I held on tight to my friend Jess' hand as we ran after the water-buffalo-melon and the seven apricats, down into the darkness of the underground tunnel. I stumbled along, feeling every tree root and stone, but I was glad that I had managed to slip off my shoes when the puppeteer wrapped his marionette strings around them. I had sensed the strange song coming to my lips, invading my brain, but once my shoes were off, I could think for myself again.

"Don't look at me! I'm hideous!" cried the watermelon creature ahead of us.

"Sam, what's going on now?" ask Jess. "I can see lights up ahead."

She was right. Where the water-buffalo-melon was waddling, leading the way, the tunnel was not so dark. Light globes had been shoved into the soil of the tunnel wall, on the right side. As we got closer to where the lights began, we heard the apricats squealing, perhaps crying out in horror of squealing in delight, we could not be sure.

"I don't want to go any further," Jess said. "But I know we can't go back."

Looking over my shoulder, back toward the tunnel entrance I could see a stream of strange characters clicking and clacking behind us, dancing and singing, twirling about as they chanted.

Puppet on a string

My puppet on a string

I will teach you to dance

I will teach you to sing

And then all the children

Who like to run

I shall catch with my strings

Make each one join the fun

Puppet on a string

My dear puppet on a string

It looked like the orange-a-tan was the leader of the pack, with two bush-like creatures at either side of him. Eyes the side of frying pans stared out from within the brush. As they sang their leaves rustled. Tiny strings waved about like worms burrowing through the air, extending from each leaf and twig. We had to move, Jess and I, and we had to move fast.

"Come on," I urged. "We'll do it together."

Jess gripped my hand even tighter, squeezing so hard that I thought she would make my blood come out through my fingernails.

"OK," she said. "We run on the count of three."

Puppet on a string

My puppet on a string

I will teach you to dance

I will teach you to sing

And then all the children

Who like to run

I shall catch with my strings

Make each one join the fun

Puppet on a string

My dear puppet on a string

The chanting was growing louder. The army of wooden puppets was getting so close.

"One…" said Jess.

"Two…" we both said together.

"Oh no… Run Sam, run!" cried Jess.

Jess had opened her eyes to see how close the puppets had gotten, and she had seen one of those sneaky strings had almost touched me. That was enough incentive to propel us both toward the light and whatever it was that had frightened both the water-buffalo-melon and the apricats.

It was a hall of mirrors we soon discovered, fun-house mirrors that were not so fun. The first mirror had caused us to grow so fat that we could barely move. Normally the mirrors at the fairground were all just fun, but when we looked into these mirrors, they truly made us feel like we had extra weight to carry.

"Quickly, Jess," I said. "Let's get to the next mirror."

We helped each other take the biggest steps we could, after our third step we could no longer feel the extra weight affects. The second mirror was almost funny, switching our bodies so that Jess had my legs, and I had hers. We stumbled along further down the tunnel but then paused in terror as we witnessed the apricats attack the water-buffalo-melon as it tried to stab them with its horns.

"Close your eyes, Sam," Jess suggested, bravely. "Let us close our eyes and we can run past this mirror together."

I nodded. We were still holding hands, and we could see from the tunnel lights that the path ahead of us was free of tree roots and nasty stones. We just had to make sure that we did not step on any of the fruit creatures. It was a straight and easy run.

Jess closed her eyes and then took off at a very fast pace. Caught by surprise I felt myself being dragged by her, into the area of reflection. I caught a look at us both, immediately wishing that I hadn't. Both Jess and I were monstrous versions of ourselves. My image in the mirror like that of my friend's, was transformed into a horrible version of myself. I had leathery wings and sharp claws, a mouth full of too many teeth, and eyes that glowed like fire. Jess was so tall that I could no longer see her face in the mirror image, but I could see that her body was full of spikes. One of the spikes stuck into my hand and I had to let go allowing Jess to get ahead of me. In anger I kicked the apricats and felt them squish upon my bare feet. They too had transformed into little squish monsters, and they began attacking my toes.

"Ow! Ow! Ow!" I cried. "Stop that, right now!"

My voice was a roar that shook the tunnel walls.

"We won't stop until you say the magic word," squeaked the squish monsters.

"What magic word?" I asked. "Please?"

"No… No… No…" the squish monsters moaned. "We hear children use those kind words all the time."

By this stage my monstrous self was getting very angry and Jess with her now spiky long legs had just stridden past the range of the mirror's reflection and was starting to shrink and become much less spiky, her normal self again.

"Come on, Sam!" she called. "You can make it all the way past just like I did."

Jess had shown me the way, and yet for some reason this made me madder than I was before.

"Tell me what word!" I growled like I was the monster that I could see reflected in the mirror.

