“I had said in a rather offensive tone, ‘No! No one touches it except me!’ Anyway, when I arrived home, I threw the coil of twine in the backyard garbage can. Thankfully, the coil of twine has not returned. At least I do not think that it has.’”
Brenae says unemotionally, “It was a hunch, Colette. It was a fifty-fifty probability. Nonetheless, one of the two of you, that would be you, Colette, has experienced visions at least as it concerns Diana Jane and the school basement. You also said you had experienced a strange nightmare.” She nods her head toward James.
“Jay, has, for lack of a better word, felt visions.” She looks at Chloe. “Chloe, as you have said, you have experienced visions two times.” She looks at Diana Jane. “Diana Jane, you have experienced a horrible vision like the strands of twine were trying to kill you.”
Diana Jane shudders in reply to what Brenae has said.
“Don’t forget,” Colette says. “I still haven’t told you about my nightmare, the one about the six of us.”
“No, you haven’t,” Brenae says straightaway. “If I had to bet, I would bet your nightmare was exactly like what happened to us at the mansion. Am I correct?”
Colette says in a whisper, “Goodness! Bre, how could you possibly know that?” Goose bumps appear on her upper arms as she shivers. She rubs her shoulders and arms vigorously. “Bre, how could you know?”
“It was a hunch once more,” Brenae says nonchalantly. “Okay, everyone, I want you to bear with me if you please.” She grabs the remaining pair of pepperoni pieces from the napkin and plops them into her mouth.
“Those two represent Chloe and Diana Jane.” Brenae swallows, and then she says, “Sorry, but the two of you no longer count. On a more serious note, both of you have experienced vivid dreams, dreams that fully absorbed all of your senses. They were in technicolor, as real as life. Am I correct?”
Chloe and Diana Jane look at each other and nod their heads.
Brenae takes the last piece of pepperoni from her plate and tosses it onto the middle of the table. She says, “That piece of pepperoni is me.”
Sophia asks, “Does that mean you are like the odd man out, or in this case, the odd woman or girl out?”
“Exactly,” Brenae says. “I am the odd girl out.” She reaches into her left front pocket and pulls out a sandwich bag-sized Ziploc bag of ashes. She offers the bag to Diana Jane, but Diana Jane does not take it.
Diana Jane turns her nose up at the bag, and then she gives Brenae a dirty look. As she eyeballs the bag suspiciously, she says, “What in the world is that?”
Brenae offers the bag to Diana Jane once more. Her friend shakes her head vigorously. Brenae places the bag onto the table in front of Diana Jane. She says with a tone of self-importance, “That would be your coil of Puppet twine, my dear Empress Di.”
“Whaaaat!” Diana Jane cries. “Noooooo! There is no way!” She looks at Brenae, her eyes welling up with tears. She says, “Do you mean to tell me you were able to destroy my coil of twine after I couldn’t get rid of it a gazillion ways after all this time, to include trying to burn the blasted, creepy thing with a blowtorch?”
“Yep,” Brenae says firmly. “I am happy to say that it lit up just like it is supposed to. Stunk while it burned but burned while it stunk.”
Diana Jane warily takes the bag of ashes and examines it closely.
“How?”
Brenae says, “I held a Bic lighter up to the coil after I got home. It burned just like it was supposed to. It burned like twine, disgusting as it is.”
“Goodness,” Chloe says. “How is this possible? All this time we thought Puppet’s twine is magical, that it somehow possesses others. All this time we thought it is indestructible!”
Brenae says, “Although it is not indestructible, as you can see, it has a charming quality to it. Please allow me to explain.” She glances at James.
“When we were walking to the mansion, do you recall Jay’s story, the one where he had rolled up twine while he was skating? It was the twine that, incredibly, had somehow unraveled from the coil of twine in my back pocket and seemed to follow Diana Jane home.” Her teammates nod their heads.
“That Jay was holding a clump of rolled up twine in his hand that was attached to the coil of twine Diana Jane had given to me? That the coil of twine Diana Jane had given to me was the same size as when she stuffed it into my pocket?” The others nod their heads once more.
