The Red Chair

The kids on the block called him “old man Peterson” out of respect for his generosity at Halloween when he sat on his front porch in an oversized red chair and passed out candy and pennies to every trick or treater. Peterson was rail thin with a few whisps of gray hair. He couldn’t stand without a cane. Most kids thought he was 100 years old.

One year at Halloween, Olaf, the local butcher, took his twin five-year-old daughters across the street to Peterson’s house where the old man was pressed into the red chair. The twins, each dressed as Snow White, were reluctant to go up the four steps that led to the porch.

“Girls, Mr. Petersen is a nice man with pennies—don’t be afraid.”

When the girls reached the porch, they gave him a chorus of “trick or treat.” Each girl held out a grocery bag which Petersen filled with wrapped candy and a fistful of pennies. For the next five Halloweens the girl eagerly started their trick or treating with a visit to Mr. Petersen.

One Halloween eve Olaf noticed that the red chair was in the street. He went over to Petersen’s house and knocked on the door. A man in a suit greeted him. Olaf soon learned that Petersen had died a few days ago of heart failure. When Olaf asked why the chair was in the street, the man said. “It was in his will that the chair be left there until Halloween was over.”

Olaf returned to the chair. He thrust his hands on either side of the seat cushion. As expected he found hundreds of pennies.

The next evening Olaf sat in the chair and gave out the pennies. He was flanked by his daughters, now 11, who were dressed as car hops complete with roller skates.

After Halloween was over Olaf put the red chair in his garage where he kept it until next year’s trick or treat.