"Well," considered the squish monster as the rest of its family continued sucking on my toes. "What magic words do you know?"

"Hocus pocus," I tried.

"That's two words," grumbled the squish monster apricat.

"Alacazam!" I cried, and little bolts of lightning flashed across my claws.

"Impressive," said the squish monster. "But still not the right word."

"Abaracadabara?" I asked, hoping that this time I was right.

My whole being lurched forward almost ten feet and suddenly I was standing next to Jess again. The effects of the mirror vanished one by one, my flaming eyes the last thing to go.

"Sam," said Jess, as she flung her arms around me. "It is good to have you back to being you again."

"I've never been happier to be me," I said as I felt around my face and down my arms.

"Now, we need to be really brave," Jess told me, pointing to the final mirror that we would need to pass.

This was the worst mirror yet. It was positioned in the tunnel right where the ground was rough, full of tripping tree roots and pointy stones. We could not close our eyes this time.

"Do we run for it and hope?" asked my friend.

That seemed to be our only option, but then the lightning flashed across my fingers again, making them tingle. Perhaps I still had one more shot at magic left in me.

"Hold my hands, Jess, both of them this time," I said.

Without questioning my idea, my wonderful friend gripped my hands tightly.

"After I say the number three, let us both yell out the magic word," I suggested.

Jess nodded, excited to try and help me cast this spell.

"The magic of friendship," she whispered.

"Ready?" I asked and then I began to count.

As soon as I reached the number three, we both said the magic word.

"PLEASE!" yelled Jess.

"Abracadabra!" I said.

I again shot forward those necessary ten feet, the force of the spell caused Jess and I to let go.

"Oh no…" I heard Jess whisper.

I just managed to glimpse her mirror image, a marionette version of herself.

"I won't let this happen to you, Jess!" I said, bravely, and I ran back down that tunnel toward my friend and grabbed her by her wooden hands. I watched as her arms went stiff and started to change.

Puppet on a string

My puppet on a string

I will teach you to dance

I will teach you to sing

And then all the children

Who like to run

I shall catch with my strings

Make each one join the fun

Puppet on a string

My dear puppet on a string

Jess' lips were chanting the puppet master's song as the army of wooden puppets got closer, so close that I could see individual faces, recognizing the orange-a-tan and kids from my and Jess' classrooms.

"No… No… You need to say the A word!" I told Jess. "Like this… A… Boar… A… Cad… A… Boar… A…"

Jess' lips moved as her legs became wooden.

"Abra… Ca… Dab… Ra…" they clacked.

Suddenly Jess was gone, ten feet away from me and changing back fast.

"Thank you, Sam," she cried out happily. "Now you say the word too…"

"A…" I began, but just at that moment I felt my feet go hard.

I could see my reflection in the mirror, and I could hear the voice of the puppet master in my mind. I wanted to join in the fun, and I wanted to dance with my friends. I especially wanted to dance with Jess. It was going to be the best time going back to Tammy Tolittle's party as a puppet in the play and to spend the rest of my life bringing joy to other children.

My dreaming thoughts were harshly interrupted as Jess, with her eyes squeezed tightly shut came crashing into me. Looking into the mirror I now faced I could see my monstrous self again. I could see the orange-a-tan puppet turning into a creature with snakes for arms and legs and a gigantic pumpkin for a head. In the mirror's glass I could see the puppet children turning into wicked versions of themselves, their worst qualities like jealousy and meanness bubbling up to the surface.

"One, two, three, Sam," said Jess. "We say the word together, and then we continue saying it until the magic or the tunnel runs out."

"OK Jess, OK," I said. "But you do the counting."

I had forgotten the numbers. My feet felt like they had grown roots, little tree roots that were trying to dig their way into the rocky ground of the tunnel. In my mind I could only think about the birthday party and the puppeteer who was my master.

Puppet on a string

My puppet on a string

I will teach you to dance

I will teach you to sing

And then all the children

Who like to run

I shall catch with my strings

Make each one join the fun

Puppet on a string

My dear puppet on a string

"No, Sam, listen to me!" begged Jess. "Don't listen to him and his silly song."

I knew that she was shouting, my friend Jess was worried about me. I could barely hear her voice though. It sounded so far away, even though I could feel Jess right beside me.

"Count Jess… Count the numbers…" I said, slowly, my tongue turning into a piece of wood.

"No time for counting," she replied. "We need to say the words now."

"Ad… Ra… Cad… Dad… Ra…" I murmured.

"Abracadabra!" Jess shouted.

Suddenly we were both free of the nightmare mirror.

"Again!" Jess urged.

"Abra… Cadabra…" we said, together this time.

Another ten feet of tunnel whooshed by. Another mirror threatened to change us.

Jess and I both ignored it. Holding hands and locking eyes we shouted that magic word as loudly as we could.

