The appeared somewhat darker and Shawn felt the room spin as soon as he uttered the words. It felt less like a supernatural feeling and more like feeling that someone got when the spent a long time spinning in circles on the playground or the rush of being discovered during a game of hide and seek.

When Shawn finally gained his bearings, he looked up at the mirror and saw that he was sitting on Mr. Clayton's lap. Shawn looked and felt like a puppet. His arms were wooden and his hands and fingers creaked slightly as he flexed them. Shawn's mouth looked like a square box, lines on each side of his face around the corner of the mouth drawing down near the chin. His eyes had a wide-eyed look to them. A permanent, dummy look.




"Look at that mouth!" Mr. Clayton said, bouncing his knee a bit so that Shawn had to fight to keep his balance. Mr. Clayton had retained his appearance as a Puppet, the same size and material. He sat on the chair in front of the mirror, his hand only resting on Shawn's back instead of inside Shawn's puppet cavity. Shawn, on the other hand, looked like a much more miniature Puppet. A Puppet's puppet.

"A Dummy's dummy!" Mr. Clayton advised.

"Look at you. You're a trifle. Just like me. Seriously, though. You've got quite the case of Mannequin mouth!"

While he'd been expecting something unusual to happen, Shawn had previously had nightmares about exactly this sort of thing, and he felt fear and panic rising in his stomach. Fortunately, his painted-on expression made it so he didn't show that as he spent a few minutes trying to move his arms and legs, and getting a sense of his strange puppet-form. When he noticed Mr. Clayton had his hand on his back, he actually tried to reach behind and feel his back, whether or not he did have a puppet cavity back there.

It was only after that that he remembered that Mr. Clayton had spoken, and probably expected a reply. He was a little worried about what his voice would sound like, and how his mouth would move when he did, but he pushed through anyway. "This feels weird...I guess we're both dummies?"

Shawn's voice came out thin and high, not unlike a balloon that was releasing some helium. His fingers could feel the felt, velvet cloth that covered the gaping cavity of his interior.

Nothing was inside that cavity.

But somehow, even though Shawn's puppet hands and fingers could feel around back there, he didn't really have to feel it. I knew it. It was just like Mr. Clayton said: "I'm just a trifle. A nothing." There was nothing inside. Nothing at all.




"Yersirrrreeeeeeeee Bob!" Mr. Clayton answered, slapping his free hand on the knee that Shawn wasn't sitting on as if he was some kind of hill-billy.

"I don't know what comes next Shawn. I've given myself long ago to Greater Ventriloquism. I guess we'll both have to take a leap of faith. A trip down, down, down and then up, up, up!!!"

Shawn was horrified, but his face stayed in its wide-eyed dummy rictus. That was probably the only thing keeping him from going completely over the edge, not being able to see how scared he was in the mirror. So with some effort, he managed to return to the way he usually dealt with Mr. Clayton’s ‘surprises’; act like it was part of a show and just play along. “Well, at least now I don’t need to put my hand in your back - that was a real pain, yukka yukka.” Shawn tried to change his expression at all, to force his wooden features into a less wide eyed look.

"That's the spirit!!" Mr. Clayton rejoiced. "Your new dummy body and face is quite real looking, isn’t it? Or at least it seems real when you make it talk like a real person, and sometimes — but not too often — even when it isn’t talking. Ah yes, dummies. Special dolls made with care and are meant to last your whole life long...hahahahaa!"

"My  name is Mr. Clayton! A dummy needs a ridiculous name like that."

Shawn looked in the mirror. Shawn was now Mr. Clayton's size, the two now standing somehow side by side in front of the mirror, no longer sitting. Shawn was just about as big as an average five-year-old boy, has black hair (real hair, not painted), a little pug nose, a knowing smile when his mouth is closed, and a great goofy grin when his mouth was open. Shawn still had large eyes that were light hazel (glass) and could blink, either one to wink or both of them at the same time.

"Look, your eyebrows are made of real hair and move up and down just like yours did!"

"Before we practice, ask yourself this: how can a block of wood, carved and painted in the likeness of a human being, ever hope to be “natural?” Easy. Have you ever had a pet? Many pets are taught to behave using commands — which may be direct...Umm, think of things like “stay” or “sit.” Anyway, these commands might also involve subtle gestures and sounds, all of which you may make without conscious thought. You ever heard of that?"

