Shawn forced himself to looked in the mirror, hoping that whatever weird force had turned him into a dummy was wearing off. "I do look like a dummy...but if I'm thinking and talking, who's pulling my levers, then, huh?"

"You're right! You do look like a dummy! You look just like me!" Mr. Clayton agreed.

"You clearly look like a dummy. You're all wooden. You're all fake. You don't look or act like a real boy. And there are some things that are very dumb about you. You said so yourself."

“I think in my own case it might just be the bits of wood rubbing together to form some kind of strange reaction or some kind of illusion. I think---I know---that dummies like me can't talk. They can't think for themselves.”

"What do you think is going on in your own case?"

"I'm not all fake!" Even as Shawn said it, though, he realized he couldn't remember the last time he'd talked to someone without lying to them or manipulating them. "I'm a real person, I am. Even if I lie sometimes."

"You could be right about that. You could be real.” Mr. Clayton conceded.




"And yet—you are a dummy. The two things have to not happen at the same time?” Mr. Clayton asked.

“What could it mean?”
This message was last edited by the player at 02:09, Sun 05 Apr 2020.

"I don't know!" Shawn folded his arms petulantly. "If I'm real, then the question doesn't make sense, and if I'm a dummy, I'm not gonna be able to figure it out!"

"But what if—.” Mr. Clayton started. He stopped halfway through as if a lightbulb had gone off inside that wooden puppet head of his.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:11, Sun 05 Apr 2020.

Shawn furrowed his brow - or he would have if he could move his face. "What? What's wrong?"

"But what if both were true at the same time?” Mr. Clayton asked in genuine contemplation.

"So I'm a dummy and a real person at the same time?" Shawn didn't quite see how that made sense, but if it was possible, it also suggested something else might be true. "Does that mean you might be a dummy and a real person too?"

“I mean—“ Mr. Clayton explained “that you’ve always been a dummy who thinks he’s real. It’s just those bits of wood working. Just the illusion of the puppet on the ventriloquist’s lap. That’s why you can be both.”

Shawn didn't have much of a response to that, and he was left scrambling. "Well...what difference does it make? I've always been me." He didn't deliver it with much conviction.

“Of course you’ve always been the way you have always been. But real? Look at yourself.“ Mr. Clayton explained “That’s the real you. It isn’t your fault that you were never real and no one told you. No one told me either. It’s something that you discovered yourself. Just look at your own reflection.”

Shawn wasn't quite sure if he bought Mr. Clayton's argument (though the proof was right there in the mirror...), but he didn't see how arguing the point further would help. "Okay, I guess I'm not real...so now what?"

“You aren't real? Or there is no real?“ Mr. Clayton asked“It's like this whole big thing is a lie. You can pretend that it isn't. But you see yourself in the mirror. And you've been playing the part your whole life.”

"Why is it that you lie so much?" Mr. Clayton asked in jovial tone.

"We both know you're a liar. And that fits. Hehehehehahaha." Mr. Clayton jaunted, though the tone wasn't one of poking fun of Shawn. He laughed the laugh of an audience member who just recently figured a joke out from a comedian who delivered the punch line a long time ago.

"It's like all of your lies are pointing at the fact that your whole life is one big lie. And in a strange way, that's the only thing that is true."

"Think about that." Mr. Clayton offered.

"And when you're done thinking. Then you'll have to think some more on it. Have you thought about it? Because we aren't going to be seeing each other for some time I'm afraid."

Shawn knew he lied sometimes, but he liked to think of most of it as just being polite. Like, if your Mom gave you some food that wasn't very good, but you said it was good anyway. Was that really a lie? But he kept that thought to himself. Instead, he tried to think about what Mr. Clayon had said...until he was brought up short. "What?! Why won't I see you?" Sure, the dummy was constantly criticizing him for stuff, but he needed the puppet's help!

“Just like you are pulling my levers someone is pulling yours.“ Mr. Clayton explained“You must think of two things before we are separated from one another. The first, is what we just talked about. The fact that you aren't real. And that for you, there is no real. Because you are like me: a dummy. Promise me you will think of it. Consider it.”

"The second, is that you are a liar." Mr. Clayton said, without judgement. "Remember these two wow-zury, crazy, super-funny ideas! Yucka Yucka!"

Shawn didn't like the idea of someone pulling his levers, or that he was a dummy. Or that he was a liar. But he especially didn't like the idea that his protection and his one ticket to fixing things was going away. "Can you at least fix what you did to Ralph before you go?"

“We must do something about Ralph. But isn't me who will be going away.“ Mr. Clayton explained “You will be leaving me.”

"It's not your fault. Dummy's don't have a lot of control. You know that already . I mean, just look at what you had to do during the show to get me to talk! Just look how you have to pack me away when you're done! Yes, you'll be leaving me. But it won't be  you're fault."

Shawn felt a real sense of relief that whatever was happening wouldn't be his fault, but there was still all the very important stuff he needed Mr. Clayton for. "And Mr. Cherrywinks? What about him? Oh, but we should work on Ralph first, you gotta show me how to do that."

"Hehehehehehehe“ Mr. Clayton tittered. “Boy do you like certainty!” He proclaimed.

"It's not your fault. We'll get the Ralph thing sorted out. And Rufus. Didn't you say something about Rufus?" Mr. Clayton said.

"The Clown is another story. If what your new friend said is true. Someone on the block is Cherrywinks. And that someone needs to be found out and destroyed."

"OK. But I can't do any of this without us coming together. When  you're taken away, you've got to come back to me. Otherwise...." Mr. Clayton paused with dramatic effect.

"They're all dead! Yucka Yucka!"

"We're together now, isn't there something we can do right now?" Shawn knew the stakes were high, but surely if they were going to be separated they could do something now while they were together, if only to have one less thing to take care of while apart. "And I thought you fixed Eddie already? You showed me the newspaper and everything."

"We owe it all to Greater Ventriloquism, without which, we would have nothing. I'm just a dumb-dumb-dummy!“ Mr. Clayton responded, contradicting Shawn. “I didn't do anything. If anything happen, it was because you trusted me. But I'm not the one you should be trusting. There is something greater than me. Greater than a great ventriloquist like you. It's Greater Ventriloquism!” He rejoiced.

"The sooner you understand that it's your own actions that determine what happens, the more free you'll be to do anything and everything that you want!"

Shawn had been hearing variations on that since he'd first picked up Mr. Clayton, but it never seemed to go anywhere. If that was really where the power lay, Shawn was ready to call his bluff. He looked at his blank puppet eyes in the mirror, fully aware of what had happened the last time he'd said the words, but seeing no other way forward. "All right, if that's who I need to trust, I'm gonna do it. I give myself to Greater Ventriloquism!" He braced himself for...something to happen, at least.

The tension was in the air. Shawn heard his own voice shout the words, proclaiming them in his room. And after he said them, he could hear his own voice breathing in and out in the silent, stuffiness of his own bedroom.

Mr. Clayton stood there stiff as a wooden puppet.

And then.....


Nothing happened.

Shawn looked around the bedroom, then checked himself in the mirror to see if he was still a dummy. He looked at Mr. Clayton next to see if he had anything else to add.