"Look out!" shouted William. He was pretending to be a big, scary monster, running through the park with his dad. "I'm going to get you!"
Dad laughed and ran faster. "You'll have to catch me first!"
William giggled and zoomed after him, pretending to have super strength like his favorite superhero. They were having so much fun in the park! It was their favorite place to go on spooky adventures. There were so many trees, it felt like a forest, and the shadows made spooky shapes on the ground. William loved looking for spooky faces in the shadows!
"Let's play hide-and-seek!" said Dad, stopping by a big oak tree. "Count to ten and then come find me!"
"Okay!" William squeezed his eyes shut and covered his face with his hands. "One, two, three..." he counted slowly.
When he got to ten, William opened his eyes and looked all around. "Where are you, Dad?" he called out.
He searched behind trees and under bushes, but Dad was nowhere to be found. It was getting spookier by the minute. Then William saw something strange. In the middle of the park, surrounded by swirling leaves, stood a tall, pointy hat! It was just like what a magician would wear.
William crept closer, his heart thumping. Could there really be a magician in the park? He peeked around a tree and gasped. A friendly-looking magician with a long white beard was carefully sorting colorful leaves into neat piles.
"Hello?" William whispered.
The magician looked up, his eyes twinkling. "Well, hello there! You caught me organizing my leaves."
William tilted his head. "Organizing?"
"Yes! It's important to keep things in order," the magician chuckled, showing William his piles of red, yellow, and orange leaves. "Just like your toys! It makes it much easier to find things when you need them."
William thought about that. It was true, his toys were always getting mixed up. Maybe he should try organizing them like the magician organized his leaves.
"What's your name?" William asked the magician.
"They call me Merlin," he said with a wink. "Now, where did that father of yours disappear to?"
Suddenly, Dad popped out from behind a tree, holding a bunch of colorful leaves. "Boo!" he shouted.
William jumped, then burst into giggles. Dad had found him!
"You scared me, Dad!" he laughed, giving him a big hug.
"I think Merlin helped me with my hiding spot," Dad said, winking at the magician.
William looked at the leaves in Dad's hand. They were arranged in a perfect pattern, red, yellow, orange, red, yellow, orange. It was amazing!
"Wow!" William exclaimed. "You organized the leaves, Dad! That's so cool!"
Dad ruffled William's hair. "Merlin taught me a thing or two about organization."
As the sun began to set, casting long, spooky shadows across the park, William knew he had a new adventure to tell his mom about the friendly magician who loved organization and the spooky, leaf-filled park where they played hide-and-seek until it was time to go home.