Shawn found himself blinking rapidly, the goofy grin on his face not particularly comforting. "Umm, I guess? What does being a dummy have to do with teaching a pet?" He had a feeling he wouldn't like the answer, but as he thought about it, another thing occurred to him.

"Hey, if I'm a dummy, does that mean I can do dummy things? Like how you changed wishes and stuff?" Maybe this was his chance to help Ralph? Though most of him was hoping the answer was 'nope, because you're not really a dummy, this is just practice'.

"You “push their levers” and “pull their cords” so to speak, to make them do what you want them to do. We can control our pets without effort — without thinking about it. You tell a dog to come and you give it a nice biscuit. And the dog is happy. And it should be. And if you do it enough,  you forget that you're actually doing it. It just, kind of happens. We do one thing and think another." Mr. Clayton explained

"It's possible to do all sorts of things with wishes and without wishes and by changing and without changing things. But it isn't up to me to decide how to do them. Or you for that matter. It's up to Greater Ventriloquism. The more we let ourselves go, the more all of those things become possible. Funny, isn't it?"

Shawn's glass eyes gave a little 'clack' 'clack' 'clack' sound each time that he blinked.

"Boy, that's some mannequin mouth you've got on you." Mr. Clayton observed, clearly referring to the lines on each side of Shawn's mouth that outlined his chin and made it protrude out in an obviously, puppet-like way.

"Is mannequin mouth a good thing or a bad thing?" Shawn managed to slow down his rapid blinking and stopped trying to unsuccessfully make his face emote. He was still scared, but forced himself to remain calm, and was almost successful. As long as he didn't think too hard about his situation, at least. He tried to keep his mouth closed when he wasn't talking - neither of the two expressions he could manage now were particularly comforting, but seeing himself (or a dummy version of himself) do that goofy grin made him feel dumb.

"So are you saying dummies are pets? You give them treats to do what you want?" He wasn't sure what Mr. Clayton's metaphor was talking about, but he had a feeling it was supposed to be kinda insulting. To who, he wasn't sure.

"Mannequin mouth?. Mannequin mouth is what dummies have. You know? Those two lines on the side of your face. And on the sides of mine. The mouth all protruding like its a separate thing. You ever notice that sometimes old, fat woman have mannequin mouth? Yeah they do, don't they? Near the fat on their mouth and chin area, if they're real fat. And especially if they are old. Then you can see a line on each side of their mouth drawn down to the chin. One line on each side really.


Mannequin mouth..." Mr. Clayton mused.


"What's that?" He asked Shawn, as if he got lost in his explanation and didn't hear the second part or Shawn's second question.

"Oh yeah, that makes sense. Don't mind me, I'm feeling a little empty-headed right now. Yukka yukka!" Shawn tried to deliver the line in a funny way, but it sounded a bit strained because his heart wasn't quite in it. "You said you train pets to do what you want by giving them treats. Are dummies the pets, or is the audience?"

Mr. Clayton enjoyed a little chuckle at Shawn's Yucka, Yucka.

"Yes, that's right! You “push their levers” and “pull their cords.” Just give them treats and such, to make them do what you want them to do. We can control our pets without thinking about it after a while. Right?"

Shawn noticed that Mr. Clayton hadn't really answered his question, but he felt like he couldn't (or shouldn't) push further, given his current situation. "I dunno, I wish I knew where people's levers and cords were sometimes. It's hard to know what they want."

"Oh, come now!? Don't be so modest. You've never told a dog or a pet what to do? You've never seen a little doggy in the window and said something to it to make its tail wag?  You've never given a dog?"

"Knick-Knack, Patty-whack, Give a dog a bone!?" Mr. Clayton rhymed, trying to drive the point home to Shawn.

"I had a dog once. But then it turned out Dad stole it and we had to give it back." It was a time Shawn tried not to think about - partly because his Dad had been acting a little scary, but also because it was when Bobby had been living with him. "Is that the lesson this is supposed to teach me?"

"Hmmm. This might be a problem in the teaching of this lesson of Greater Ventriloquism. If you've never done anything of these things, you may have missed out on an important part of childhood, haven't you? How does that make you fee?"

Mr. Clayton asked, his voice a little piqued with curiosity

Shawn hated to let people down, even if it wasn't technically his fault. "I'm sure I can figure it out! We only had the dog for a bit, but I still learned lots. I'm sure I can keep if you try to teach me."