The Little Challenge with No Pressure

‘Ten days until Halloween!’ said Puschel beside the garden table. ‘Shall we try a little walk in the dark?’

Flauschi shook her head. ‘I don’t want to today.’

Puschel lowered his paws. He thought for a moment. Then he pointed to the bright table. ‘We can play a guessing game in the sunshine too. Would you like that?’

‘Yes,’ said Flauschi. ‘But without having to hurry.’

She took a little picture card and put it face down. Then she described what was on it.

‘It’s orange. It’s quite round. And it has some big bumps around the edge.’

Puschel looked up at the sky. ‘An orange cloud!’

Flauschi laughed. ‘That would fit our autumn sky nicely. But this thing grows on the ground.’

‘A cloud having a rest?’

Flauschi turned the card towards him. It showed a pumpkin with a green stalk.

‘Oh!’ said Puschel. ‘My cloud was missing its stalk.’

The whole pumpkin with the pale crescent mark stood beside them. Puschel looked at it, then at the card. ‘Could we make pumpkins like that for our house too?’

‘Out of paper,’ Flauschi suggested. ‘Then each one can have its own face.’

They fetched orange paper and crayons. First they drew the round shapes and green stalks. Flauschi carefully cut out the paper pumpkins. Puschel collected the scraps in a bowl so nothing would blow into the garden.

His first pumpkin got a very wide smile. On the second, one eye ended up a little higher than the other.

‘That one knows our biscuit doorkeeper,’ Puschel said happily.

Flauschi held up her paper pumpkin. ‘And mine is waving with its stalk.’

Soon three friendly faces lay on the table. That was not very many for a whole house. Puschel looked up towards the windows.

‘People could see them from far away up there.’

‘Down here we can reach them without climbing,’ said Flauschi. She pointed to a small sheltered patch of wall under the little roof beside the entrance.

Together they tried the spot. The door could open all the way. The path stayed clear. Using little removable sticky tabs, they fixed the three paper pumpkins side by side, within reach from the ground and sheltered from the rain.

Puschel stepped back. ‘Our house is smiling now too.’

‘And nobody had to go for a walk in the dark,’ said Flauschi.

Puschel nodded. ‘Tomorrow you can guess. Perhaps I really will draw an orange cloud.’

They put away the crayons. Afterwards, they sat in the sunshine for a while. For today, three pumpkin faces and a laugh together were just enough.