Shawn tried to remember what he'd been doing for the past few months - what he'd done, but more importantly how he'd been acting. He hoped he hadn't been rude to his parents or friends. "Why can't I remember this?" He manipulated the puppet's mouth again to form an answer, a little more intentionally than last time.

When Shawn mouthed the words, the Puppet opened its own mouth and said "Oh, I don't know, probably because you've been so busy practicing. Oh, and working! Don't forget about that. Well, not working but School Work!"

But of course, it wasn't the Puppet actually speaking, it was Shawn speaking through the Puppet. Shawn knew this because he could feel his mouth move. And, he could see his own lips move slightly in the mirror. But just as he was thinking it, Shawn spoke again, manipulating Mr. Clayton's head and mouth:

"Everyday it's school, school, school. And then we get home and practice in front of the mirror until midnight. Then it's up again and school, school, school. I tell ya, life's a real slog! Yuckka, Yucka!"

Shawn wrinkled his brow as he tried to recall school, and practice, and what he'd been doing between them. "I feel like I've been asleep the whole time. Why couldn't I practice and stay awake?" It was an odd sensation - it was his words coming out of the puppet, his efforts making Mr. Clayton move. But somehow it was new information - or at least forgotten information. "Doesn't Dad have a problem with me just sitting in my room all day? Oh! And what about Eddy?" This time, rather than intentionally try to make Mr. Clayton answer, he tried to just relax and let it flow through him instead. Maybe that would help him remember better.

Shawn relaxed and instead of the Puppet saying anything, the head lolled to one side. It took Shawn a few seconds to see that Mr. Clayton’s eyes were staring at a newspaper that was on the dresser. Half of the paper was covered with a smattering of GI Joe toys but the part that could be read in large, headline letters was

Santa Monica Boy Wakes Up After Extended Co....

Despite his exhaustion, Shawn couldn't help but smile as he walked over to his dresser to pick up the newspaper and verify that it was in fact Eddy that the paper was talking about. Though as he shuffled aside the toys, a thought occurred to him. "The toys are on top of the paper...if I'm so busy, who's playing with them?" Shawn tried to suppress the little trickle of hope inside of him, tried not to get his expectations up as he tried to make the puppet talk again. When Bobby lived here, he loved played with GI Joes...
This message was last edited by the player at 22:06, Tue 20 Aug 2019.

“You’ve been a busy boy Shawn.” Shawn heard himself say, as he moved the Puppets mouth. It opened and closed with a slight snapping sound before sounding the words in rhythm to What Shawn was speaking through it.

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Yucka Yucka!! I’m the Dummy. But maybe you playing with the toys is the last bit of Dummy getting out of you. You know what they say, a Dummy is only as dumb as his Ventriloquist!”

Shawn has heard that line about Jack being a dull boy before from Mr. Bronstein commenting once about a famous movie called The Shining.

Shawn felt a little sense of disappointment, but he'd tried not to get his hopes up so it didn't sting too much. "So, are we done with the stuff I'm-err, the stuff that's too boring to remember?" Shawn was worried about this whole 'missing time' thing, and was hoping he could convince Mr. Clayton of that too.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:57, Wed 21 Aug 2019.

Shawn made Mr. Clayton’s mouth moved as The a Puppet spoke. Shawn’s own hand and forearm wiggled and The Puppet gave a jaunty little dance

“Forget!? Remember!? That’s a good idea. Two sides of the same coin! Yucka, Yucka!! Let’s start with the newspaper like you said. You know what they say, one step at a time and I’m sure we’ll remember everything.”

Shawn’s eyes looked down at the first paragraph of the newspaper:

A local Santa Monica boy, Eddie Hughes, woke from a coma yesterday in what doctors are calling an unlikely event. “We’re just happy for Eddie and his family because after a few months, a recovery like this is usually impossible” Dr. Calvin Rogers, who oversaw Eddie’s stay Santa Monica’s Intensive Care Unit commented.

Shawn took a deep breath and concentrated on the paper. If Eddy had indeed been fixed, he and Mr. Clayton must've done something. He continued reading and tried to see if any of it rang a bell.

Shawn kept reading all the while turning Mr. Clayton’s head so the Puppet all the while appeared to be following the lines on the page. That was something that Shawn had also been practicing: the subtle movements of the head and eyes of the Puppet.

“...doctors had originally believed that Eddie had suffered a rare brain aneurysm. However, after several tests, doctors were unable to conclusively determine the cause of the coma. Eddie awoke after nearly four months in the hospital without moving or speaking a word. “We’re so relieved. We thought that our son was lost. We’re so relieved.” Edith Hughes said when reached for comment.

“I remember now! You asked me to do that!” Shawn made the Puppet’s mouth move, the sound coming out natural and fluid, the words and substitutions for different sounds felt more comfortable than before.