“When I stuffed the two separate thingamajigs’ of twine into my backpack, the larger of the two, Jay’s chunk of twine, seemed to counterattack. Do you remember Jay telling you that?” The others nod their heads a third time.
“Okay, good. We’re on the same page. When I arrived home, I half-heartedly unzipped my backpack. Do you know what I found?” Brenae glances at her friends. They are staring wide-eyed at her and shaking their heads.
“All I found inside my backpack was Diana Jane’s original coil of twine! Jay’s wadded up twine was nowhere to be seen!” Brenae nods her head perceptively. As she had expected, her teammates are shaking their heads with disbelief.
Brenae says, “Chloe, let me ask you something. Do you have a coil of twine? Something tells me you may have had a coil at one time or another.”
Chloe replies, “I did have a coil of Puppet’s twine, but I gave it to my brother a long time ago. What difference does it make? Is it because I touched it that Puppet has somehow possessed my mind?”
Brenae says, “I do not know at this point. With a bit of luck, we will be able to figure it out as we dig deeper into this. Let me tell you this.” She leans across the table.
A voice that sounds exactly like James’ voice says in his low tone, “Some of it is evil magic. The other part of the mystery is psychological. I dare say it is the combination of the two.”
James suddenly shouts, “Hey, wait a minute here! I didn’t say anything!”
The other patrons in the restaurant turn their heads and stare at the Sextet’s table. After a few moments, and making sure the other patrons are looking away, James, who is blushing from ear to ear, leans in even closer.
He says in a whisper, “It sounded like those words about evil magic came from where Diana Jane is sitting, but the voice sounded just like mine!”
Words that sound like they come from Chloe suddenly whisper, “Hey everybody, I am confused. What is going on here?”
Amazingly, the spoken words that sound like Chloe’s did not come from Chloe’s direction. They seemed to originate from where Sophia is sitting!
Chloe raises her hand high in the air, so everyone will know it is her that is speaking. She gapes at Brenae and smiles. She says excitedly, “I think I know what is going on! Bre is throwing her voice. After all, she is a very talented ventriloquist. That’s how she got her name, the Ventriloquist. She can mimic other’s voices as well. Am I right, Bre?”
Brenae smiles and nods her head. She gulps down what remains of her milkshake. She says, “Yes, as always, you are correct, Chloe. That is why you are our fearless Sextet leader! What I did is a form of ventriloquism. It is called ventriloquy.”
The others stare at Brenae and Diana Jane one after the other. That is because what Brenae had said sounded like Diana Jane’s voice. In spite of this, the sounds came from Brenae!
Colette says, “Bre, that sounded exactly like Diana Jane’s voice, but it seemed to come from you! You are amazing, Bre! Can you mimic my voice?”
“Not so well,” Brenae says. “You are delightfully Scottish with a very pronounced, extremely mesmerizing, enchantingly lovely accent. I am not very good at mimicking voice inflections like yours. I would have to practice like a ton of hours.”
James suddenly whispers excitedly, “Hey, our wings are here. Wow, do these ever look yummy or what? Dig in everyone!”
After a few moments of silence, Colette says, “I need to tell you, Bre, that little display of ventriloquism and ventriloquy truly was amazing. Then again, what does your ventriloquizing have to do
with the six pieces of pepperoni?”
Brenae replies, “Not too much except to prove a couple of points. Please allow me to explain. Ventriloquy may seem like magic, but it is not. It is nothing more than trickery. Puppet’s coils of twine may appear to be magic. Perhaps they are not. It could be that his twine is nothing more than good old fashioned hemp.”
Brenae beams a sly smile as she points to her napkin. Five pieces of pepperoni are sitting in the middle of her napkin – the five pieces she had supposedly eaten! The sixth piece of pepperoni is still in the middle of the table.
The others gasp with disbelief once they realize Brenae has fooled them. She had tricked them with her sleight of hand just as she had deceived them with her ventriloquy. She quickly grabs the five pieces of pepperoni and sticks them into her mouth. She chews for a few moments and swallows hard. She opens her mouth wide and sticks out her tongue.
