“For nearly twenty years, I was treated by the Hall’s like a beloved member of their family. The children would play with me, and they would dress me up in their clothes. They seated me at the end of the dinner table opposite Harold. The youngest, my Creator, Mary, even gave me a place setting when it was her turn to set the table.
“I could sense the Hall family’s love for me in the central part of my being, my core. Even so, I was lifeless, unable to move or respond physically. Then one evening, after I performed as a marionette puppet in a distinguished play, my Creator brought me to life.” Robert tenderly touches the right side of his face with his fingertip.
“It is here where my Creator bestowed life into the central part of my being when she kissed me. Her miracle happened over four hundred years ago. Owing to Mary Hall’s innocence, love, and compassion, I sensed, for the briefest, fleeting moment, true love and happiness in the central part of my being.
“Then I was ripped from my Creator and her loving family. Over time, my core slowly disintegrated. The goodness and love that my core had sensed for that brief, fleeting moment had vanished. I wandered for a very long time. I had been discarded, neglected, and humiliated. The damage to the central part of my being was irreversible.” He glares at his father.
“Now, Mister Cheaply, where there once was unbelievable love and compassion, I sense nothing but anger, despair, and hatred.” Robert points to his father. “Hatred for him!”
Robert abruptly returns to his chair. He picks up his book from the floor and stuffs it into his backpack. He faces Mister Cheaply.
“Perhaps you should have attacked my father instead of my uncle. If you had, I doubt I would have done anything to you,” he glares at his father, “except feign a satisfied smile. All the same, despite the hatred I sense for my father, I too must warn you. If you do or say anything that brings harm to my uncle, I will destroy you. If you go to the police, I will destroy you. Yes, I will destroy you!” He pauses for a moment, and then he says, “I will destroy anybody and anything that you hold dear to your heart.” He leers, and then he says in a blunt tone, “Starting with your business.”
Robert turns around and starts to walk toward the door. He calls over his shoulder, “Heed my words, Mister Cheaply. What you witnessed today is nothing in comparison to what I will do if you threaten my uncle.”
As Robert reaches for the doorknob, Puppet suddenly screams, “Where do you think you are going, you stupid, insolent, insulting, feeble moron? You cannot leave. I forbid it. If you leave, Robert, I promise you that you will regret it!”
“Oh, really,” Robert casually replies as he faces his father. “What are you going to do, Father? Are you going to kick me? Are you going to punch me? Are you going to stick needles into my stomach to punish me until the central part of my being recoils in anger? Are you going to insult me once more as you did right now?”
Robert suddenly reaches into the collar of his shirt and seizes a handful of frayed strands of twine from beneath his armpit. He opens his hand to show Mister Cheaply the strands of twine. Mister Cheaply backs up a few feet as he stares.
“Yes, Mister Cheaply, the strands of twine I have ripped from my being are real. As I said earlier, I am a puppet! My uncle and father’s coils of twine are fakes. They fasten their supposed strands of twine to their bodies with superglue. They like to show the strands of twine to others, my father more so than my uncle, to impress and to scare people. Every bit of what they do with strands of twine is a charade. The coils of twine that my father has been handing out for years are nothing but ordinary coils of hemp. There is nothing magical about them.
“As you can see, Mister Cheaply, my strands of twine are authentic. My twine is the quintessence, the essence of my being like the lifeblood that flows through your veins. Yes, Mister Cheaply, of all the walking and talking puppets of the human world, I am the greatest puppet.” Robert suddenly laughs. “I know what you are thinking at this very moment, Mister Cheaply. You did not misunderstand me. What I said is true.
“There are other “special” puppets like me in the world, thousands! They may appear to sit stoically on the laps of ventriloquists. They may appear to perform lifelessly in puppety plays. They may appear to dance limply at the ends of their puppety strings. They may appear to rest idly on store shelves. They may appear to lie lifelessly in children’s toy boxes. Nevertheless, their cores are alive, and they await instructions from the Supreme Spectral Puppet.” Robert throws the handful of frayed strands of twine at Mister Cheaply’s feet.
