Harold in the Dark

## Stats

**Harold in the Dark** is the eleventh episode of the series *Harold and the Purple Crayon* that aired on March 9, 2002.

## Summary

It was Harold's bedtime. As usual his mother tucks him in with his stuffed dog and turns out the light. Harold begins to doze off, with the moon shining outside there to comfort him, until it gets covered by clouds. Harold was now unable to sleep without the moon, as the toys in his room had a more scary appearance in the dark. Harold gets his purple crayon and draws a grass field to begin his search for the moon, but alas, he really didn't know where to search.

He doodles his dog Lilac so she can be by his side in the dark. He also draws her favorite ball toy and she chases it around. Harold also draws her a bowl of water after she gets thirsty. In fact, Harold nearly forgot all about the darkness until he hears something that certainly sounded like his name, very faintly. Harold and Lilac become scared, so Harold draws a house that the two hide in. Inside, he also draws some stairs and a telescope, but even with the telescope he still could not find the moon. Harold gets the idea to ask a cow, who jumped over the moon (in *Hey Diddle Diddle*), so he sketches one up. The cow doesn't have an answer, but it's stomach growls.

Harold draws purple blades of grass, but he mostly draws too much grass for one cow to eat, so he also makes a herd of sheep that also eats the grass. Lilac was a sheepdog after all, so she chases the sheep around and ultimately, Lilac ends up being out of Harold's sight. Harold knew that if he found the dozen of sheep in the flock, he was bound to find Lilac. Harold walks by the sheep he sees and counts them, which starts making him sleepy, so he lies down right in the middle of the field with the moonless sky.

But, after a mysterious twister starts whipping at him, Harold isn't safe in the middle of the field. He draws a hole in a slope and finds his way in an underground cavern that was even darker than outside. Harold draws a candle but the flame keeps blowing out, until he draws an even bigger flame that stays bright. Harold gets spooked out by his shadow on the illuminating wall, and seemingly unaware of a shadow being made from himself, Harold is curious on who this stranger is, who copies every single move he does. He decides to play with the shadow and draws a big slide to have a race with it, but more or less, all of the races they do end with a tie, and for a brief moment when Harold falls to the ground, his "friend" disappears until he gets up again. Harold gets irritated that the "stranger" keeps copying him, until the big flame goes out. Now, Harold absolutely had nobody on his side, as his best friend the moon, his dog Lilac, and his own shadow were gone, and the place was pitch black.

Harold leaves the cave and begins seeing ghosts, as well as other creepy monsters, such as a scary tree. But Harold takes a second look, and the tree is regular, so is the pile of rocks and the log. Harold thinks that if he's so good at seeing things that weren't there, he should be good at seeing things that were. He draws Lilac's ball and throws it, and she finally returns again. Harold draws an airplane and he and Lilac fly up in the air to find the moon, and they see it's glow from under a cloud, and sure enough, the moon is found again. They get bumped by another cloud that attempts to block it, but Harold and Lilac erase it with the airplane propeller. Now that the moon was back, Harold draws his window and drops off to sleep.