Breakfast story

Here's the story I told Rachel at breakfast today. (Tell me a spooky story with a cheerful end," she said). Can you guess the literary influences?

Once upon a time there was a little boy named Sammy, who lived in a house on a little hill -- kind of like ours -- and there was a big maple tree in his front yard, just like ours. There were really colorful leaves on it in the fall -- red and yellow -- and blossoms on it in the spring. Sammy really wanted to climb the tree but his parents wouldn't let him. Then one day, while they weren't looking, he climbed to the very top...and came CRASHING DOWN! His parents came running outside to see what was the matter. Sammy was hurt and so his parents put him on a stretcher and raced to the hospital. The doctors said Sammy's legs were broken and he would never be able to walk again.

(Cue the look of horror on Rachel's face).

Well, after that Sammy couldn't play with his friends because he couldn't run, or jump, or ride a bike. He started thinking that he couldn't do anything because he was in a wheelchair. He had made that one mistake -- climbing a tree without his parents' permission -- and it cost him the use of his legs. He got sadder and sadder and angrier and angrier until he just stayed inside all day in his wheelchair, looking outside. His mommy kept telling him to go outside and get some fresh air but he refused to do so.

Then one day, a family moved to the house next door. They had a little girl whose name was Susie. She went to Sammy's house, knocked on the door and he opened it. "Hi," she said. "My name's Susie. Do you want to come out and play?" "NO," Sammy snarled. "I DON'T," and then he closed the door. Susie tried several times to get Sammy to play but he always said no.

(Rachel started getting teary at this point).

Now, Sammy's house had a big backyard that was haunted by a goblin at night. "WOO, WOO!" went the goblin. Goblins, of course, are scary creatures. This goblin was so scary that you never saw what he actually looked like; you just saw his shadow. "WOO, WOO!" he'd go at night.

(Rachel covered her ears).

Then Susie came over one day, absolutely determined to get Sammy to come out of the house. She told him about the goblin in his backyard, and they decided they were going to attack the goblin that night. The only way the goblin could be killed, though, was not by knives or guns, but by throwing a stone in the middle of the shadow, and then the goblin would just crumple and disappear.

So that night, when Susie knocked on Sammy's door, he was ready. The moon was up, so it was bright outside -- bright enough to see the goblin's shadow. Susie and Sammy sat in the backyard and waited. Sammy reached down next to the arm of his wheelchair, gathered a couple of rocks, and then they saw the goblin's shadow. Sammy threw the rock at the shadow and then all of a sudden the shadow turned into little sparkles and then just disappeared. The goblin was gone.

"See?" Susie said. "Anybody who can kill a goblin can do pretty much anything, even if you're in a wheelchair. Just because you made one mistake doesn't mean your life is over!" Sammy agreed, and the next day he went out to play with his friends, and he went back to school, and he never again did he believe that he couldn't do anything because he was in a wheelchair.

(I was thinking of "The Secret Garden" when I made this one up, but now I see it has elements of "The Trumpet of the Swan." Rachel, by the way, loved it).