Halloween Dreams at the Dimpled Dumpling Cafe 🍭🎃 Premium Kids Story

[00:00:00] Before we begin, a quick message for the grown-ups. If you'd like to support our podcast, enjoy ad-free listening, unlock four bonus stories per month and much, much more, you can join Coco Club. Subscribe in just two taps via the link in the show notes. But now, here's a quick word from our sponsors.

[00:00:19] Hi Koala Moon listeners! We're excited to share that we've officially joined Starglow, the largest kids and family audio network. Starglow has an amazing lineup of shows for all ages, including Go Kid Go favorites like Snoop and Sniffy, Bobby Wonder and RL Stein's Story Club. Perfect for getting into the Halloween spirit.

[00:00:43] You can explore all of Starglow's podcasts and audiobooks by simply typing Starglow into the search bar wherever you listen to your podcasts. And, as always, your favorite Koala Moon bedtime stories will still be right here to help you and your family sleep peacefully. Sweet dreams, and happy listening.

[00:01:04] Hey, sleepyheads! I'm Kelly, the host of Koala Shine, the perfect daytime adventure show for long car journeys, school runs, and lazy Sunday mornings.

[00:01:13] I'm popping up here on Koala Moon because I've heard you want more Koala Kid stories, and I'm here to deliver. Beep beep, special delivery!

[00:01:21] Koala Shine is a tiny bit different from Koala Moon, as it's designed for daytime listening. So, after a great night's sleep with a story from Abby, you can have a big old stretch and tune in to Koala Shine, joining your favorite characters on crazy adventures around the world.

[00:01:35] With new episodes every Friday, we'll follow Hector and Sunny on a daytime safari, explore the big city with Munchie the raccoon, and visit the circus with Super Soul.

[00:01:45] You'll also hear cool facts, jokes, and learn about the world we live in. Plus, there's a chance for your voices to be featured on the podcast, too.

[00:01:53] Koala Shine offers mindful, fun entertainments on the move, designed to spark curiosity.

[00:01:58] Search Koala Shine now on your favorite podcast platform, and be sure to hit follow so that finding your next adventure is easy-peasy lemon squeezy.

[00:02:06] Hope to see you there!

[00:02:08] Koala Shine!

[00:02:40] This very special episode.

[00:02:49] Uma put down her black pen and stepped back from the table, eyeing her pumpkin critically.

[00:02:56] She had marked out spaces for eyes, and a nose, and a mouth, and, all things considered, it looked as though it would make quite a good face.

[00:03:06] She wanted the perfect pumpkin lantern to place on the step that leads into the Dimpled Dumpling Cafe in lower starry skies.

[00:03:15] Last night, Uma went for a walk around the village and saw how all the shops had added carved pumpkins to their doorsteps.

[00:03:23] And more to the point, she saw how each pumpkin reflected what was inside the shop.

[00:03:31] Outside the bookshop, neither up nor down, she'd spotted three perfect pumpkins, each of them glowing with candles lit inside.

[00:03:40] The first showed a wizard wearing round glasses and a lightning strike on his forehead.

[00:03:48] The second was a fat little bear holding the hand of a neat little piglet.

[00:03:53] And the third was a rabbit holding a pocket watch to his ear, a worried look on his face.

[00:04:00] Uma was delighted to see that a tiny pumpkin had even been added to the roof of the little free library that was a mirror of the bookshop.

[00:04:09] The teeniest pumpkin she'd ever seen, barely three inches tall.

[00:04:15] Somehow, carved into that tiny space, there was unmistakably the shape of a caterpillar chewing on a leaf.

[00:04:25] Outside, where there's a wool, there's a way, was a gorgeous, fluffy, knitted pumpkin.

[00:04:31] When Uma went past, Diesel, the wool-shot cat, had been fast asleep atop what he saw as a plump orange cushion.

[00:04:40] Even Mr. Time Love, new to the village, had made an effort, and on the doorstep of Rise and Chime was a pumpkin with an intricate clock face,

[00:04:50] with twigs fixed in place to act as the hands.

[00:04:54] The time of the clock had crept closer to midnight in the weeks that led to Halloween,

[00:05:00] with the clockmaker's mice popping inside to rearrange the twigs while nobody was looking.

[00:05:07] So Uma sighed as she looked at the perfectly respectable face she'd drawn onto her pumpkin, ready for carving,

[00:05:15] because it just didn't seem that exciting.

[00:05:19] Delilah, the cat who had adopted Uma months before, leapt onto the table and wound her way around and around the pumpkin,

[00:05:29] tail high in the air and back arched.

[00:05:32] Then Delilah lay down beside the pumpkin and put her head on her crossed front paws,

[00:05:40] looking directly at Uma as if trying to tell her something.

[00:05:46] Of course, said Uma, wiping away the black marks she had so carefully drawn in place.

[00:05:53] This time, she drew the whiskers of a cat and two triangles for eyes that she could cut out and add to the top of the pumpkin to make ears.

[00:06:05] She was just about finished as she marked out the lines for the nose and a smile when she thought to add something else.

[00:06:14] A few sweeps and a final flourish with the pen,

[00:06:19] and there, alongside the cat, now stood a perfect drawing of the china elephant that rests on the corner in a dimpled dumpling.

[00:06:31] There, said Uma, satisfied at last,

[00:06:36] taking the knife and slowly cutting and carving the pumpkin,

[00:06:42] nestling a candle inside once it was finished,

[00:06:45] and popping it on the step outside the cafe.

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