"ABRACADABRA!!!"

Nothing happened.

"ABRACADABRA!!!" we shouted again.

The magic was gone it seemed.

"What are you two doing?" asked the water-buffalo-melon as it waddled past us.

"Trying to avoid this mirror," Jess said.

"And why would you do that?" asked the watermelon creature. "This mirror is the way out."

"The way out?" I asked. "Is this the only way out of the tunnel?"

"Look behind you and look ahead," said the apricat.

Turning around, both Jess and I noticed that the entrance hole was above us and the mirrors were ahead. We had just gone around a circular tunnel. If we had run back the opposite way when we had first run into the darkness, we could have avoided all the other mirrors.

"I'll go first," Jess said bravely.

Without any hesitation she stared at her reflection and spoke the other magic word.

"Please…"

Her reflection smiled at us. Then the reflection of Jess reached out from the mirror and grabbed hold of her. Before either of us knew what was happening, Jess' reflection pulled, hard, and Jess stumbled forward, into the mirror. She was gone.

"Jess!" I cried out in alarm.

"Oh, don't worry about her," said the arpicat. "She'll be fine."

"We won't be so fine," said the water-buffa-melon. "Not if that crowd of wooden puppets gets any closer."

Turning my head to the right I saw the strings of the puppeteer snaking their way toward us.

"Lift me up, quickly," begged the apricat. "I don't want to turn to wood, I'm far too juicy."

The, now five members of the feline family clawed their way up my legs and body to crawl along my arms.

"Please!" five little voices mewed.

Five little apricats appeared in the mirror.

It was then that I noticed how squished their faces were. Some of them had lost whiskers, one had only a left ear, the right one gone. The mirror images of the apricats stretched unnaturally, becoming deformed, like fury worms, no longer resembling cute little cats. I felt an icy coldness as the worms plucked the tiny fruit creatures from my arms.

"No… Wait..!" I called.

"No time to wait!" said the water-buffa-melon at my feet. "Lift me up so I can say the word."

I scooped it up into my arms and tried to lift it off the ground. It was so heavy.

"I can't do it!" I moaned. "You weigh way too much."

"Then eat a slice of me," said the creature. "It will give you the energy you need and make me a little bit lighter."

"How?" I asked. "Hurry!"

The water-buffa-melon wiggled and waggled and then a chunk of its back came free. Without asking for further instructions or permission, I grabbed that piece of fruit and sunk my teeth into the pinkness. It was the sweetest tasking watermelon that I have ever tasted.

"What do I do with the rind?" I asked when all the fruit was gone.

"I don't know… Maybe just throw it at the puppets…" suggested the watermelon creature.

I did that and the orange-a-tan with the now pumpkin head, caught the piece of rind turning it to wood. Its great gord head flipped open to reveal all the pumpkin seeds and then the wooden rind was chucked amongst those seeds, and I saw that they were teeth. The wooden rind vanished in less than a second. A big blue tongue appeared amongst the seeds, licking and slurping, seeking any crumbs.

"Crumbs," said the watermelon that looked like a cow. "Please lift me up so I can say please and get out of here."

"OK, I'll try," I said.

Again, I wrapped my arms around the creature's belly. I could see inside it, now that the slice had been cut and eaten. I could see all the seeds and how they were shaped like cows. I lifted with all my might. The sweetness of that pink fruit gave me the strength that I needed to lift the hefty water-buffa-melon, high enough that it could see itself in the mirror's image.

"Please… Please… Please…" it said.

The head of the mirror image popped off from the watermelon body and came floating through the mirror's surface. It locked horns with the creature that I held in my hands and then, as it an invisible rubber band had reached its limit, the head flew back into the mirror with a snap. The heavy watermelon was dragged out of my arms and then it too was gone. I was the last one left in the tunnel. My legs felt like they wouldn't move. I was rooted to the spot where I stood. The first of the puppeteer's strings wrapped around my hands and my waist. One tickled my neck. I could hear the song, I could sense the desire to dance, I wanted to join the party.

(Just say the magic word, Sam…) I could hear Jess say. (I don't think I can do this adventure without you…)

Puppet on a string

My puppet on a string

I will teach you to dance

I will teach you to sing

And then all the children

Who like to run

I shall catch with my strings

Make each one join the fun

Puppet on a string

My…

The voice in my head was strong. The voice in my head was full of power. The voice in my head was almost irresistible. Almost, but not quite. Nothing was stronger than Jess and my friendship, and my friend needed me.

With my lips turning hard I clacked them together.

"Please…" I said, just as my reflection reached out with a tree branch arm.

The leaves wrapped around me and pulled me through the mirror. I could hear the strings snap as I passed through the glass, saved just in time.

-