Summer. Watermelon season. That next day, I guess because he felt like it, Soos closed the shop. Dad made us pancakes for breakfast. 

“Bring everything you need for a hot day,” he said as he brought the bottle of syrup to the table. “Almost 95 degrees at noon. Both of you better put on sunscreen, you hear?”

Theo and I both nodded. Despite the heat, he still refused to take the hat off. He claimed it smelled good? I don’t know.

I had decided to bring the journal with me, in my handy dandy knapsack. I kept my diary and wallet in there, so I guess it wouldn’t hurt to squish one more book in there. It fit fine; just a little bulky.

“Where are we going?” Theo asked.

“We’re going to go pick up some watermelons,” Soos said. “For Summerween!”

“Summer what?” I asked, raising my fork to my mouth for a bite of pancake.

Dad sighed. “Summerween. It’s just a thing they do here. According to my Grunkle Stan, the people of Gravity Falls love Halloween so much that they celebrate it twice a year.”

“I wonder why,” I muttered, lowering my head. I could tell that there was something spooky going on in this town. Like that monster I discovered two days ago. What did the journal call it? The Yopher? I wondered if the other people of this town knew that there was creepy stuff going on all the time. Why else would they love Halloween so much to celebrate it twice a year?

Dad chuckled to himself. “I remember Mabel and I’s first Summerween.”

“Was it good?” Theo asked.

“Hardly. We got into an argument and I lied to her. Then we found out that some guy dressed as a scarecrow was chasing us the whole night. Right Soos?”

Sweating. Again. Soos nodded. “He said he was the Summerween Trickster. The dude really wanted to live up to his name I guess…hah…”

“Woahh,” Theo said. “Do we get to dress up too? I wanna be a Pterodactyl!”

Soos smiled. “I’ll be one too! Pterodactyl Bros part two, dude!”

Theo giggled. “Yeah!”

“Part two?” I asked. “Dad, how come you have so many stories here, and you never tell us?”

Dad shrugged. “Some memories I forgot, and there are some memories that I wish to forget.”

“And..?”

“And it’s best not to bring them up again. You two go get dressed and Soos and I will meet you in the truck.”

I frowned and glumly nodded, setting my fork down. I went upstairs to get dressed. 

Soos turned the key and the engine roared. “Woah! I’m surprised this old thing can even still turn on!”

“Why haven’t you gotten a new car?” Dad asked, getting in the seat next to him.

“Ah..well without Mr. Pines here, it’s been a little difficult trying to run this place the same way.”

“Is Wendy still working here?”

“Oh hardly, man! She's got kids and stuff now, three daughters! I honestly don’t know what she does for work, but she’s definitely moved up from being a cashier at the Mystery Shack.”

Dad was a little red. I wondered why. “So…have you hired anyone else?”

Soos frowned. He scratched the back of his neck. “I mean…my nephew is working here: Reggies son. But I still can’t find anyone to take over my old job. Melody has just been doing it recently.”

“That’s because you gotta put up flyers, man.” Dad patted Soos’ back. “People aren’t gonna show up just wanting to work. You gotta let them know that they want to work.”

Soos wiped his face with his handkerchief again. “Oh gosh, why didn’t I realize this 30 years ago!”

Dad laughed. “It’s alright Soos. Clearly you’ve been doing just fine. And don’t worry about your car. I’ll buy you a new one. In the meantime, you just keep trying to get this place up and running just how it was when I was a boy, alright? Would you do that for me?”

Soos smiled at him. “Sure thing, Dipper.”

I smiled from the backseat. I nudged Theo’s shoulder to get him to look at the two long lost buddies as they hugged each other. Theo beamed.

Soos looked like he was about to sob. He backed up from Dad and smiled once more. Then the old red truck took off on the dirt road.

We arrived at the farm. I guess Dad wanted us to have an actual experience rather than just picking up some big watermelons from the grocery store.

I stepped out of the car. Theo followed behind me.

Dad stepped out and stretched his back. “Well, go ahead.”

“What?” I said, confused. I looked at him.

He looked at me and smiled. “Go explore. Here's 20 bucks for each of you. Make sure you have a watermelon picked out before 1:30, okay? That gives you 2 hours.” He handed us the bills.

