Scarecrow Girl

## Scarecrow Girl by Xephiliomia

He had lived on his family's farm in Iowa his whole life, so morning chores were not uncommon to him. Lifting his basket over his head, he made his way to the large corn fields far behind the barn closest to his house. The harvest season was upon him and his family so they had been very busy the past few weeks.

As he walked out to the field he couldn't help but notice the scarecrow that was perched high above the swaying cornstalks. That old thing had been in the same spot for as long as he could remember, the years of wear obviously taking a toll on the old scarecrow. Her long, coarse black hair was a mess, her dress tattered and torn and her pale body stained with dirt and crop dust. He thought to himself about fixing her up some day.

He stood silently staring at his old friend, remembering how he had shared so much with the inanimate object when he was younger and felt alone. Her eternal smile and blank eyes were comforting to him, a silent promise to never tell another soul all he had told her. It had been a couple years since he had talked to the scarecrow, he had figured an eighteen year old boy would be better off not seen talking to a lifeless object. Though to him, the scarecrow wasn't lifeless. She was his first and best friend. They lived together, played together, aged together..come to think of it, he had never noticed before that it seemed like the older he got, the older the scarecrow appeared. He smiled and sat down beside the scarecrow's pole.

"Sorry it's been so long," he whispered up to his friend. "I've been real busy I suppose..."

The wind blew through the scarecrow's hair and rustled the hay protruding from her body.

"Yeah, I guess that's no excuse, sorry. But..I met this girl," he said, half smiling. "She's amazing. I think, ya know, she may be 'the one'."

Sudden silence filled his ears as the wind blowing through the corn field abruptly stopped. The scarecrow stood perched, completely still.

"Would you like to meet her? I'm sure she'd love you! I'm havin' her over for supper tonight, I'll bring her out afterwards and introduce you two," he told the scarecrow as he stood up. He glanced up at his dear old friend once more before heading off to finish his daily chores.

"Come on, Lilly!" he called to the girl, laughing as he ran with her towards the darkened corn field. He was excited that his girlfriend had agreed to come to dinner and meet his parents, but was a bit nervous to show her his friend. What would she think? He was almost an adult and he was still talking to an inanimate object? He smiled to himself, what was he talking about? Lilly was so kind and sweet and understanding, of course she would love to meet her. He turned back to see if his girlfriend was still following and couldn't see her.

"Lilly!" he shouted again as he looked around for her. He smiled, "Don't think you can hide from me in my own field!" he said as he crept around silently looking for her. Pushing through the cornstalks he came upon the scarecrow's perch, seeing the back of his friend first.

"Hey there," he whispered. "I brought her to see yo-" he broke off suddenly when he walked to the front of the scarecrow and found that it wasn't his friend who occupied the perch at all, but Lilly. Her arms and legs were bound coarsely with dirty ropes to the old wooden post and stomach cut open with her internal fluids dripping from the wound. His face paled and he dropped to his knees in shock. As his hands touched the ground he felt a piece of paper right beside the wooden post. Hands shaking, he picked it up and read the poorly written message:

"Now you don't have to be so busy."

He read aloud, his voice shaking and eyes filling with tears. He tore up the paper and stood once more to look at the corpse hanging on the perch in front of him before turning around to meet the ever smiling face of his dear old friend.