The Extra Ordinary Pumpkin

It was the morning of Halloween, before the sun was up, when Liam sat hunched at his desk drawing a picture of the face he intended to carve into his pumpkin. He would start, stop, crumble one up, and begin again.

“I can’t get this right, Mom,” he moaned.

“It doesn’t have to be perfect, buddy. Just draw triangles for eyes, a round hole nose, and big smile with teeth.’

“No, that ain’t right. I need a wizard.”

He sighed and said he would keep drawing. Mom returned to making biscuits. She would whip up the gravy in no time. Good job, she told herself. Mama would be proud. Without warning her wet tears soon dripped onto the hot stove. As she mopped them up, she thought of Mama. She imagined the sheer panic gripping her and pounding through her veins when the wrong-way driver hit her car, squishing the car and her. Liam chose a good time to stop those horrible thoughts.

“There!” he exclaimed triumphantly. “Perfect.”

Diane picked up his drawing. Triangles for eyes, a circle for the nose, and a huge smile with three teeth on top and one on the bottom. He told her he wanted a wizard. She smiled and sat at the table to help. They moved one muscle when his little sister called for Mama.

“Sorry, buddy. I’ll be right back.”

Liam looked back at his pumpkin, now a wizard with a pointed hat, a beard, and a gold lightning bolt on his velvet robe. The wizard jumped off the table wildly waving his wand.

“Milo the Wizard at your service, Liam.”

“But, hhhhhooooow,”

“I am the wizard of your future. You shall teach your son to cut his pumpkin. He will ask for a character. You, Liam my boy, will show him the right way. Your wife will make biscuits and gravy. Your son will draw his idea for his pumpkin’s face. I will appear and tell him his daddy is correct. Triangle eyes, a round nose, and a huge wide smile with teeth. That’s the way it has always been, and so it shall be.”

“Really? Wait just a minute, my mom will be right back. Oh wait, I hear her coming.”

Liam glanced over his shoulder. He called down the hallway. “Mom, you will never guess who is right here.”

He turned back and Milo was waving his wand looking Liam square in the eyes.

“And that, my boy, is how family traditions are started. Be sure to pass it on. Until we meet again!”