The others laugh as Diana Jane leans in close to Brenae. She closes one eye, and then she peers into Brenae’s gaping mouth. She gives a thumb’s up.
“Yep, they are gone. Down the gullet into Bre’s tummy.” She laughs, and then she says jokingly, “Gosh, does it ever stink in there!”
All of a sudden, Brenae opens her hand. Six pieces of pepperoni are on the palm of her hand! She had not eaten the five pieces of pepperoni – two times! She had also snatched the sixth piece from the middle of the table when the others were distracted by Diana Jane’s mischief. Her teammates stare at her with expressions of pure respect.
Brenae says with a chuckle, “As you can see, sleight of hand, skillful deception if you will, can be as tricky as ventriloquy. Without a doubt, there are some special techniques used, and I guess you could say what I can do is a bit magical as well. Nonetheless, there is a logical explanation for all of it. That is because, at least in my opinion, magic does not exist in the most real sense of the word.
“Then again, given our experiences with Puppet, perhaps I am mistaken. Maybe there is a bit of magic in the world.” She shrugs her shoulders. “The universe is full of strange things, including magic.”
While Brenae glances around the table, she says, “Just the same, this much I do know as real. If Chloe hadn’t said anything about my weird skills,” she giggles, “we could have sat here for many minutes more while some of you tried to figure out what was going on.”
Colette slowly shakes her head. “We would never have noticed you didn’t gobble up those five pieces of pepperoni if you hadn’t shown them to us, just to gobble them down once more when you hadn’t.” She laughs. “Or else, whatever I’m trying to say! Anyway, everything that you did was marvelous, Bre!”
With a smile, Brenae says, “Thank you, Colette. That is the coolest thing about what I do. To others what I do is super-crazy magical. To me, it is nothing more than a learned skill. The same principle applies to Puppet. I feel some of what Puppet does may be magical, astounding evil magic, like somehow making Spaghetti Kid disappear and Mister Sorrie come and go in the cafeteria, although I hate to admit it.
“Then again, some, if not all of what Puppet does, is pure and straightforward psychological persuasion. It is nothing more than trickery – skillful deception like my ventriloquy and sleight of hand.
“Take what happened at the mansion. There is no way we can confirm it, at least not yet, but I think what we saw was nothing more than a 2D or 3D optical illusion along with sophisticated sound effects. That is not to say, all six of us didn’t see an amazingly humanlike mannequin suspended from the ceiling. I believe that we did. Then again, the principal becoming vertical, diving toward you, Colette, and her shrieks were not real.” She shakes her head. “They were humanmade illusions. Therefore,” she laughs, “given my long-winded speech, of which I apologize, I must ask you this. Who has access to such technology and is likewise technologically savvy to carry it out?”
“Someone in the movie business?” Sophia asks.
“Nope, but that is a good guess,” Brenae says.
“The Nashville TV station, Channel 6?” Colette asks.
Brenae shakes her head. “Perhaps, but I doubt they would loan their equipment for such a purpose.” She looks at James and Colette one after the other.
“Think closer to home my beloved French-fried seniors.” She glances at Sophia. “You too, my lovely, redheaded, non-French-fried high school senior, my dear Accountant.”
Sophia suddenly exclaims, “Our fellow seniors!”
Brenae tosses one of her chicken wings onto Sophia’s paper plate. She exclaims in a soft voice, “Bingo! You win the booby prize, Accountant. Exactly. The seniors. At least some of them. A few of them must be in cahoots with Puppet or, at the minimum, a stand-in, a go-between.”
Chloe says, “That would explain the food fight and how Spaghetti Kid came and went.”
Brenae says, “Partly, Chloe. Spaghetti Kid was real. He and I had a conversation. You and others saw him. After the food fight began, I’m not sure that what we thought we had seen occurred. That is where magic, optical illusions, and the psychological manipulation of our senses come into play. Therefore, I assume some of it was real. The other parts I am not so sure of.”
“What about our visions, our nightmares?” Chloe says. “How is it possible for three of us, Colette, Diana Jane, and me to envision things as we did?”
Sophia says in a calm tone, “Manipulation.” She glances at Brenae. “Bre just touched on it when she said, ‘optical illusions, and the psychological manipulation of our senses.’”
