Dan took a whiff of the crisp autumn air. It was always his favorite season of the year, as he found Spring to be too rainy – and too pollen invested – Summer was way too hot that made the days often too unbearable to do anything, and Winter is… well, Winter. But the Fall season was perfect in his mind. It wasn’t too cold but also not too hot, not too windy but also not too rainy, the days were still decently long and weren’t short as were in Winter. Everything felt… just right.

Anywhere Dan went, he could smell that sweet scent of Fall anywhere, such as a pumpkin patch he currently was at. He took another deep breath to get a whiff of the air, and sighed contently, savored it while his five year old son Mike was bouncing up and down next to him, fidgety and hyper with energy.

“You smell that, Mike?” Dan asked his son. “That’s the sweet smell of an autumn day.”

Mike took a deep breath in, copying the way his dad did it, but shook his head. “I don’t smell it, Dad.”

“Aw, don’t worry, you’ll smell it when you get older,” Dan reassured him. “With this being our annual spot going forward every October!”

Dan’s reason for coming out to the pumpkin patch was more than just being some air huffer. He particularly came out here with Mike to do a tradition that he and his own father done when he was younger. Every year they would go out to a pumpkin patch, pick out a pumpkin, and then carve it a face that would be on display on their porch.

Now that Dan had a child of his own, he wanted to do the same with his kid. And what better time to do it than now?

“Shouldn’t Mom be here with us?” Mike asked.

“I wanted this to be our one-on-one father-son time! Also because your mother can be really…” Dan stopped himself, mostly from thinking about his marriage with his wife was currently feeling tense and rather unfriendly compared to where he started out.

Still, Mike was curious. “Mom can be kinda what, Dad?”

“O-Oh, n-nothing!” Dan shifted the conversation away to not dump his problems on his kid, as they began to walk through the patch. “Now to find a good pumpkin for us.”

“How do we know’s which pumpkin is the right one?” Mike asked as looked among the numerous pumpkins. They all looked too alike in his eyes.

Dan laughed. “It may look complicated, but my father always told a few ways to find the right pumpkin is by a few ways. First is by its size, often the bigger one is the better one! Second is the color of it. Some have a ripe orange color, and others have a paler almost sickly look to them… now there was a third point, but I can’t put my finger on it…”

“Eeew!” Mike let out. Turning around Dan saw the reason was due to his son having his index finger right inside a pumpkin, which when he pulled out was covered in pumpkin insides. No doubt was a soft pumpkin. “Dad, this one’s all wet and gross feeling!”

Dan snapped his fingers with what he was thinking about back on his mind. “Now I remember. If a pumpkin is too soft and soggy, it’s bad outright.”

“Hey, Dad, look over there!” Mike pointed to a large pumpkin far back in the patch, resting among various other pumpkins. “That looks like the type of pumpkin you were looking for!”

“Hey, good eye, kid!” Dan congratulated his son who was running as fast as he could to the pumpkin, so nobody else could beat them to it.

“C’mon, let’s take it!” Mike tried to hoist up the pumpkin, but wasn’t strong enough to lift it because he was a weak five year old. Although he was more determined to lift it than other five year olds and only admitted defeat when he felt his whole body giving up on him.

“Wow, this pumpkin… sure is heavy…” Mike stated while panting. 

Dan moreso thought it was all in Mike’s perspective that it was heavy since he was young, so decided to lift it instead. He cracked his knuckles and then bended down under the pumpkin to raise it up, only to find that even he struggled with it’s weight. 

“Man, it is heavy! I guess there’s even a limit for what’s an acceptable big pumpkin.” He sighed, defeated. “’fraid we can’t take it, kid. Shame too, it was a good pumpkin as well.”

Mike could tell his father was upset, by his facial expression and sought to cheer his pop up. looks to see all of the smaller pumpkins that were gathered around the big pumpkin, as if they were all the runts of the crop. He picked up one of the slightly bigger pumpkins and found it was very easy to hold.

“How about we take this smaller one?”

“You want to take a small pumpkin home?” Dan asked, “Especially since you wanted this big one here.”

“Sure! It can be like us starting out smaller for our Halloween traditions.”

