“She’d tell us to let him have a few pieces. Dad always took more than a few.”
Michael looked toward the stairs.
“Did the boys try to stop him?”
I repeated what Ethan and Owen had told me.
Michael stood up.
“I’m going to my parents’ house.”
“Now?”
“Yes.”
“What are you going to say?”
He picked up his jacket.
“My dad got away with that when we were little because we couldn’t stand up to him. But these are my kids. I’m not letting him do the same thing to them.”
He reached for his keys, then paused.
“Actually, there’s something I want to take with me.”
“What?”
“One of the candy buckets.”
I looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because I want him to see what he did.”
I retrieved Ethan’s bucket from the pantry. Michael tipped the remaining candy into a bowl and took the empty plastic pumpkin.
Before he left, I stopped him.
“Michael, getting the candy back isn’t the only thing that matters.”
“I know.”
“The boys think Grandpa is angry with them for wanting it.”
Michael’s face tightened.
“I’ll talk to him.”
After he drove away, I went upstairs to check on the twins.
Ethan was asleep, but Owen was sitting up in bed.
“Mom?”
“What’s wrong?”
He hesitated.
“Grandpa won’t stop taking us places, will he?”
I sat beside him.
“Why do you think that?”
“Because Ethan complained.”
There it was again.
Both boys were worried about losing their grandfather’s affection because they’d objected to something unfair.
“Listen to me,” I said. “You never have to give someone your things to make them love you.”
Owen considered that.
“Even Grandpa?”
“Even Grandpa.”
He lay down, but I stayed until he fell asleep.
Then I went downstairs and called Michael.
He answered from his parents’ driveway.
“Everything okay?”
“Owen just asked whether Grandpa would stop taking them places because Ethan complained.”
Michael was silent.
“I thought you should know,” I continued. “This is bigger than chocolate.”
“I know,” he said quietly. “I’ll call you afterward.”
At his parents’ house, Richard opened the door and immediately noticed the pumpkin bucket.
“What’s that for?”
Michael walked into the kitchen.
“I came to talk about Halloween.”
Richard chuckled.
“Your wife sent you to complain about a few chocolates?”
“No. Lauren told me what happened. I’m here because I remember it happening to me.”
Richard’s smile faded.
Michael placed the empty bucket on the table.
“Dad, do you remember taking the best candy from us every Halloween when we were kids?”
“Taking? I earned it.”
“You called it payment.”
“Exactly. I walked you boys around for hours.”
“And we hated it.”
Richard scoffed.
“You survived.”
“That’s not the point.”
“Then what is?”
Michael pushed the bucket toward him.
“Look at that. Ethan carried it around all evening. He was proud of what he’d collected. You took the things he was most excited about, and when he asked you to stop, you called him ungrateful.”
Richard folded his arms.
“Children need to learn to share.”
“Sharing means someone chooses to give you something. You didn’t give them a choice.”
Carol, who had been standing by the counter, lowered her eyes.
Richard turned toward her.
“Are you going to tell me I did something terrible too?”
She hesitated.
“I did think you took too much.”
“You could’ve said something.”
“I should have.”
Michael looked at his mother.
“Mom, you used to tell us to let him have the candy.”
Carol nodded.
“I remember.”
“Do you remember what happened after we stopped asking Dad to take us trick-or-treating?”
Richard interrupted.
“You got older. You wanted to go with your friends.”
Michael shook his head.
“That wasn’t why.”
Richard frowned.
“What are you talking about?”
“My brother and I stopped asking because every outing came with a price.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“It wasn’t just Halloween. Remember taking us fishing and telling us we owed you for the bait? Or buying ice cream and reminding us for days that you’d spent money on us?”
“I was teaching you the value of things.”
“You taught us that asking you for something meant we’d have to pay you back.”
Richard looked genuinely surprised.
Michael continued.
“That’s why we started asking Mom instead. Even when we knew you were free.”
Carol sat down.
“I wondered why you boys stopped wanting to go places with him.”
“We wanted to,” Michael said. “We just didn’t want to owe him afterward.”
For a while, nobody spoke.
Then Richard looked at the bucket.
“So you think I’m a bad father because I took some candy?”
“No,” Michael answered. “I’m telling you that something you thought was harmless made your children afraid to ask you for kindness.”
Richard rubbed his forehead.
“I never knew you felt that way.”
“You never asked.”
Michael stood.
“I want the boys’ candy back.”
