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“I’ll make this brief because we are all very excited to get inside and start the pumpkin decorating contest. On behalf of the town of Greenville, I have a little something I want to present to you. You know, we don’t do keys here. Cities do keys. Small towns like ours don’t have keys. We don’t even need to lock our doors. So, it’s my pleasure to honor you, our distinguished guest, with the town’s golden shovel and this pair of well-worn steel toe boots. These signify the grit and hard work this town is built on.”

Todd handed Chris a pair of used steel toe boots and a two-foot-tall shovel made of gold, and then the three posed for a picture. And then the Mayor brushed Todd away and took a few more pictures alone with Chris.

“Wow, I am not sure what to say,” Chris said into the microphone as the mayor held it in front of him. “I am honored, truly. I will cherish these always, and try to live my life in a way that respects these great gifts, and respects you, Greenville!”

The crowd cheered, and then cheered louder when Chris raised the gifts into the air.

As Chris stepped down from his platform, the mayor called out to him. “Hey, Chris, we actually need that shovel back. Yeah, it was sort of more of a symbolic gesture.” He nodded to Todd. “Todd, be a buddy and grab that shovel from Chris, would ya? We just need to hold on to that. It’s actually made of solid gold, so it’s worth quite a bit at this point. We bought it as an investment piece, and it’s done pretty well for us. We’re actually quite over-leveraged against it right now, so we just gotta hold on to it. Thanks for understanding. You can keep the boots, though! Those are all yours!”

“Great job up there!” Maye said, joining Chris near the entrance.

“What a nice welcome!” Chris said, holding up his boots. “I think these might actually fit me.”

“Excuse me, folks,” Mayor Mayer addressed the crowd. “Just one final announcement. I spoke with the police chief, and I want to make it very clear…it is our official position that residents should lock their doors. Just want that on the record. Lock your doors. There isn’t an imminent threat, everything’s fine. But just casually keep them locked…”

“Come on, let’s go,” Maye pulled Chris by the arm and led him into the market.

“Looks like we’ve got some artisan crafts to start, eh?” Chris said as he mozied to the first vendor table. He picked up a bar of handcrafted goat milk soap and held it to his nose to test the scent. “Mmm…Dirty Chai Latte,” he said, holding the cream-colored bar with swirls of espresso and specks of vanilla beans.

“I’m coming back for this,” he told the vendor as he placed the soap back on the table.

“I was going to put soap in your welcome basket,” Maye said, wishing she had stuck to her original idea.

“For future reference,” Chris said, “always put scented soap in a welcome basket. So, what else goes on at this Fall Fest?”

“Well tonight is the pumpkin decorating contest, then tomorrow is the three-legged race, then Thursday they finally use the wrestling ring for the leaf pile jump, and then Friday’s the baked good contest, and it all culminates on Saturday with the sumo pumpkin matches.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Chris said. “Did you say wrestling ring?”

“I’ll explain all that later,” she said. “Oh! Watch this,” Maye said as she pulled Chris to the “Popcorn Toppings Bar” booth. Maye leaned in towards the woman behind the table. “How is the halibut tonight?”

The woman stared at Maye, confused.

“The halibut,” Maye enunciated every letter as clearly as she could and nodded knowingly.

“This is a popcorn station, ma’am,” the woman said.

“Nevermind,” Maye said, dejected. “Sorry about that.”

“What was that about?” Chris asked.

“Tracy said that if you ask about the halibut, then you get a custom popcorn bucket. I think she was pranking me.”

As they approached the next booth, there was a group of familiar faces hanging around their vicinity. Faces of people who are trying their darndest to show restraint and be respectful.

Chris leaned in close to Maye. “I’m just gonna say hi and get this over with.”

“So you noticed it, too?” She whispered back.

“Hi everyone!” he announced as he turned to face the crowd that had grown around them. “Would you mind if I took some pictures with you all?”

Maye stood back and admired how at ease he appeared and how comfortable everyone seemed around him.

“I’ll be in town for a few days, so there’s plenty of time for us to get to know each other,” he said as he snapped selfies with people in the crowd. “You’ll be sick of me in no time!”

After Chris offered dozens of hugs and earmarked an item at nearly every vendor table, they were finally nearing the end of the market where the pumpkin decorating contest was set up.

“That was really nice of you to stop and talk like that,” Maye said. “You handle the attention well.”