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Jack looked out over the destroyed corn field from her bedroom window. In the distance, the maple trees had turned red and orange, like a forest on fire, but the corn below was black instead of yellow. It would be dark soon, but that couldn’t hide the truth.
They’d never recover from this.
Turning away from the window with a sigh, she let the sheer white curtains cover up the destruction. She ran a hand over her face, surveying the mess in her room: muddy boots and jeans discarded on the faded rug, her torn flannel shirt draped over a chair awaiting repair, the unmade bed that needed a serious laundry day. This kind of mess she could control. She could clean the dirt and mud, mend the shirt, wash the sheets.
She couldn’t bring back the crops.
Her parents’ voices filtered up through the floorboards, low and fast, urgent—scared. Just like she was.
Jack pulled on a thick pair of wool socks, descended the stairs from her attic room, crossed the hall with as few creaks as possible, and tip-toed halfway down the stairs. She settled onto a step in the middle, fingers curled around the spindles of the staircase and face pressed into the gap. Her parents would see her if they looked up, but they were lost in their conversation, their voices still low as they talked over the kitchen table. Piles of bills filled the space between them. Her mom had a hand pressed over her mouth, and her dad covered his face with his hands.
“They’re due next week, Lawrence,” her mom said. “We’re already three months behind on payments. They’re not going to give us more time; they already said so.”
“What else are we going to do, Kate?” her dad responded, dropping his hands. His face was angry, tenser than Jack had ever seen it. “Make money out of thin air? Oh, I know, how about we grow it in the fields? Oh, wait. That’s right. The floods brought the mold, so everything is dead.”
“There’s no need to be like that. We’re in this together.”
Jack’s heart started pounding, and she was worried for a moment that they would hear it from the kitchen table. They never used to fight like this.
Then again, the farm had never been in such a position before. She’d known they were always on razor thin profits from year to year, one disaster away from foreclosure.
This was that disaster.
Her mom lowered her hand, eyeing the diamond glittering on her third finger. After a moment of hesitation, she pulled the ring off and set it on top of the largest stack of papers. “This would cover most of the payment. Give us a chance to catch up.”
“You really think one payment will hold them off?” her dad said. “What are we going to do after that? How will we catch up?”
Her mother’s voice grew cold. “At least we’d have time to figure something else out.”
Her father sighed. “I’m sorry. You’re right.”
He paused, then reached into his pocket. He pulled out a shining brass pocket watch and flipped it open, watching the second hand tick around the face for a few moments.
That was her grandfather’s watch. Her father’s most prized possession.
He set it down next to the ring. “That will cover the rest.”
Jack gasped, and both her parents spun toward the stairs.
“Jack?” her father said. “Come on down.”
Guiltily, Jack released the spindles and slunk down the last half of the stairs and into the kitchen. She stopped next to the table. “Are we going to lose the house?”
Her parents traded a look before her mother spoke. “We hope not, sweetie. We’re doing what we can.”
But tears already burned in Jack’s eyes. “We can’t lose the farm. It was Grandma and Grandpa’s. We can’t disappoint them.”
“Sweetheart, it’s not our fault,” her dad said. “You know how tight it’s always been. Even Grandma and Grandpa had rough years.”
Jack blinked rapidly and looked away. Get it together, girl! You’re almost sixteen!
Her mom made a pitying sound, and Jack looked back to see her arms extended toward her. In spite of herself, Jack found herself melting into her mom’s warm hug. Here, everything was safe. Here, everything would stay the same.
Here, they wouldn’t lose the farm.
She choked back her tears, hiding her face from her parents until she could get her emotions back under control. Once Jack’s breathing had returned to normal, she pulled back. Her father was staring at the ring and the watch on the table, and her mother was busy blinking away tears of her own.
They stood together in silence for too long, the weight of the world pressing them in place as if they were set in concrete.
Eventually her father spoke. “Jack, I have to ask you to do something.”
Her heart started pounding all over again. “Anything. If it will help the farm.”
“It will.” He hesitated again. “Jack, your mother and I have a meeting with the neighboring farms tomorrow and another with the bank the day after that. I wish I didn’t have to, but... Can you stop at the pawn shop on your way home from school?”
He slid the ring and the watch toward her, and she froze, her eyes locked on the sparkling jewelry.
“Why?” Her voice shook.
“You know why,” her mom said. “Just try to get as much as you can for them, okay?”
She took a deep breath, then collected the jewelry. “Okay.”
