ONCE UPON A SAMHAIN
IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK

by Linda S Barth

Author’s Note: Inspired by art created and originally posted on BBTV by Carole W, along with comments by JoAnn B, and the memory of two once enchanted children.

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The little girl shivered in Central Park’s snow-dusted darkness, huddling into the meagre warmth of a fleece hoodie. She wished she’d worn her winter puffer coat after all, but she couldn’t confess that to her mom now, not after the argument they’d had about covering up the flounces of her sparkly yellow ball gown. Working hard to hide another shiver, she told herself she really wasn’t all that cold, and anyway they’d be heading home before long, just as soon as her Halloween dream came true.

“You’re freezing. Emily! We have to leave right now.” Her mother’s patience was dropping faster than the temperature. “If we stay in the park any longer, you’ll catch a terrible cold. You don’t want to get sick and miss the Halloween party at kindergarten, do you?” She brushed a cluster of icy snowflakes from her daughter’s dark hair. “Really, it’s time to go!”

Emily tightened her gloved grip on the stem of a red silk rose and squirmed the other one clutched in her mother’s grasp. “I won’t get sick, Mommy! I don’t even feel like sneezing! And besides, my teacher said you can’t get sick from being outside when it’s cold. You get sick from germs.”

Her mother rolled her eyes. “Well, I bet your teacher would have something else to say if she were turning into an icicle like us in the middle of Central Park!”

Emily giggled at the image – she’d have to remember to tell her best friend Laura about it tomorrow – but even that anticipation could not squelch her dedication to her quest. The glow of candlelight in the darkness continued to draw her with irresistible magic. She stared into the darkness, trying to discern the intricately carved designs on yet another cluster of jack-o-lanterns.

She pulled her hand away and scampered across the icy grass. “Just one more bunch! Please, Mommy, please! I still have to pick my favorite!”

Her mother sighed. “All right, just one more. But then we’re definitely leaving.”

Emily tilted her head and studied the pumpkins carefully, considering one after the other. Silly faces, scary faces, one with a grin like a bat in flight, another with curly eyelashes and a mouthful of raggedy teeth. I like the one with the kitty face. It’s so cute! Still, she shook her head, rejecting it along with a skeleton pumpkin whose mouth was curved in a much too scary smile.

They’d been wandering for an hour, but there were still so many more to look at! She’d finally remembered how to count almost to one hundred, but she was certain there were even more pumpkins than that. But not the one she wanted. She knew she was running out of time. She had to find it! It had to be here somewhere…but where?

A few more skittering steps and then she spotted it, clustered beside a grinning jack-o-lantern clown and another with the cutest raccoon face she’d ever seen. Those were good, but this one was perfect, just what she had been hoping for all along.

“I found it, Mommy! I found my favorite! That one – in the back row! Do you see it?!” The twinkling plastic gemstones on her tiara caught the light as she bounced on her toes and pointed at her prized discovery. “They don’t look just like in the movie, but I know it’s them. I just know it!”

Her mother smiled. “What a perfect choice. I’m not surprised that’s your favorite.”

The little girl sighed happily. “We can go home now.” She gave her treasure one final look and made a secret, silent wish.

They walked away, hand in hand. “I bet I can guess what bedtime story you’re going to choose tonight, Em.”

Emily giggled, and then her wavery soprano shimmered in the frosty night air. “Tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme…”