to think about it, so she hurried through the aisle and grabbed a bottle of caffeine pills.
All they ever had to drink at work was cider, which was great, but not very effective in keeping one awake.
*******
Halloween. Kerry walked down the dirt road next to the field. It was dusk. There were a few families picking pumpkins.
She got to the barn and saw a lot of little ones exiting from the very tame haunted house in the barn. It was free for them. She liked that. She liked the owners of the farm. They didn't charge for things that didn't cost them, it was nice.
They did charge for the real haunted house that appealed mostly to high school and college students wanting to get scared shitless and then fuck each other afterwards.
That was where Kerry came it. Not the fucking part, but the money part. She was the hostess, so to speak. She took in the money, gave out the tickets, repeated a warning about the graphic nature of the house which the thrill seekers were about to enter and the like.
She went into the little ticket booth to set down her bag and get ready for the evening. She had brought her book, had her caffeine. But it was unlikely that the book would get much use, it being Halloween night and all.
Gary was there, one of the owners sons. He worked as much as anyone, but didn't really have a position, he'd just do what needed to be done.
Kerry liked him. He was nice and smart and very openly gay. Which made him a great friend without hormonal swings.
Tonight Gary was wearing a pumpkin costume and it looked to Kerry as if he were a mascot for a tee-ball team. She laughed as her bag fell off her shoulder and onto the bench that was carved into the small space. "Yeah," he said, not at all embarrassed. "I've been doing the kiddy house all day.
"Fun."
"It was alright, there so cute and excited."
"...and hyped up on sugar?"
"Ya know, Kerry? You are way too cynical. And their finding that sugar doesn't actually make kids hyper...sure it'll ruin their teeth, give them diabetes, but, no, it doesn't make them crazy, they come like that."
Kerry laughed again. She really liked it here, it was too bad that it would be the last night. "You, my dear, need to get into costume." Gary held up a short, slightly slutty, black dress.
"Ah, yes, the traditional hooker costume." She raised an eyebrow.
Gary threw it at her in mock anger, and them put a hat on her head, that slid down her eyes. "You're a witch, Kerry."
She had to admit, with the hat, it didn't look so bad, a little show off-ish but that was fine, it would be nice.
"I've got to go move hay and make sure the haunted house people are in costume...oh, and the costume you have is a witch, not a hooker."
It took Kerry a minute to get that before he had had just been calling her a witch, not explaining what the costume was.
"Cute," she yelled after him.
"Took you long enough," he yelled back over his shoulder.
She would really miss this.
Kerry closed the back door to the stall and wiggled into costume, it fit well, the hat was cute, she felt cute. And then she started to feel hot. It had been a while since she last came.
For a moment she thought about playing with herself right there, hoping she could get off fast enough, before anyone came around wanting admission. She shook the thoughts from her head and opened the ticket window to cement the decision, letting in a very appreciate burst of cool air.
The night was long, and crowded and as she had suspected, Kerry did not get a chance to read her book. But her thoughts weren't really on her book at all.
She had been getting looks all night. Male looks. Sexual looks. Looks that made her yearn for something inside of her...so she found a use for the book. Kerry sat it in front of her, under the ticket window on her stool.
The binding was against the stool she was sitting on and it was pressed against the front wall, being held in place by constant pressure she applied by pressing her crotch against it under her dress.
Every time she shifted slightly she felt it, rubbing against her clit. It was by no means enough to get her off, but it was very nice.
She became exceptionally flirtatious, but calmed down after catching angry looks from various girls. She didn't want to hurt anybody.
Time went by quickly that way, and soon Kerry was closing her window and locking the booth, for the last time. She said her goodbyes to the few other people she knew that worked with her, which were really only the managers, as she had no chance to associate with anyone else.
She promised to return the dress later, which she could have done then, but really wanted an excuse to come back.
Kerry started to leave. Then turned. She looked at the orchard, the pumpkin field, the corn maze. She had never been in the corn maze before. She'd never been in any corn maze before.
She had always wanted to, but was too tired after work to bother. She could go now. There was nothing stopping her, no one at home waiting.
The weather was getting colder, and it was sleeting a little, but nothing to bad, and the lights were still on in the barn. It was Halloween, and she hadn't done anything, she went.
It wasn't really what she had expected. There was no logic to be used, no way of telling where one was. She just had to wonder...and it was dark, it was very dark. The sleet started to come down harder and getting out was not proving easy.
Kerry started to panic, this wasn't fun, this wasn't good, she shouldn't have done this. She was cold and wet and it was very late, or very early, depending on how you looked at it.
"It's ok," she said aloud. "This is ok, I'll just wander until I get out, nothings going to happen, nothing can happen, I'm just a little uncomfortable, but other then that this is just going to take time.
