Rex Can't Carve a Pumpkin

10 pages · 7 min · ages 4+

Scritch. Rex leaned down as far as he could. His tiny claw only just reached the pumpkin. It was Halloween, and tonight every pumpkin on the hill would have a face. Rex wanted his pumpkin to have a smile just like his own: the widest smile on the hill. He scratched and he scratched. One tiny dot. “Is it a face?” asked Topsy, carefully. “Freckle,” said Stego. “Rex can't carve!” said Rex. Topsy already had two more pumpkins for him. “Pumpkins go wrong,” said Topsy.

Topsy carved her own with the very tip of her nose horn. Poke. Poke. Poke. Two round eyes and a round mouth. Her pumpkin looked very surprised. Stego had scooped out every pumpkin. He always did the gooey bit. Baby Tiny Tops was in a nibbling phase. He nibbled everything. Even his own foot. Rex had an idea. His arms could hardly reach down to the pumpkin. So the pumpkin would come up to his arms! He tucked his big nose under the freckle pumpkin, and… FLIP!

Up went the pumpkin, right up to Rex's tiny arms. And past them. Past the palm trees. Past a very puzzled bird. Rex held out his arms to catch it. Everybody waited. And waited. It did not come down. “Where did it go?” asked Rex. Stego looked up at the empty blue sky. “Moon,” said Stego. “Rex can't carve!” said Rex. Two pumpkins left.

Rex had a bigger idea. Big feet have big claws! Rex stood on one foot. He lifted the other foot over the next pumpkin, and held it there. His arms flapped and flapped. That did not help. Wobble. Wobble. Wobble… Stego took two steps back. He knew pumpkins.

SQUISH! Down came the big foot. Rex lifted his foot up again. Slowly. The pumpkin was still there. All of it. Just flatter. Stego looked at it. “Pancake,” said Stego. “Rex can't carve!” said Rex. “Pumpkins go wrong,” said Topsy, very kindly. Tiny Tops tried a nibble of the pancake. Then he changed his mind. One pumpkin left.

The sun was going down. The freckle pumpkin still had not come down. All over the hill, fireflies floated into the pumpkins, and the pumpkins began to glow. Most of them had triangle eyes. Rex looked at his last pumpkin. He didn't dare touch it. The pumpkin did not look back. It had no eyes. Yet. “It has to smile like me,” said Rex, and he showed them. It was a very big smile. Stego started to count the teeth. One. Two. Three. Four. Five… He gave up. “Triangles,” said Stego.

Soon it was nearly dark. Rex put his chin down on the grass, next to his last pumpkin. “Rex can't carve,” said Rex, into the grass. Then Tiny Tops toddled up to Rex's pumpkin. He had changed his mind again. Nibble. “Oh no,” said Topsy. There was a little round hole, right in the middle. Tiny Tops was helping. Rex lifted his chin and stared at the hole. It looked just like a nose. Rex began to smile. A tiny nibble had made a nose. And Rex had a lot of teeth.

Rex brought his big face close to the pumpkin. Nibble. Nibble. Two round eyes. Now the pumpkin could look back. Then Rex smiled at it. Wide. Wider. The widest. Stego couldn't watch. So he watched with one eye. Topsy leaned right in. Very, very gently, Rex closed his teeth. CHOMP.

The pumpkin was still there. Most of it. Just happier. Rex turned it with his nose, so everybody could see. Two round eyes. One little nose. And the widest smile on the hill, with a row of little teeth, just like Rex's. “Rex CAN carve!” said Rex. Fireflies floated in through the smile. It made a very good door. Lots of room. They moved straight in. The pumpkin glowed. “Toothy,” said Stego, with a small smile. “Tiny Tops did the nose,” said Topsy.

That Halloween night, the whole hill glowed. Triangles, triangles, triangles. There was Topsy's pumpkin, still very surprised. There was Rex's pumpkin, with its little nose and the widest smile on the hill. Then, over the palm trees, the moon came up. Stego didn't even turn his head. “Told you,” said Stego. Rex and Topsy looked up at the moon. It was huge. It was round. It was orange. It had one tiny freckle.