“I like the way you think about it, Mike.” Dan smiled at his son’s optimism. “Though I promise we’ll for sure get a bigger pumpkin next year.

As Dan and Mike began walking to find a stand to purchase their pumpkin, the father and son finally took notice of the song that was playing by the speakers that were throughout the patch. The song had a mix of piano, trumpet, and guitar in it and had a rather slow and chill tempo, rather than the high tempo slop Mike often listened to on TV or his tablet that Dan was rather disgusted to hear.

“Hey Dad, do you know what song those big black things are playing?” Mike asked as his body moved to the music. “I really like it.”

Dan light-heartedly chuckled, “Mike, those are called speakers. And I dunno what that song is. But it sure is peaceful.”

“Hey there, strangers!” A voice called out from a stand Dan and Mike almost passed by. “You two looking for someone?”

“We were!” Dan answered as he and Mike approached the stand. “The owner, or whoever’s in charge of transactions.”

“That’s me! Farmer Barker’s the name.” Farmer Barker greeted the two, motioning to a sign attached to his stand. “And these are my prices!”

Dan looks at the sign, showing three prices for pumpkins. A large pumpkin costed twenty bucks, a medium costed fifteen bucks, and a small costed only ten. He reached into his wallet and pulled out a ten-dollar bill to pay the farmer.

“Uh, pardon me, sir, but do you know what song is currently playing right now?” Dan asked as Farmer Barker took the money and cashed it away.

“Oh-ho, you like the music?” Farmer Barker reached over to his vinyl player – which was rigged to play across the speakers using cables and ground wire that were so plentiful and tangled it could start an electrical fire – and took the album that was laying nearby it.

“It’s from “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”. It was one me favorite Halloween traditions as a lad.” Farmer Barker flipped the album cover to show the credits and track lists. “It’s currently rigged to play Side A: Great Pumpkin Waltz. It was me Ma’s favorite.”

“‘Great… Pumpkin… Waltz.” Dan muttered as he wrote it down on a notepad. “Thanks, good sir. Come on, Mike. Let’s get home and carve this pumpkin a face.”

“See you next year, Farmer Barker!” Mike called out to the Farmer as they walked off.

***

“Gee, Mike, you’re getting quite stronger.” Dan commented as he and Mike arrived back at their house. Five years ago, Mike would’ve struggle to carry pumpkins that weren’t small in size, but now at ten, Mike was able to carry a medium sized pumpkin with ease. 

“I know. Farmer Barker even took notice of it, Dad.” Mike said as he eyed the pumpkin he picked. “He also must really like us to save us this pumpkin.” Alongside being able to carry heavier items with age, Mike had gotten pretty good at telling quality pumpkins thanks to Dan’s teachings. And Farmer Barker took notice of it, as this year he outright knew the pumpkin Mike would pick, hence saving it against any other customers.

“Hey, when people remember you as your regulars, that’s how you know you made it, Mike.” Dan said as he unlocked the door and entered alongside Mike. Once in the kitchen, Mike settled the pumpkin down onto the table.

“Don’t forget to get something to cover the table, Dad!” Mike called to his father.

Dan laughed. “How could I forget? I learned my lesson from the first time we did it.” Dan was a little less prepared for pumpkin carving five years ago, mostly down to being a long while since he did a pumpkin carving. And so, he and Mike discovered firsthand how rather messy the insides of a pumpkin were, how hard it was to clean up from a white covered wooden table, and more particularly how ballistic Dan’s wife would go over the mess they accidentally made.

From that year onward, Dan would use some old newspapers as drapes on the table, so whatever came out only messed up the papers.

“Now let’s get so pumpkin carvin’ music going! What should we listen to?”

“Ooh, ooh! How about ‘Great Pumpkin Waltz’?” Mike suggested.

“Mike, we’ve already heard it while we were at the pumpkin patch.” Dan reminded Mike, who shrugged his shoulders.

“So? It’s a good song. And perfect for carvin’ this pumpkin. Plus, Mom bought us the album.”

Mike pointed to their vinyl player, resting on the third shelf of their bookshelf, with the “Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” vinyl already loaded in from the previous years of being played.

