Why Pumpkin Trains Smile — Under the oil-lamp smell of Halloween Station, Rowan lined up tin scraps, orange paint, and a bent brass hinge. Read the full story →
Under the oil-lamp smell of Halloween Station, Rowan lined up tin scraps, orange paint, and a bent brass hinge. He had given himself one quiet challenge: make the plain night train a face before the moon slipped past the signal tower. The old engine waited on the track, black and chilly, with no expression at all.
Rowan cut two triangle eyes from tin, sanded them smooth as pumpkin skin, and warmed the pieces over a lantern so they would bend. Snip, tap, brush—his hands left purple smudges on the workbench. When the wind rattled the station arch, he whispered, “Hold still, little smile.” Then he fixed the curved mouth to the engine’s round front.
Steam puffed through the new grin. The wheels gave one proud clack, and every pumpkin car answered with a tiny golden glow. From that Halloween on, trains that carried treats through the October dark wore jack-o’-lantern smiles, because Rowan’s handmade grin had shown them how to welcome the night. If you ever hear wheels go snip, tap, clack under a crescent moon, check the engine’s face and see whether that first little smile is riding along.
