The Puppeteer

Chapter Nine - When What Goes Up Does Not Want to Come Down

By: Tim Law

Genre: Children's Lit

If you told me that one day I would witness my friend Sam flying above me in a strange little tank being chased by a dragon made from corn, well, I would never have believed you. Even after my adventure where I flew on the back of my friend when they had become a dragon, my imagination could not fathom such a chaotic scene. And yet here I was, standing next to some cats made of apricot, a watermelon buffalo, witnessing the great dra-corn puppet about to swallow our only way of escaping this bizarre adventure that all started at Tammy's birthday party. Boo, the ra-corn was somewhere nearby with the pair of uni-corn, and I hoped that Ssssss-nenna the Stuff was somewhere safe. So many friends had helped us on this adventure, and I hoped that it would not end now. The evil puppeteer, The Amazing Antonio, seemed so close to capturing all of us and turning us into his chorus of wooden versions of ourselves destined to sign forever and dance to his silly song.

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 breeze swirled around us as above the C-A-T somehow flew, but not fast enough to escape the dra-corn's open jaws. Marionette strings extended like alien tentacles, thin and hungry, from the giant beast's jaws. More of those enchanted threads wrapped like thick ropes around the corn lizard's wings and body. Similarly, all the children who had attended the party, the lanky orange-a-tan and of course the manic cat, Felix, came toward us like a swirling storm cloud. It felt like this was going to be the end of the story, and not a fun one. Why had I chosen to go to Tammy's birthday? Why had Sam come too? Why did Tammy have to have the biggest and best party? We would have been happy to play pass-the-parcel, frozen statues, even eat fairy bread and drink horrible cordial, the stuff that tasted like it was water with a bit of food dye.
"We've got this," said Maddy.
"Yeah, don't worry about a thing, Jess," added Tilly.
"Me first!" said Livvy. "I'm the smallest."
"Then me," said Gabby. "I don't want to miss out on the fun."
"You apricats are so brave, and so right," I said. "We cannot give up now."
I grabbed Livvy and swung her up into the air toward the puppeteer's strings which were wrapped around the dra-corn's tail.
"Please don't fall," I whispered as I watched her fly.
"Weeeeeeeeee!!!" laughed the tiny apricat as she got blown about in the breeze.
It was a close call, but finally she reached her target and sunk those claws and sharp teeth into the mysterious wire. Within mere moments the wire began to fray.
"Are you going to watch all day or are you going to throw me too?" asked Gabby.
"Sorry, of course, here we go…" I said, turning away from the scene above us.
"Send me to one of the wings," Gabby ordered.
"As you wish," I replied.
"Weeeee!!! I'm a bird!" the apricat cried out in delight.
I knew that this was not true, but, in that moment, Gabby truly looked like she could fly forever.

The orange-a-tan had snuck up close to us and the strings that wriggled from his fingers wrapped around Gabby's tail.
"No! No! No!" I yelled.
How could I free my little friend?
"Coming through!" announced Billy the watermelon buffalo.
He knocked me over as he barreled past, crashing into the orange-a-tan.
The clickety clackety creature fell back on his hands, which in turn pulled sharply on the wires causing them to snap.

The orange beast focused solely upon the watermelon, wrapping Billy up in wires so tight.
"Don't worry about meeeee…" Billy yelled. "Go save your friend…"
And then I saw right before my eyes the transformation. Billy was a clickety, clackety puppet version of himself. I almost laughed to see such a silly sight. As the orange-a-tan turned its attention to me I turned and ran away. I ran toward Felix, the chaotic brother of my apricat friends, ran that way because that was the same way that Tilly and Maddy had bravely gone. If I could not help Gabby and Livvy up in the air, if I could not help poor Billy, then I vowed I would do my best to help those other two fluffy apricots.
"How can I help you?" I called as I got close enough for the three creatures to hear me.