“Ah, yeah, she did!” Dan remembered as he approached the vinyl player and held the album cover. “She bought it for your sixth birthday. It was one of the last things she bought before… before…”

Dan stopped himself. Just seeing the album reminded him of it being the last positive interactions with his wife before they separated later that year. Frankly he was lucky she allowed him custody of their child and house and didn’t just kick him to curb. Or maybe that said more about her feelings about the marriage than anything about her being empathic to Dan.

“Before she left us?” Mike filled in the gap for his father, now more aware of his parents’ deteriorating relationships… not that he couldn’t be since he accidentally was involved in the big blow up that resulted in the divorce.
“Y-Yeah…” Dan responded, almost ashamed his son knew what happened. “Uh, but hey, at least we got a pricey item from her, right?”

Dan turned the player on, which automatically moved the tracking force gauge onto the vinyl, and the song “Great Pumpkin Waltz” began to play once again as Dan took a seat next to Mike.

“Hey, Dad, can I carve the pumpkin this time?” Mike asked. “Can I?”

“Ehh, maybe when you’re a little older.” Dan answered, souring Mike’s expression.

“I am older! I’m ten. Double digits, I can handle it.”

“I know, but I still want’cha to be safe. You can still draw the design of what we made the pumpkin look though.”

Mike’s slight disappointment shifted to excitement once again. “Alright! I got the design all worked out.” He pulled out a folded piece of paper from his pocket and unfolded it to show his father the design for a menacing face with vampire teeth, big long eyebrows, and a mustache.

“We’re gonna make this thing scary!”

“You wanna go scary? What happened to all the cheerful pumpkins we did?”

“It’s Halloween, Dad. It’s all about be scary.”

“Alright then, I won’t argue with the designer.” Dan got up and began to walk out of the kitchen. “Wait here, all go get the carving tools.”

While Dan was gone, Mike hummed along to the music for a few moments, and sighed contently. It really was a good song.

***

“I’m back with drinks!” Dan announced as he re-entered the kitchen – that still echoed with “Great Pumpkin Waltz” from the vinyl player – with a latte and fruit punch to see his thirteen year old son Mike carving away at a large pumpkin with a knife. 

Two years ago, he finally gave Mike the chance to carve his first pumpkin, mostly since he accidentally cut himself with the knife, and Dan was surprised to see Mike was quite adept at carving pumpkins. He still was surprised seeing his son carve so well and this was his third year doing so.

“Nice carvin’ skills, son.”

“Thanks. I learned from the best.”

Dan laughed lightly in response, being touched from his son’s compliment.

Just then, a vibration ringer began to go off. Dan was confused as to where it was coming from, but Mike knew where it was the source was: his new phone, he got for his twelfth birthday. And the ringer was to remind Mike of his plans for the night.

“Oop. Sorry, Dad, I gotta cut this short.” Mike said as he turned off the vinyl player, stopping the music. “I scheduled an online hangout with some friends to do some gaming. It’s gonna be tight!”

Dan’s face formed a frown. “Really? But, this is our thing. We do this every year with no interruptions.”

“Yeah, but I wanna have some fun with friends now. If that’s fine with you.” Mike looked at Dan on pins and needles. Dan really wanted to continue their pumpkin carving, but he had to acknowledge his boy was growing up. He sighed, then relented. “Well, I guess you could.”

“Thanks, Dad.” Mike ran off to his room in an instant, leaving the pumpkin behind. Dan looked to see the pumpkin was half carved, with a knife currently stabbed where Mike was making an eye. 

Mike had been getting more into video games and the internet ever since he gifted him a phone and computer for his twelfth birthday, which Dan noticed affected the amount of time they spent together, but thought it wouldn’t affect their special pumpkin time. All he could do was shake his head, clearly hurt.

“M-Maybe next year will do it like we usually do.”

***

“Mike?” Dan asked as he knocked on his son’s door. After a moment of no response, he knocked again.

“Mike?”

Still no response. He looked to the doorknob and twisted it to see if the door was open, which is was, revealing his son Mike – now a sixteen year old teenager – was playing video games on his computer.