“Hey, you’re getting better at this Ventriloquist gig. You know what they say, the Dummy is a trifle.” Mr. Clayton turned his head towards the mirror again, Shawn making the head move.

“Look at your body—
A painted puppet, a poor toy
Of jointed parts ready to collapse,
A diseased and suffering thing
With a head full of false imaginings.” He said in a dour, sing-song way, head moving side to side. “Is it your body that is the problem, or your head Shawn?”

"I know I asked you to do it, I was hoping I could remember how we did it. Even under the bizarre circumstances, Shawn couldn't help but feel a little happy glow when the puppet complimented his Ventriloquism, even if it soured a bit with Mr. Clayton's weird singsong verse. "I don't think either of them are a problem. We're supposed to be a team, aren't we?"

He looked down at the puppet's head as he spoke, like he was having an actual conversation and not providing both sides of it himself. A side glance at the mirror showed him posed properly to convey a conversation to an unseen audience. That was one thing at least he already knew how to do from acting.

“How We did it. Now I get it.” Mr. Clayton moved his head, nodding the way Shawn was making him nod and facing the mirror as if it was the audience.

“I know, maybe if we played a word game! You pick a word and I’ll say something in response to it. Yucka, Yucka!”

Shawn got himself into his performance mode, treating the mirror as an audience. He didn’t exactly feel better, but he looked a little more in control at least. “Sure, Mr. Clayton, that sounds like fun.” He faked cheeriness, projecting his voice a little; theatre acting rather than movie acting. “Why don’t we start with...’wish’.”

The Puppet moved its head from side to side as Shawn moved it.

Then it opened its mouth and said “Triangle-Pyramid!”

Mr. Clayton nodded his head emphatically, as if the game was working.

“A Triangle-Pyramid that is 3-D! It’s not really a Pyramid, but a hierarchy! That’s a complicated word ‘hierarchy.’It means that you are putting one thing as more important than the other. And the most important thing is at the top!


What’s the next word?”

Shawn remembered the pyramid from the time he’d made his wish. He wasn’t entirely sure what Mr. Clayton meant by it not really being a pyramid, but it sounded complicated enough that it was probably important. He considered his next word. “Umm...’top’!”

“Top! The thing that is most importantly important!......Nothing! Or rather....Top! The thing that is most importantly important!: Burning the whole pyramid including the top so that everything goes up in flames!! Yucka Yucka!

Shawn thought that sounded ominous...but at the same time, it wasn’t like the way things were had done him much good. He decided to change tacks a bit. “Rufus.” He didn’t know if Mr. Clayton had met ‘Rufus’ like he had. But he was also the one putting words in Mr. Clayton’s mouth, so maybe he already knew?

Mr. Clayton moved his head from one side to the other and Shawn brought the Puppet’s small hand up to its chin to give it a thoughtful gesture. “Woof! Woof!” Mr. Clayton barked and Shawn felt the raspy sting of the barking sound in his own throat. It sounded like something a Looney Tuned dog named Spike would make, not at all the desperate cries that Eddie had made in Little Stones cage.

Shawn might’ve been upset at the seeming mockery, but Eddy was apparently awake and all right now, so it didn’t seem as bad. He decided to hazard a potentially more dangerous word this time. “Strings.”

“Strings! ......”

“Ummm! I know..... Puppet Strings! Like my strings.”

“We can follow the puppet strings into the unseen realm to discover who or what is requiring our worship.  The “how” string is revealed when we discover what spirit is providing the input for our life, telling us how to play out our part on the stage of life.”

Shawn picked up on an odd word choice from Mr. Clayton and wanted to press further. “Worship?”

“Worship....” The Puppet repeated. Shawn made its mouth move:

“Silly.” Mr. Clayton countered with his own word, continuing to play the game

Shawn wondered if he'd picked a dead end...or if he'd found something important that Mr. Clayton was trying to evade. He decided to press on ahead into a little more dangerous areas. "Cords." Like Mr. Clayton and Bradford had mentioned, the kind that had made him so angry. He wanted to avoid becoming another Bradford.

Mr. Clayton said nothing.

"Why I ought-ahh!" Mr. Clayton said at the word, giving his best old-time Abbot and Costello bit. "Hmmm...that's a tough one Shawn. A real tough-y."

"If you want to follow the Puppet strings, you have to master Steps 1 -7 from the cassettes.  You have to talk without moving your lips. Only then will you be ready to begin the real work: getting to know your dummy."

"But I suppose you can start by closing your eyes..."

Shawn thought he was actually pretty good at talking without moving his lips, but it seemed he'd managed to dig up something important picking at random words. He took a deep breath to centre himself, and then closed his eyes as instructed.