"They await orders from me, Robert der Däiwel, the Supreme Spectral Puppet!”
Robert quickly turns on his heels. He addresses his father for one last time before he exits the room.
“No, Father, you are not going to abuse me anymore. I am leaving Father, and I hope you rot in your grave because that is where you will find yourself before long. Goodbye.” Robert exits the room and disappears.
Mister Cheaply retrieves his belongings that scattered on the floor. He walks halfway to the open door, and then he stops. He turns around and glares at Puppet and Mister Sorrie.
“Goodbye, gentlemen. I will see you in court.”
*****
Part II: The Strange Phenomenon and an Eye-opener
“Did you hear what happened?” Chloe says in an excited voice.
Chloe and the other members of the Sextet are in the abandoned warehouse. Chloe had explained to Missus Davenhill that the Sextet enjoyed the privacy of the warehouse for their meetings. Missus Davenhill, in her typical magnanimous style, had contacted the owners of the warehouse. The owners had given the Sextet permission to meet in the warehouse during daylight hours.
“Aye, I did,” Colette replies to Chloe. “I cannot believe it. How is your brother taking it?”
Chloe says, “Jim is good to go considering what happened. He talked to Charles, one of the Mulloy brothers, you know, of the Mulloy’s Pharmacy across the street?” Colette nods her head.
“Jim has a sit-down tomorrow with Charles’ brother, Francis. If everything goes okay, and there is no reason why it shouldn’t, Jim starts working next week. He is going to wait on customers, keep the store clean, that sort of stuff. He may have to deliver an occasional prescription but only if the other worker, Ed, is not available.”
“Okay, Brenae says. “Who, what, when, and where? Enlighten the rest of us if you please because I have no clue about what the two of you are talking.”
“Something demolished Cheaply’s store last night,” Chloe says. “The police department is investigating the cause.”
Brenae says, “Goodness! I had no idea.”
Sophia asks, “Is everyone okay? Hopefully, there weren’t any injuries.”
“No, fortunately, there weren’t any injuries,” Chloe replies, “at least from what I know up until now. Some of the details are sketchy. From what I have learned, a few of the neighbors on Leroy Avenue called the police around 2:30 in the morning. They reported hearing a loud, whooshing noise that was coming from the direction of Cheaply’s store.
“One of the neighbors across the store on Richland Avenue told the police that the loud, whooshing noise woke him up. He said he wasn’t too worried about the cause of the noise being a tornado or the sounds of straight rain from a thunderstorm. He had checked his weather app before going to bed. There was zero chance of rain during the night.
“Anyway, he told the police he was standing near his kitchen window drinking a glass of milk when he saw the floodlight in Cheaply’s alleyway extinguish. He said it made a popping noise. He said it had the same sound as when an electrical transformer pops after lightning strikes it. He said a flash of red light accompanied the popping noise as it blew up. Then he saw the floodlight in front of Cheaply’s store do the same thing. He ran onto his porch.
“He saw a strange whirlwind engulfing Cheaply’s store. He immediately called the police. He told the police that the spinning round and round of Cheaply’s store reminded hi
m of Dorothy’s house being swallowed up by a tornado in the Wizard of Oz.”
Chloe abruptly pauses her story as she stares expressionlessly.
I have experienced a similarly strange but much smaller phenomenon! So has Jay. This horrible incident is the third time that a whirlwind has occurred involving us or someone that we know! What in the devil is going on?
When she finally can continue telling her story, Chloe’s voice is shaky and distant.
“Yes, the neighbor said the scene was similar to the Wizard of Oz, except for one strange thing. Not a single piece of wood, not a shard of glass from a pop bottle, not a scrap of recycled newspaper from the cellar, not even a candy bar wrapper, managed to escape the whirlwind. Cheaply’s store was neatly confined within the whirlwind so as not to damage the store’s surroundings.
“What is even stranger, the neighbor told the police that he saw a figure standing in the middle of Leroy Avenue during the commotion. The figure had his arms stretched out wide before him.” Chloe slowly looks at her teammates one by one. Her eyes rest on James, and then they mist over with tears.