Theo squealed excitedly. I giggled and took his arm, running deep into the farm to explore. I wonder what I would find. Eye-birds? Two headed snakes? Little mushroom creatures? A witch?

I took a pause to not let my imagination get ahead of me. I tried to remember the goals: Have fun. Get a watermelon. That was it. 

Theo tapped my arm and pointed to the corn maze.

I looked down at him. “You wanna go in there?”

He nodded. 

I frowned. It was only a dollar per person. “Alright. But you have to stay right next to me the whole time, okay? No wandering off. Pinkie promise?” I held out my pinky and my sixth finger.

He smiled and wrapped his little pinky around both digits. I smiled back and led him into the maze.

We started wandering through. Theo followed close behind me. His nineteen dollars were shoved in his pocket. He looked around. “It's really quiet…”

I nodded, agreeing. “You’d think there would be more people out here. I don’t know many other farms that open in the middle of summer.”

He nodded, then jumped and held on tightly to my arm. “Did you hear that?”

I shook my head. “What?”

He pointed into the corn. His trapper hat flap fell over his eyes. I realized what he had heard. Rustling in the corn to our left. And to our right. And behind us. We were surrounded.

 I quickly pulled out the journal. What kind of creature would choose to live in a corn maze? Honestly it wasn’t a bad idea. It was basically an infinite food source. I silently prayed that it was just a crow.

 A canine jumped out of the left side. It had the body of a red fox, with sharp quills on its back and…a watermelon head? The head was carved with the face of a jack-o-lantern. A Jack-o-melon!? The head looked like it was very securely attached. I reached over to try and pull it off, but then another one of the creatures jumped out of the other side. Theo screeched.

 I dropped the journal. It slid out of my hand and over to Theo’s feet.

 “Theo!” I cried as I pulled a quill out of my side. I pushed the dogs away. “What are these things! Look in the journal!”

 Theo hesitantly opened the journal and flipped through the pages. “Woofermelon!” He cried.

 “Does- ACH!” One of the beasts scratched my face. “Does it say anything about weaknesses?”

 “No!” he cried. He quickly started looking around for anything he could use. He darted into the corn.

 “THEO!” I called as a third Woofermelon piled on top of me. They were slashing at my arms and face. I screeched and tried to punish them off. Their watermelon heads weren’t breaking. They were way too tough for me to just punch right through them.

 Theo ran back with a battle cry. He slammed a sledgehammer into one of the Woofermelon’s heads. The watermelon exploded. He did the same thing with the other two.

 I heaved and sat up. Watermelon juice stained my clothing. “Where did you-”

 “I found it next to a scarecrow!” Theo said, dropping it. The hammer was almost as big as him.

 I nodded. “Okay- good job buddy. We gotta get out of here so we can get our watermelons.”

 He frowned and nodded, helping me back up onto my feet. We continued to wander through the maze, this time bringing the sledgehammer with us. You know, just in case.

 We finally got out of the maze. I had pocketed the journal back in my bag. I checked the time. We were coming up on 1 o’ clock.

 I frowned. “We gotta hurry up,” I told Theo. 

 Theo looked at his wrist, checking his pretend watch. He nodded. We walked into the field of watermelons and began looking around. I stayed on high alert, just in case any of them grew dog bodies and lunged at me.

 Luckily the rest of that hunt went smoothly. We each picked out our melons and bought them with the remainder of our money. I helped Theo carry his back to the truck.

 Dad was gone. Soos was waiting in the back of the truck. Eating a sandwich. “You dudes ready?”

 I nodded. “Where did Dad go?”

 “Oh, he said he had some important sciency stuff to do. So he walked back home. Sorry, Ria.”

 I frowned. I never liked the fact that my dad was always busy, exploring something or working on some ‘big project.’ But I was used to it. “It’s okay Soos. Let's just head back to the Mystery Shack.”

 All three of us got back in the car. I stared out the window as we drove off, with my watermelon in my mouth.

 “What happened to your clothes, by the way?” Soos asked.

 “Oh, uh…” I look down at my once-white shirt. “Theo and I spilled our fruit punch by accident.”

 “Oh, bummer. It’s okay, I can probably get it out. I’ll make that shirt as good as new!”

 I smiled a bit. “Thanks, Soos.”