Felix was doing a strange dance, up on his front paws and twirling while the puppeteer's string extended from his flickery tail, trying to entangle first one of his sisters and then the other. Maddy and Tilly were doing their best to slice through the string before it could take purchase. There were moments when a paw would get caught, but a quick slice and dice would take care of that.
"Find a way to hold him still," suggested Tilly.
She skillfully sliced through a strand of the string as it twisted around her tail. It was amazing to see this tiny creature so dexterously reach directly behind. An Olympic gymnast would have struggled with such a task.
"Felix, stop dancing, please let us save you," begged Maddy.
Felix just continued his strange dance and song, unable to escape from The Amazing Antonio's wicked enchantment.
"How? How? How?" I wondered.
How could I get close enough to hold Felix still?
On the ground I stepped over a giant stone and thought maybe I could use it to block Felix's dancing path and give Maddy and Tilly a second or two to snip his strings. Bending at my knees I attempted to lift the rock, only to discover it giggled when I touched it.
"Ha… Ha… Ho… Ho… Hee…" the stone slowly chuckled.
"Ssssss-nenna the Stuff?" I asked. "Is that you?"
"Why… Yesssss…" the stuff said, at a snail's pace.
"Do you have anything with you that I could possibly borrow that could slow down a dancing puppet cat?" I asked, the words tumbling out of me so quickly.
I was aware of the urgency of the moment, even if Ssssss-nenna the Stuff wasn't.
"What… Sort… Of… Thing… Do… … … You… Have… … …"
"In mind?" I finished the creature's sentence for it, but I needn't have bothered.
"Planned?" Ssssss-nenna the Stuff said.
"Arrrrrrgggg!!" I cried out in frustration.
"I… Do… Not… Have… One… Of… … … Those…" said the stuff. "I… Do… Not… Know… What… One… Of… Those… … … Are… Are…"
"A net… A net…" I suggested. "Do you have a big net for catching fish?"
"An… Arrrre… Is… A… … … … Net?" asked the stuff.
"No… Yes… Well… What I need right now is a great big net," I said. "Do you have one?"
"Why… Yes… I… Think so…" said Ssssss-nenna the Stuff. "Give… Me… A… Minute… To… Look…"
"I don't know if we have a minute," I replied.
Was this going to be an actual minute, or a stuff minute? How long was a stuff minute? Would it take an hour? Would it take a year? Slowly I watched the stuff return to rock form. I swatted away a stray string that threatened to wrap about my finger. In mere moments a clump of dirt in front of me shifted and suddenly the stuff was there. It was holding a cargo net in its sharp claws.
"Is… … … This… What…" the stuff began.
"Yes! Yes! Thank you!" I said, snatching the net from the paws that offered it.
"No… Need… To be… So… … Rude…" grumbled the hoarder.
Felix's string hit the dirt just as Ssssss-nenna the Stuff vanished from sight again.
"Throw the net! Throw the net!" urged Maddy.
Felix had captured Tilly and was close to capturing his other sister.
I threw that net with all my might and watched as it landed, square on target. Felix's dance and song continued, but he was caught in the trap. Maddy made short work of the string that had caught her sister, just as Tilly began to sing.

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…

Felix continued the song until his strings too got sliced through.

…Who like to run
I shall catch with my strings
Make each one join the fun…

"Thank you," purred Felix.
"You can thank us later," said Tilly. "We still have lots of strings to cut."
"And my claws are not as sharp as they used to be," complained Maddy.
"Look!" I said. "Look at that!"
"What are we looking at?" asked Tilly.
"The Amazing Antonio," I said. "Does he look like he is actually made out of wood like one of his puppets?"
"Yes!" said all the apricats together.
"I wonder if he knows where there is any fish?" asked Felix.
"How can you be hungry at a time like this?" asked Maddy.
"Don't you remember, Maddy?" laughed Tilly. "Felix is always hungry."
Felix's belly rumbled. Right on cue.
"Being a puppet is hungry work," the chaotic apricat explained.
"Come on," said Maddy. "We can stop and eat later."
The thunder of hooves informed us that the uni-corns were approaching.
"Climb aboard," said Boo. "This battle has just begun."
"We need to get to the puppeteer…" I suggested. "If you can get me there then I think I have a way to make this all ok…"
"What about your friend?" asked Boo.
"What about our sisters?" asked the apricats. "Shouldn't we help them first?"
I looked up in the sky, for the first time in a while. The things that had been happening on the ground had taken all my attention. I hoped that Sam was ok up there. I hoped that the dra-corn had not swallowed him and the C-A-T. Looking up, I discovered that the two furry balls of claw and determination had managed to slice all of the wires from the corn lizard, but the flying giant still had the C-A-T in its mouth, and Sam was still in the cockpit. I could only just make out Sam's voice shouting "BAM!", "SWISH!", and "FLY!", but the dra-corn had him caught tight. There looked to be no way for him to escape. There was only one thing left for me to try. To change the tides of chaos you needed to add some chaos of your own.
"You are up, Felix," I suggested.
"So, no uni-corn ride for me?" the apricat moaned.
"Maybe later," said Maddy.
"After fish," said Tilly.
"Ok," said Felix. "As long as it is a big fish and a long ride."
"Sure," agreed Felix's two sisters.
Before Felix could beg for any other rewards, I lifted the net and bundled him into my arms.
"Ready… On the count of three…" I told him.
"One!" said Tilly.
"Two…" said Maddy.
"Weeeeeeee!!!" said Felix.
He flew up, up, up into the sky.
I thought I had finally missed my mark and that we would all watch the brave little cat tumble back down again. At that very moment, Sam must have ordered the C-A-T to do something, because Felix was suddenly snatched up mid-flight and dragged toward the dra-corn's head. Claws outstretched he stuck them into the lizard's eye and the giant roared in pain. The vibrations from the beast's cry of pain caused the C-A-T to tumble backward.
"Hang on, Sam!" I cried.
"We have to go," suggested Boo the ra-corn.
I knew the urgency, but I could not take my eyes off watching Sam gripping the seatbelt of the upside-down C-A-T, if he let go, he would fall so far. The dra-corn was twisting a twirling in the sky, trying to shake free the three apricats who clung to it. Everything was so precarious.
"We can't watch them forever," Boo said.
"I need to know they are ok," I said.
"If we stay here, we become puppets," the ra-corn suggested.
"I know… I know…" I agreed, and yet I needed to see that Sam and the apricats were all safe.

The orange-a-tan was there, as was Tammy and a whole bunch of my classmates. Now was most definitely the time to go.
"Alright, where is The Amazing Antonio?" I asked. "Please take me straight to him."
I truly hoped that this was going to work. I would need all the bravery that I could muster. That, and the luck of every single birthday wish I had ever made. What could possibly go wrong?

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