Her mom nodded. “Good. Now go do your homework.”
***
THE NEXT MORNING, JACK’S alarm went off, and she peeled her heavy eyelids open. The room was cold, and she could just see the ring of frost around the edges of the glass of her window. She reached out toward the corner of her desk for her phone, keeping the rest of her body under the comforter. As soon as the alarm was silenced, she pulled her body back under the blanket.
Everything felt heavy, too heavy, today. It was the day she had to go to the pawn shop. The day she pawned her mother’s engagement ring and her grandfather’s watch. The day she admitted to the world that the family farm might not make it through the end of the year. Maybe not even the end of the month.
Eventually, she managed to drag herself out of bed and pull on clothes for school. Her mom met her in the kitchen with a thermos of tea and her lunch, and then she waited on the porch for her best friend, Lucy, to pick her up in her beat-up old Toyota. Usually Lucy had swim practice, but today they had the day off, a reward for winning their last meet. As she waited, Jack couldn’t help but stare out over the ruined fields again as she sipped the black tea in her thermos, burning her tongue. She really would have preferred coffee, but her mom tried to replace it with tea every chance she got.
Lucy rolled up in front of the porch and tapped the horn, waving up at Jack. Jack waved back, plodding down the steps and dropping herself into the front seat.
As they pulled out of the long gravel drive, Lucy said, “What’s up? You seem... off.”
Jack shrugged. “Things aren’t going well.”
Lucy gave her a sad half smile. “Sorry, lady. Anything I can do?”
“Have time to go to the pawn shop with me after school?”
Lucy stared ahead at the road for a few seconds, her face carefully neutral. “Sure, anything you need, Jack.”
The pity was almost too much, but this was Lucy. Her best friend. The girl she built a treehouse with when she was seven. The girl who stood by her side and fought off the bullies in the school halls. There was never really pity there.
Jack was just sensitive. She’d always been that way, overly tuned in to other peoples’ emotions, reactive to too much noise or stimulation. Her mom called it a thin skin, but it didn’t really matter what anyone called it.
She was weak.
She hated how she couldn’t seem to stand up for herself and how everyone around her judged her for it. She depended on others to take care of her, to protect her, to shelter her from the storms of life. Or at least that was how the world saw it. And to an extent it was true. The world was hard, and it pained her.
And now her parents asked her to do one thing, and it seemed like the hardest thing she’d ever done in her life. But if she didn’t do it, she’d prove them all right. She’d prove how weak she really was.
Jack leaned back against the headrest and closed her eyes, too tired to let her mind keep spinning in circles. She must have drifted off, because the next thing she knew, Lucy was shutting off the car and shaking her shoulder.
“You sure you’re okay?” she asked again.
Jack nodded. “Just tired.”
Lucy gave her a calculating look, then they walked into the building together. Jack clutched her tea between her fingers, wishing she could feel the warmth through the metal.
But all she felt was the ice cold of autumn mornings.
***
THE DAY PASSED IN A blur of half-digested classes and a lunch that turned Jack’s stomach. She couldn’t just throw it away, so instead she gave it to Lucy’s boyfriend, Todd. That kid would eat anything. But finally the excruciating school day ended, and they were back in the car headed deeper into the small town.
Lucy pulled into the space outside the nameless pawn shop. “You’re sure about this?”
“I have to,” Jack said softly. “We don’t have much choice.”
Lucy nodded, and they stepped out of the car. She slung her arm over Jack’s shoulders, and they made their way into the shop to the tinkling of a tiny brass bell over the door.
Despite the heaviness blanketing her, Jack couldn’t help but look around at the strange items on the shelves. She’d never been allowed in here before and had only seen oddities like a gold-leaf raven skeleton and antique toilet chair in the window.
Inside was like a world of magic she’d never seen before. There were sparkling antique bottles of every color lining the window and casting rainbows on the tile floor. In the center stood a pedestal with a gold horse statue. Oil paintings lined the walls around the store and behind the counter. And in the glass counter sat every kind of jewelry she could imagine, from rings to brooches to vampiric-looking amulets.
Jack glanced at Lucy, who gave her a small nod, then swallowed and stepped toward the counter. Lucy ducked down next to her, looking inside the glass case, but Jack knew she was listening.
With Lucy here, nothing bad would happen.