“The neighbor said the figure was standing beneath a street light, so he got a good look at him. He said the figure was a teenaged boy! The boy was short in stature and thin. He had sandy hair and blue eyes. He was wearing blue jeans and a green shirt.”
James says in a whisper, “Chloe, by how the neighbor described the teenager, you have portrayed Robert to a tee!”
Chloe replies, “Yes, I know Jay, I know.” She glances around the circle. Her expression is remarkably awful. “Everybody, I am petrified. What happened to Cheaply’s store is too close to home for comfort. What if my brother was working in the store when Robert attacked it? He would have died!” Chloe buries her face in the palms of her hands. Diana Jane rushes over to comfort her.
After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, Chloe looks up. She glances around the circle at her teammates.
“I am sorry everybody, for getting emotional. Knowing what we know about Robert’s horrible wickedness, and what he did to Jay and the others on Grider Street, I could not control my emotions.”
Diana Jane asks in a sympathetic tone, “Chloe, for the reason that you, like Jay, experienced a similar whirlwind, except your whirlwind occurred in the school’s basement?” She searches Colette’s eyes with hers, and then she says, “When you first met Colette?”
Chloe replies quietly, “Yes, Diana Jane, you are correct. I will never clear my mind of what I experienced.”
James says, “I, for one, am glad no one was injured, especially your brother, Bob Smith, and Claudia. I would not want Mister Cheaply injured as well, despite his nastiness. There are Cheaply’s customers to consider too, so I am glad the whirlwind did not occur while the store was open for business.” He looks at Chloe. “Do you know when the police will conclude their investigation?”
Chloe says, “From what my father told me, the police will complete their investigation sometime this week. Then again, how can the police investigate something unexplainable? How can the police investigate a whirlwind appearing out of nowhere, destroying a building, and not damaging anything around it? What happened to Cheaply’s store defies reality.
“In any case, I bicycled by Cheaply’s former store today. There is police tape everywhere. Why the police bothered to put tape around the mess, I have no idea. There is nothing left but a heaping pile of smashed to smithereens junk.”
“I guess the police used the tape to keep kids from scouring through the ruins,” Diana Jane says. “You know the younger neighborhood kids. They will rummage through anything if they think there is even an iota of a chance that they will find something of value.”
Chloe says, “You are right. Then again, from what I saw, there is nothing worth looking for, nothing salvageable.”
Brenae says casually, “We can assume that Robert did it. We do not know for sure. It is just that everything points to him. I mean, think about it. With each passing day, each passing week, we learn more of what is going on.
“I guess that the more pressure we put on these idiots, and the more that we discover, eventually there will be a break in their ranks. It always happens. One or more people come to realize they are about to get in trouble for wrongdoings or that something immoral is happening within the group. They get scared, and then they decide to bail out. Afterward, the other members of the group punish the defectors as a warning not to go to the authorities. Look what happened with Clay. Clay wanted to bail out in a heartbeat once we were wise to them. Emmy did as well.
“I would have to guess that is what happened in Cheaply’s case. It could be he already has bailed out of the group. Otherwise, he would still have a place of business. If what I am saying is correct, Mister Cheaply better attend to his p’s and q’s. If he doesn’t, something more terrible than losing his business may happen.”
Brenae leans in closer to the circle. “Don’t tell anybody, but I have a friend who is a member of the computer club. Maybe you know her. She is that fantastic, super pretty roller skater, Lindsey Marie Godspeed.”
“Yes, I know her but only a little,” Diana Jane says. “I used to see her on Friday and Saturday nights at the skate center. It has been a while since she has skated, at least on Saturday nights. I think she has a job. I think she is a carhop. I do not know for certain. It is something I heard.”
Brenae says, “You are correct. She is a carhop. Therefore, she doesn’t skate much these days. I guess she is too busy with work, playing sports,” she rolls her eyes, “along with endless gobs of useless homework just like the rest of us.”
“Okay, Bre,” Sophia says playfully, “please get to the point. Geez, can you ever get off track!”
