Raising Roan

My mom bought us a big pumpkin a few weeks ago – a beautiful squash that laid near our apartment door swollen and forlorn, as we stepped around it day after day, ignoring its potential. Until, in a moment of post-dinner, sundown boredom, the slowing speed of my inertia was somehow smacked into shape by initiative, as I said to Roan, “how about if we draw a face on the pumpkin?!” (of course, nowhere near having the energy required to actually carve it).

And let me tell you, it’s a darn good thing I didn’t defile this gourd with a sharp object, because I’d hardly finished giving the pumpkin a nose with a Sharpie when in Roan’s mind, the pumpkin came to life as a sentient being. Oh, I realized, face=imaginary friend. It was like Tom Hanks’ washed-up plane crash survivor on the deserted island in Castaway. Roan’s imagination literally sprung into action as he started jumping around the pumpkin, feverishly talking to it, joking with it (“Pumpkin, I tooted!”), and generally processing his conscious life with Sigmund Pumpkin (“Pumpkin is crying, misses Dada and Amma”).

He had a full blown fight with the pumpkin:

“Here, Pumpkin, here’s a popsicle” (holding an autumn leaf by the stem). “No, that’s my popsicle. Don’t grab it! Pumpkin needs a time-out. Mama get timer. Have to put him on the couch.” Then Roan, speaking for Pumpkin, “Pleeeaasse.” Roan as Roan,”Ok, Pumpkin asked nice.”

Every few minutes he would look hard at the pumpkin then run to me saying, “I’m scared.”

He pushed the pumpkin and crashed into the pumpkin (like trying to wrestle with a friend). He also looked out for his new friend: “Pumpkin coughed.” Oh, that’s terrible, is he sick? I asked. “No, he’s happy.” Roan gave the pumpkin a hat and a toy and then translated more Pumpkin language for me, informing me that Pumpkin wanted to watch him ride a truck.

The last thing I remember him saying was, “Pumpkin’s a man. A Dada.” Apparently pumpkins grow up real fast, and they have a short life span – Roan hasn’t acknowledged or said a word about Pumpkin in the last few days, in spite of Pumpkin having a place at the table. I guess it’s ok to carve it now, just in time for Halloween.