There was no one manning the counter, but a small silver bell gleamed in front of the cash register. Jack tapped it gently, and the bright ring reverberated throughout the store. A door in the back opened and closed a moment later, then an old woman appeared behind the counter, stepping up on a stool to lean out toward the girls. She was short and stocky, wearing a bright white apron with bulging pockets and thick glasses that made her eyes look twice as large as they actually were.
“Yes?” she said. “Can I help you?”
Jack swung her backpack up on the counter. It was heavier than she expected, full of her textbooks for the evening’s homework.
The woman glared at her. “You’re going to break my glass.”
“Sorry.” She pulled the backpack to the ground and dug through it, looking for the small box that held her parents’ jewelry. She pulled off the lid on the counter and set the ring and pocket watch down in front of the woman. “How much will you give me for these?”
The woman dug in her apron for a small magnifying glass and peered at each piece in turn. The shop fell into silence while she worked, the only sound a cacophony of ticking clocks on the wall behind her. With each passing second, they grew louder and louder, drowning out Jack’s thoughts until all that was left was her anxiety.
She knew what her parents needed to get for the pieces. She knew what they needed to keep the farm going.
She also knew they were worth much, much more than that woman would ever give her. And chances were pretty good that she wouldn’t offer much, especially to someone as young as Jack.
“I’ll give you three hundred for both,” the woman said, setting the magnifying glass down with a snap and looking up at Jack.
Jack felt herself deflate. “That’s not enough. They’re worth more than that!”
“Maybe, but I still have to make a profit when I sell them. I can’t sell them at face value.”
“But that’s not fair!”
“It’s a pawn shop, what did you expect?”
Jack’s eyes burned, and she blinked back tears. “Can’t you do any better?”
She could hear the desperation in her own voice, and she hated that it betrayed her.
Lucy stood up. “Listen, lady.” She tapped her finger on the counter for emphasis. “My parents know everyone in this town. If you don’t give her a better deal, then we’ll just walk right out of here and make sure everyone boycotts you. You’ll be closed by the end of the month.”
The woman glared at her, lip curled in a snarl. “And just who are your parents?”
“The Carlisles.”
The woman froze, blinking owlishly. “Mayor Carlisle is your father?”
Lucy nodded, smiling triumphantly. She’d won.
Jack felt her lips curve into a humorless smile. She knew Lucy would have her back. Fighting her fight for her, again. She didn’t love that she used her family’s name to bail Jack out—her parents certainly weren’t accepting any help from the mayor, since even he didn’t have enough money to pay the bank—but she was out of options. She couldn’t let her parents down.
Finally the old woman glared. “Forget the money, then.”
Lucy’s smile faded. “Excuse me?”
The woman stared back at her for a few moments. “The money won’t do. I have something better. If you insist on threatening me.”
Jack’s stomach flopped, and the woman reached under the counter. She set a small enamel box on the counter next to Jack’s jewelry. It was a cream and orange colored pumpkin, framed in rose gold metal. The woman grasped the light green stem between her thumb and forefinger, pulling it open on a hidden hinge. Inside were three shrunken seeds.
“What’s this?” Jack said. “I said we needed more money, not some dinky box with old seeds.”
The woman shook her head. For a moment, Jack thought she saw something shimmering around the woman, but she blinked and it was gone. “You’re not looking. These are more than seeds. They’re a key. Plant them, and I promise you all your problems will be solved.”
Lucy leaned forward. “How do we know you’re not lying? And what exactly is this going to get her?”
“They’re a key!” the woman snapped. “Use them, and you’ll find everything you need. It’s more than I would give someone else.” She glared at Lucy again. “But it’s better than three hundred dollars. I can’t give you any more than that.”
Jack exchanged a look with Lucy. Could it be possible? Three hundred certainly wasn’t enough... she couldn’t bring that home to her parents. They’d be crushed.
And there was something about the seeds. She leaned in, staring at the shriveled bits in the box. They were pale, like bleached bone, yet emanated something. A glow, a feeling. A voice that seemed to say, Take this and all will be well.
What would these seeds do? Would they even still grow? And even if they did, what would that do to help their situation?
All will be well.
She looked back at the woman, hesitating. Then, suddenly sure the seeds were the answer to all her family’s problems, she said, “Fine.”
The woman snapped the pumpkin closed, handed it to Jack, swept the jewelry into a small wooden box behind her, and sent the girls on their way in a whirlwind.
As Jack’s feet hit the sidewalk outside, she couldn’t help the feeling of dread that swept over her. Hopefully she hadn’t just made the worst mistake of her life.