Three years have passed, and it’s been clear to Dan that Mike has grown out of their tradition. Matter of fact, he grew out of hanging with his dad in general. Nowadays, he spends his time shacked up in his room playing video games. Not that it would stop Dan from trying.

“Mike, I’m heading off to the pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin. Wanna come?” Dan asked. Mike yet again didn’t respond, and from approaching his son, Dan saw it was because he was currently wearing a headset and listening to his gameplay at such a high volume, he could faintly hear it. Annoyed, Dan walks over to Mike and takes the headphones off Mike’s head.

“What the-?! Dad!” Mike exclaimed as he muted his Voice Call.

“For God’s sake, Mike.” Dan exclaimed, “you’ve been on that computer since you got home from school. Why don’t you come out with me to the pumpkin patch?”

“Ehhh, I don’t really feel like it.” Mike shrugged.

“You haven’t been feeling like going there for two years!” Dan yelled. “It’s been our father-son tradition since you were five!”

“So? Traditions come and go.” Mike said as he motioned his hand forward. “Now can you give me back my headphones? I’m in the middle of a Minecraft event with da boys. We’re adventuring in dungeons.”

“You can do that anytime! You’ve been doing that for four years!”

“And I like doing it! Now get outta my room, you’re ruining my Minecraft time!” Frustrated, Mike swiped the headset from Dan and put them back on, directing his eyes back to his computer as he unmuted from VC.

“Sorry ‘bout that, guys, I’m back…” Mike said into his voice call, “No, it wasn’t anything serious, just my dad bothering me about something unimportant.”

Dan was dejected at what he heard. His son, his own son who used to love this time of year with every fiber of his being, calling their tradition unimportant. Deflated, Dan quietly sulked out of Mike’s room.

***

“Well, if it isn’t good ol’ Dan!” Farmer Barker greeted Dan as he walked into his pumpkin patch. “Yer son tapped out for pumpkin picking again?”

“Uh-huh.” Dan answered. “’cause Minecrafting with ‘Da boys’ is more important. I dunno what to do. We’ve been driftin’ apart for years.”

“Aww, c’mon Dan, yer boy’s a teenager.” Farmer Barker comforted Dan. “He’ll come back around.”

“I’ve been trying to think that for years!” Dan shouted upset. “But we’ve barely spent any time together in this year alone. You want to know when was the last time he actively seeked me out in the past six months? Just to ask me for money, Barker. MONEY! M-My boy’s almost going to be an adult, and I fear he’ll never want to see me again! And then I’ll be truly alone since my wife left us.”

Farmer Barker looked sympathetically at Dan, before putting a hand on Dan’s shoulder. “Look Dan, I know it’s rough dealing with your child growing up and being distinct from you. Especially since you don’t have someone to confide in, but wallowing about yer problems won’t fix it. I remember when my son Kyle and I were so close like you and your Mike.”

“You had a kid?” Dan cut in surprised. “I-I always thought you had no family since there never seemed to be any type of family around here.” Farmer Barker gave him a look, that made Dan nervous. “I meant, continue.”

“As my Kyle grew up, I noticed how he grew more and more distant with me. The last time I spoke to him… was in an argument over him not wanting to bond with me anymore when he was eighteen. Ended up driving Kyle away from home, and that would be the last time I ever saw him.”

“‘Last time’… dear God, did he die?” Dan asked.

“What? No, Kyle’s still alive, but he’s currently serving a life sentence in prison for… reasons I’m not comfortable saying.” Farmer Barker coughed a little to redirect himself. “T-The point I’m making is, you can’t let this corrupt your relationship with your boy. He’s sixteen, still prime enough to make a change and remind him of what you two once had. And if you don’t, you’ll hate yourself for the rest of yer life.”

Dan thought about what Farmer Barker said. There’s still time to get back on track. But what could he use to remind Mike of their old times? That required some hard thinking.

Thinking that he couldn’t do properly when he heard the music from the pumpkin patch playing. The same “Great Pumpkin Waltz” song from long ago, still playing crisply on the speakers. It’s gentle jazzy melody that he’d used to link with… his and Mike’s happiest memories.