Brenae reaches over and grabs the chicken wing she had tossed onto Sophia’s plate a few moments ago. She immediately begins to chew on it. She says jokingly, “Bingo once more, Accountant.” She smiles mischievously. “Sorry. I’m still hungry.” She glances around at the table at the others.
“The Accountant is correct. It is manipulation. It is mind control. It is exploitation. It is deception or any name you want to call it. Science has proven that mind manipulation works. Some of the sorriest cases of manipulation and mind control, especially with innocent, naïve runaways, exists today. I have read up on the topic. It has something to do with my ventriloquism skills. I will not go into the more delicate details here. However, I will say this.
“Runaways, and trafficked youngsters, eventually are manipulated by pimps and johns horrifically. As soon as they feel lost or are hungry, scared and desperate, they put their trust, their lives, in others. At that point, unscrupulous people manipulate them psychologically. Regrettably, some runaways are damaged physically, emotionally, and mentally as a result. Many never recover and resort to drugs. Sadly, others try to take their own lives to escape reality. Unfortunately, many succeed.
“Whenever I perform my amateur ventriloquist skits for charity, I sort of stage-manage the audience before I begin my act. My stage management is a harmless form of manipulation. Since my audience generally consists of kids and doting mommas, mommas who will believe anything as long as their kids are happy, it is fairly easy for me to influence my audience. I take advantage of the kids’ wants, desires, and expectations. In most cases, they already know I am a ventriloquist, and I can mimic others’ voices. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be in attendance. Therefore, I prime them for the big show with a few sleights of hand tricks. I manipulate their expectations and get them thinking of magic and make-believe.” Brenae furrows her brow as she pauses briefly.
“The younger kids and the ones who have no clue what is coming, they are the hardest to manipulate before my show. That is because they do not have pre-conceived expectations. That is why, when you observe audiences during a magical or ventriloquist act, you will sometimes notice that some in the audience are shaking their heads suspiciously no matter how cool the act.”
Chloe says, “Okay. Let’s see if I understand all of this. What Colette, Sophia, Diana Jane, and I saw and heard, after all of us perceived the supposed principal suspended from the ceiling, were 2D or 3D illusions accompanied by sound effects. Am I correct?”
> Brenae replies, “Yes, they were the finest technological illusions and sound effects available. The best science has to offer – holograms with sound effects.”
“Like in the upcoming play Peter Pan!” Diana Jane exclaims.
Brenae says, “Yes, Diana Jane, like in the upcoming play Peter Pan.” She reaches for Diana Jane’s remaining chicken wing, but Diana Jane playfully slaps her hand away. Brenae gives her a pretend dirty look. She continues talking.
“It is my understanding that Mister Cheaply paid for Tennessee University to sponsor some of the technical sound and lighting equipment for the play.”
Chloe suddenly shouts, “Mister Cheaply! No wonder the creep accosted me earlier!” She looks at Colette, and then she says in a contrite tone, “That is why I was late! The jerk grilled me and threatened me. He also threatened to stop sponsoring all extracurricular activities at our school if we didn’t stop investigating the cafeteria food fight!”
James says, “Hmm, that is strange. You have a solid point there, Chloe. Maybe there is a connection here as well, the connection between Mister Cheaply and some of the high school seniors.”
Chloe exclaims, “Puppet as well!”
Brenae says, “You are correct, that is if our hypothesis is correct. Remember, we have nothing carved in stone. There also is the craziness of Puppet’s mind manipulation and presumed magic with which we have to contend as well.”
“And Mister Sorrie too,” Sophia says. “I bet he is in cahoots with the collaborating seniors, at least if our hypothesis is sound.”
Collette says, “Even if it doesn’t involve seniors, I will bet my bottom dollar that Mister Cheaply and Puppet are somehow coordinating all of this craziness!”
“All of what you have said is a start in the right direction,” Chloe says. “However, please allow me to continue with my train of thought before I lose it.” The others nod their heads.
“In some fashion, Puppet is manipulating our minds. At least some of us. If that makes any sense.”
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