The night before, as he lay in the shed listening to Grandad snore, Marty had thought about how the pumpkin drew people in. It was as if they were entranced by nature. That they couldn’t quite believe that something so wonderful and massive and magical could be real. He couldn’t believe it himself sometimes. He’d wake and peer out the door of the shed, and there it would be. Silver and magnificent under the moon. Their wondrous ship, waiting to be pushed into the water on her maiden voyage. Children would laugh when they saw it; grown men would go speechless. It was something extraordinary in the midst of the ordinariness of their lives. Marty had even asked Grandad whether it might get too big with wishes and explode, but Grandad had shaken his head sagely and assured Marty that no one and no thing could ever be too full of dreams.

Today Grandad was listening intently to the pumpkin’s insides and shouted across at Gracie and Marty.

“It’s almost time you know, it’s almost time…”

Gracie had brought the life jackets to the shed. The outboard motor and the expanding foam to seal it into the side of the pumpkin were there as well. Grandad had borrowed the sword from the wall of the public house downstairs, as planned, so they had the cutting sorted. All the wish money and the tea-and-coffee kitty had paid for supplies to take with them. It was just a matter of waiting. Marty was the only one who hadn’t fulfilled his promise of getting the ropes and the material for the sail. He had kept on meaning to go. He knew where they were in the garden. He knew where everything was; he didn’t even have to go into the house, but he just kept putting it off. It was seeing his mum that would be too painful, and let’s face it, she was always going to be there.

Grandad let Marty listen a moment. He pressed the eartips into his ears and placed the stethoscope on the pumpkin’s side. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

“It’s alive!”

Grandad laughed.

“Of course it is!”

Gracie came near, and Marty tapped out the pumpkin’s rhythm onto her back so she could feel it too. Gracie smiled.

That evening, Grandad and Marty sat around the fire watching Gracie dance. Her audition was in a few days, just before they had to sail. She had gotten a bit quieter recently, and Marty could tell she was thinking about it a lot. Grandad watched her.

“I spoke to your mum, Marty…”

Marty’s eyes flicked to his face.

“Why?”

“Check if she was all right…”

Marty didn’t want to ask if she was, even though he really wanted to know.

“I know maybe you think I’m hard on your mother…”

Marty kept watching the flames.