Bell’s General Store
Fiction by Kevin Joseph Reigle
The jar of jelly beans in the window of Bell’s General Store is my only chance to ask Alabama to the carnival. You see, if I can guess the number of jelly beans in the jar, I’ll win the cash prize of twenty-five dollars, and then I’ll have enough money to take Alabama to the carnival.
You can’t ask the prettiest girl in the county if you don’t have a dime, and me, I’m flat broke. I also need to ask her before Colton does. I can’t stand him. His family is the richest in the county, but I bet he entered the contest anyway, just like everyone else in Shade Mountain.
This contest was the idea of Joel Bell’s daughter, Harper. She’s in my class at school and went on a field trip to Kansas City, where she saw a general store doing a contest like this. So, when she got back home, she told her daddy, and he thought it would be a great kickoff to the summer carnival.
Twenty-five dollars is a whole lot of money to give away, but Joel ended up making way more than that with the contest. To take a guess, you have to buy something, and it has to cost at least fifty cents. Well, when the people of Shade Mountain heard Joel Bell was having a contest that paid out twenty-five whole dollars, they came running. After all, who wouldn’t want money like that to spend at the carnival? That’s enough to buy all the cotton candy, candy apples, and soda pop you could want, and still have money left over.
The other day, I told Harper I had to win the contest so I could ask Alabama to the carnival before Colton did. I could show Alabama such a good time with twenty-five dollars, and she’d like me for sure. I wasn’t planning on telling Harper why I wanted to win the contest, because sometimes I don’t think she likes Alabama. But when Harper asked what was wrong, I blurted it out. I was so jittery, pacing around, trying to do the math to figure out how many jelly beans could fit into that old pickle jar.
Harper waited till her daddy was helping a customer, and then led me down one of the aisles and said she’d tell me how many jelly beans were in the jar. She even asked if I had enough money to buy something, and when I said I didn’t, she lent me fifty cents to buy some candy.
She cupped her hand and whispered in my ear that there were five hundred and twenty-one jelly beans in the pickle jar. I was so happy that I hurried over to Mr. Bell, bought my fifty-cents worth of candy, and scribbled down 521 on a slip of paper, and skipped right out of the store. I thought nothing could dampen my day until I saw Colton riding his bike.
I tried to give him the stink eye, but I don’t think he was paying me any attention. No matter. I knew that Tuesday would come, and I’d win that twenty-five dollars and ask Alabama to the carnival. This contest was such a big deal that I might even get my picture in the paper.
And now, here it is, Tuesday, and by gosh, it seems like the whole town is crowded around Bell’s General Store to see who won. There are so many people here that Joel Bell had to bring the jar and the ballot box he borrowed from the women’s auxiliary outside to the sidewalk, because there’s no way everyone could fit in the store.
Joel opens the ballot box and pulls out a slip of paper with the winning guess. He says that some lucky person guessed the exact number of jelly beans. Everyone oohs and ahhs.
He holds up five crisp five-dollar bills, brand new from the bank and announces the winning number. Winning the jelly bean contest by guessing five hundred and sixty-seven jelly beans is Colton Jones.
The crowd begins to cheer.
Colton raises his hands in victory and, with a big smile, walks up to Mr. Bell and gets his prize. And you know what, the newspaper takes his photograph.
I look for Harper not understanding what’s happening. She told me the number to guess. I was supposed to win.
I find Harper as the crowd disperses. Colton is standing in front of the general store window, talking to Alabama, showing off his twenty-five dollars.
I ask Harper what happened, and she says she doesn’t know. Maybe her daddy added extra jelly beans to the jar. Dejected and not sure what to do now, I watch Colton take Alabama’s hand, and before they start walking down the street to the carnival, I see Colton smile at Harper and give her a wink.
Harper then looks at me and asks if I’d like to go to the carnival with her.
Kevin Joseph Reigle’s fiction has appeared in The Brussels Review, Bridge Eight, Drunk Monkeys, Beyond Words, Bristol Noir, and several anthologies. He is a student at The New School.
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