“That’s it. That’s it, I know how to get my boy back!” Dan exclaimed, a becon of hope reigniting in his spirit as he ran off excited, before returning back to the pumpkin patch sheepishly a moment later.

“Probably would also work if I got a pumpkin.”

Farmer Barker nodded his head. “It sure would, Dan.”

***

As the sun was beginning to set into a cool evening sky, Dan returned home with a large pumpkin, like the last pumpkin he and Mike did together, and some speakers Farmer Barker allowed him to borrow for his plan. As he placed the pumpkin down, he looked at the vinyl player, which was covered in a thick layer of dust from being on standby for three years. He blew on it, scattering the dust particles all over the place, and began to attach the speakers into the vinyl player to give it a boost. 

Once everything was installed, Dan cranked the volume to as high as he could, and turned it on.

“I hope this works,” Mike whispered to himself. After a few seconds, “Great Pumpkin Waltz” began to play for the first time in years, and particularly pretty loudly in a way that startled Dan. The vinyl wasn’t rewound and was currently on the second reprise of the song, which always had been their favorite part. Slowly, Dan began to work on setting the table up.

Upstairs, Mike was still in his bedroom, intensely gaming with his friends. They have been fighting so long that they made it to the final boss, the Redstone Monstrosity.

Ha-ha! We made it to the final boss! Now, everyone, we attack on my command! Three! Two…!

“Ha-ha! We made it to the final boss! Now, everyone, we attack on my command! Three! Two…!” Mike suddenly halted himself when he faintly heard the familiar theme of “Great Pumpkin Waltz” that were drifting down the hall. It was hard to ignore as it was loud enough to break through his headphones and cut off his concentration, pulling him out of the game.

“Hey, uh, guys, I gotta go for a second,” Mike said, as he took off his headset and got up from his chair. However, his friends assumed the “go” was a command to start attacking, and instantly discovered the hard way it wasn’t, as the faint sounds of fire and explosions, alongside screams from the VC broke out from Mike’s headphones. Not that Mike noticed as he was long gone from his room.

Walking out of his room and approaching the staircase, he listened in from downstairs. His ears weren’t deceiving him. It was “Great Pumpkin Waltz” playing. Mike felt a sense of nostalgia returning to him, as if all the memories were returning to him while he walked down the stairs and turning directing to the kitchen entrance, and saw his father, carving his large pumpkin all alone with a photo of Mike when he was a child next to him. Dan glanced up to see Mike was in front of him. His plan worked!

“Mike! You finally came from your room.” Dan said, attempting to sound casual.

“You’re… playing our song,” Mike softly observed.

Dan was a little taken aback. “Well, it’s good carvin’ music. You said so yourself when you were ten.”

“I’ve… never heard that in years. How long’s it been?”

“Since you were thirteen.” Dan quickly answered. “I just felt like listening to it this year while I carved alone. Reminds me of easier times. When your mother was here, when we were both excited for making pumpkins… and some other third thing…” He held himself for a moment before turning to Mike. “You can leave if you want. I got Mike 2 over here to keep me company.”

Dan didn’t know what he was doing when he said that or motioning to Mike’s childhood photo. Maybe this was a side of him to see if Mike was really open to bonding again with him, or if he just came down because of the music like it was some sort of hypnotic call. 

Dan took his attention away from Mike, who was staring at his father for a long moment, before:

“Y’know, Dad, you holding it wrong.” 

“Oh?”

“Yeah, you’re gonna cut yourself how you’re holding it. Here, lemme help ya.”

Mike sat next to Dan and took the knife, beginning to carve out the insides of the pumpkin.

“What’cha plan on giving it for a face?” Mike asked, trying not to look into whatever his father was doing.

“I was thinking of making it look ‘mentally challenged’.” Dan lied, mostly to get a reaction out of Mike.

“What? C’mon Dad, that’s insensitive! I have friends who are mentally-disabled.”

“Well, I never had much creativity with making faces.” Dan said, “You were always good with that.”

Mike shrugged. “Alright, I’ll help you with that too.”

Dan smiled. He knew what Mike really is getting at – it was pretty transparent he was faking the funk – and just watched with pride at his son carving away at the pumpkin.

It sure was great to have his son back.

The End