Dave hadn't meant for everything to go south so quickly. In fact, the night had started out well. JJ had called and asked if he would mind taking Henry for a couple of hours. Halloween seemed to always have a bit of a negative connotation for JJ - at least over the five years Dave had known her. So, it wasn't a big deal to watch Henry. He came dressed in the cutest dragon costume Dave had ever seen, and kept trying to breathe fire.
"Not fire to hurt," Henry reassured. "Just regular fire." Then he took a deep breath and blew, disappointed when nothing happened.
To distract the kid before he did some kind of damage to himself, Dave channel surfed away from the John Wayne movie he'd been ready to watch tonight and stopped on the only cartoon he could stand.
"A puppy!" Henry squealed. "He's so cute!"
"That's Snoopy," Dave said, feeling ancient as he told Henry each character's name and the plot, in as uncomplicated a fashion as he could, given Henry's age. "The kid with the blue blanket wants to wait up all night on Halloween for The Great Pumpkin."
"Why?" Henry asked in a whisper.
"Because he thinks The Great Pumpkin will come and give him presents on Halloween night if he believes hard enough."
"Oh," Henry nodded seriously, his eyes fixed on the screen.
Dave settled back into his favorite chair, Henry the dragon on his lap, and they watched the screen intently for the duration of the program. The last thing Dave expected was for Henry to burst into tears.
"What's wrong, kiddo?" Dave asked, as Henry buried his face in Dave's shirt.
"The Great Pumpkin!" he sobbed.
Dave opened his mouth to say something, but he was dumbfounded. He had seen this movie plenty of times, with several kids. None of them ever had this kind of a reaction. Dave patted Henry's back awkwardly.
"Do you wanna talk to your mom?" Dave asked, feeling terrible, but not knowing what else to do.
Henry nodded and Dave whipped out his cell phone, dialing JJ and putting her on speaker.
"Dave?" JJ asked, "Is everything okay?"
"No!" Henry wailed before Dave could get a word in edgewise.
"What's wrong, buddy?" JJ asked.
"The Great Pumpkin!" Henry cried.
"Dave?" she asked, confused.
"We, uh, may have picked the wrong movie to watch…" Dave managed sheepishly.
"The Great Pumpkin didn't come!" Henry insisted sadly, sounding as brokenhearted as Dave had ever heard a three-year-old.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, buddy…" JJ said sounding sympathetic in an instant. "I bet that's really sad, huh?"
"Yes!" Henry wept. "And the boy got cold waiting outside, and The Great Pumpkin didn't even come! Not even…to give him…a blanket…"
"That does sound sad. Do you want me to pick you up?" JJ asked.
"I want The Great Pumpkin," Henry whimpered.
"Sorry, JJ," Dave apologized. "I didn't know."
"It's okay. I'll be right there," JJ promised.
The End.
