Lucas and the Giant Zucchini (standard:other, 1957 words)
Author: Lauren H.	Added: Oct 30 2007	Views/Reads: 3054/2039	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
This is a cute story about baby Lucas who makes quite a discovery.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

When the beans were snapped and the corn was shucked, Nanna and Erin
carried the produce into the house where they washed it in the double 
sink and put it aside for later. Then it was time to check the garden 
for tomatoes and squash. Erin enjoyed gardening almost as much as her 
mother. She had a garden at her home far away where she worked almost 
every evening. Nanna believed in organic gardening. She had what is 
often referred to as a 'green thumb' and almost everything she planted 
grew well. However, that summer there had been a drought and a lot of 
things just didn't get enough rain. The tomatoes were smaller than 
usual. The corn she planted did not grow at all. Just by luck the green 
beans had done okay. The corn that they were having for dinner that 
night was purchased form a local farmers market. 

Nanna put on her sun hat and grabbed two plastic pails. She gave Erin a
pail and an extra sun hat. Erin was fair-skinned and platinum-blonde 
like her little son Lucas. She had inherited her looks from her 
father's mother who was Pennsylvania Dutch. Kayla and Kris followed 
them to the garden and asked if they could help pick. "Of course you 
can", Nanna replied. Nanna took a few minutes to look over the rows of 
tomatoes to see which bushes were in most need of picking. Erin pitched 
right in, not bothering to look first, moving quickly through the rows. 
She did not see her husband Chris exiting the house with Lucas in his 
arms. He brought Lucas to the edge of the garden and put the squirming 
baby down. "He woke up crying so I thought he wanted you", Chris told 
her. 

Erin turned to look but did not stop picking tomatoes. Her pail was
almost full. She said, "Hold on Chris, I'll be finished here soon". 
Baby Lucas saw his mommy, sister and brother in the garden and he 
wanted to be with them. Before Chris could stop him he began to crawl 
very quickly towards them. Chris said, "Stop Lucas!" Lucas was crawling 
over a zucchini squash hill when Chris reached him. "Come here Lucas", 
Chris said as he bent down and reached for the infant. Lucas had 
stopped crawling and was sitting up under a big zucchini leaf. When 
Chris saw what Lucas was looking at he said quite shocked, "Wow look at 
that!" 

"What is it Chris?" "What are you talking about?" "Is Lucas okay?", Erin
asked anxiously. Kayla and Kris came running from the row of tomatoes. 
Nanna looked up at all the commotion. She wasn't really listening and 
said, "Careful of the plants, don't stomp on them kids." Erin left her 
pail of tomatoes sitting when she heard Kayla and Kris squealing at 
something they saw on the ground where baby Lucas was sitting. She 
walked quickly over to them and when she saw what they were all looking 
at she exclaimed, "Oh my goodness Mom, come here at once and see this 
zucchini." "Why it's enormous!"  "What!", Nanna said as she hurried 
over. She saw the huge zucchini almost immediately. It was almost as 
big as baby Lucas, dark green and perfectly shaped. 

By this time Pappy had joined them and saw it too. He said, "Good
Knight!" "What a squash!" "Wait, don't pick it yet!" "I must get a 
picture of it!" He ran to get his digital camera from the den. He 
returned shortly and tried to get some shots. But the big zucchini 
leaves kept getting in the way. Nanna said, "I have an idea." "Lucas 
found this giant and he shall have the honor!" "What honor is that?", 
Pappy asked. Nanna bent down and twisted the zucchini off of its vine. 
She took a kitchen towel from her apron pocket and polished it. Then 
she bent and placed the giant zucchini on Lucas's lap. Lucas sat on the 
ground in his little red onsie and blue shorts grasping the big 
zucchini in his little hands. He appeared to be quite proud of himself 
and he said suddenly in his special baby language, "Doot". Nanna 
chuckled and exclaimed, "There's your picture Karl". Pappy took several 
shots of Lucas holding the zucchini. 

Nanna said excitedly, "I'm going to cut that Zucchini up in several
pieces and bake some of it in a casserole for supper." "It will go 
perfectly with the beans and corn." "Indeed you shall not!", Pappy 
said. "I am going to call the newspaper and tell them about this 
monstrosity". "Perhaps they would like to take a picture of it." "You 
have already photographed it you old fool", Nanna said jokingly. "Well 
we'll see about that Linda!", Pappy said irritably as he pulled his 
cell phone out of his pocket. After holding on for a couple of minutes 
he reached the right reporter at the local newspaper who told him to 
bring his digital photos into the newspaper office on Monday. Nanna 
could have said, "I told you so", but she didn't. 

When Nanna tried to take the zucchini from Lucas he began to cry. He
obviously had become attached to it and would not give it up. He sat in 
his high chair at supper with the zucchini wedged next to him. There 
was barely enough room. Lucas went to sleep that night on his little 
trundle bed with the giant zucchini in his arms, the Elmo doll cast 
aside. The Miller family stayed one more day with Nanna and Pappy and 
then it was time to go home. Lucas took the giant zucchini with him. 
Erin whispered to Nanna as she was leaving, "When it begins to wither 
I'll sneak it away while he sleeps". Nanna and Pappy would miss their 
family members and hated to see them go. But they knew they would come 
back for Thanksgiving. 

Pappy took his digital photos of Lucas and the zucchini to the newspaper
office after work on Monday afternoon. The community editor took one of 
the photos and told him that it would be used in the newspaper. Pappy 
was thrilled and sure enough two days later a picture appeared in the 
newspaper. It was titled, "Lucas and the Giant Zucchini". Nanna and 
Pappy's neighbors and fellow church goers commented on it. They 
recognized the name Shellhammer that appeared below Lucas's picture. 
The small article read, 'Ten-month-old Lucas Miller holding a giant 
zucchini that he found in the backyard garden of his grandparents, Karl 
and Linda Shellhammer of Lavale Avenue'. Pappy bought ten copies of the 
newspaper so that he could send the article to other family members. Of 
course one of them was sent to the Miller family in Somerset County MD. 
Kayla and Kris took the article to school with them to use as part of 
their report for their first class assignment, "Interesting things that 
happened during my summer vacation". 


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