“It isn’t my fault,” Brenae replies with a laugh. She points at Diana Jane. “It is her fault.” Diana Jane laughs.
Brenae says in a whisper, “Do all of you remember what Missus Davenhill said when she apologized to the Marvella’s? She said someone might have influenced some in the audience to act weird.” The other Sextet members nod their heads. “Good, I’m glad you remember because she also said she wasn’t at liberty to tell us more about her suspicions. Given what she said, I have a sneaking suspicion she may know more of what’s going on than we do. Anyway, Lindsey said she performed some diagnostics on the photograph slides. She didn’t find anything on the photographs.”
“That is unfortunate,” Colette says. “Considering your friend, Lindsey, didn’t find anything, what does all of this have to do with her?”
Brenae says in a teasing manner, “Hold your horses, Colette. I am getting to it.” She glances around the warehouse as if someone else is going to hear what she is about to say.
“Come on, Bre,” James says in a pretend, irritated tone. “There is no one here but the Sextet!”
Sophia laughs. “Give her time, Jay. It is just Bre being dramatic, innocent, outspoken, tenacious, Bre.” She slams her right fist into the palm of her left hand. She says lightheartedly, “So help me God, Bre, if you do not get to the point, I am going to punch out your lights.”
“Anyway,” Brenae says in a whisper as she leans in even closer, “As I said, Lindsey said there wasn’t anything on the photographs. That should come as no surprise since the slides came from the Marvella’s. Only Diana Jane and a couple of others had access to the slides when they practiced for the memorial. Also, this is important.” She looks at Diana Jane. “As Diana Jane knows better than anybody since she was narrating the slide show presentation, there were over a hundred slides. As I said, there wasn’t anything on them.” She laughs as Sophia slams her fist into the palm of her hand once more.
Brenae blows Sophia a kiss. “I am getting to it, Accountant. Cool your heels. Anyway, Lindsey discovered something weird. In between every other slide, there was a slide that said various things like ‘Shout puppet! You love twine! Coils of twine are evil! You love Puppet. Scream! Run! Shout! Do not trust your parents! Do not trust your teac
hers! Laugh at your principal! Walk out of the auditorium!’”
The others are shaking their heads in disbelief with what Brenae has said.
Brenae says, “Yep, just like I did, I thought you would find that to be scary. What is more, the guy who was working the slides offstage was someone Lindsey hadn’t seen before that day. She hasn’t seen him in school since then. Then again, Lindsey was not involved in the practice sessions with Diana Jane and the original technician that had practiced with her. She did not question the boy's presence during the memorial. Quite frankly, there was no reason for Lindsey to suspect him.”
Diana Jane suddenly whispers in a frightened voice, “My goodness, Bre. I too saw an unfamiliar-looking boy. I briefly glanced at him before I started my narrative. I wanted to make certain someone was working the device that controls the slide projector. He was in the corner where he was supposed to be.” Her eyes widen into large circles just as her face turns white. She looks at Brenae who is nodding her head.
Diana Jane says, “I hadn’t realized it at the time because I was pretty nervous. Now that Bre has mentioned the boy that Lindsey saw, my memory is like going crazy.” She shakes her head a few times. “It was the same boy that I saw standing in the serving line the very day the food fight occurred. He was talking to Bre.” She stares at Brenae, and then the two of them shout at the same time.
“It was the Spaghetti Kid, Robert!”
CHAPTER TWENTY
THE WIZARDESS MAKES SEVEN
“Something ruined the Peter Pan video!”
Part I: The SEPTET
The teenagers are back in the abandoned warehouse a few days later.
“Hey, everyone,” Brenae announces. “I would like you to meet Lindsey, Lindsey Marie Godspeed. I call her the Wizardess. I’ve been calling her that since grammar school. Lindsey is the one who discovered the questionable slides in the Marvella slideshow that I talked about the other day.” She places her arm around Lindsey’s shoulders. “As far as I am concerned, she is my heroine in addition to being one of my best friends. Moreover, she is a beautiful young lady as you can see. Therefore, my fellow Sextet team members, I have a proposal for you.”
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