Amusement parks are always known for fun times and happy memories. But bad things can happen at places like this. People can get stuck on roller coasters, get hurt or even die. We hear about these events all the time but that doesn’t stop us from going to amusement parks with our loved ones.
And today, like many other days, people have come to join in the amusement parks gay atmosphere. Lots of people come here and can forget their sadness and other unnecessary emotions. Here they can just have fun.
But do I hear crying somewhere? A young boy of maybe age 4 is crying as people pass him by. He got separated from his parents on the way to the restrooms and now he is lost. It’s so sad, and nobody even notices him.
“Mommy! Daddy!”
His voices is drowned by the excitement and selfishness of all those who surround him. He keeps walking to try to find his parents, but he can’t see above the tall heads. He keeps calling them but no matter how loud he yells they won’t hear him.
But the amusement park is known for bringing happiness, and the boy gains some happiness when he hears a woman calling out to people to come watch her show.
But people pass her by, there are fun rides and better shows where they can waste their time. She looks sad when she realizes nobody will come to see her show. She is about to walk of the small stage when the boy from before sits on a bench in the front row.
She then see the boy and big smile grin grows onto her face.
“Hello everyone, I am your hostess,” Said the girl.
“I like your outfit,” Said the boy.
The black haired hostess was dressed like a clown, she wore a white, puffy sleeved, blouse with a black corset that she wore over the shirt. She wore a puffy red skirt that went to her knees. Her legs were covered with a pair of white and black striped stockings and she dark brown combat boots. On her head she wore a red jester hat that she took of her head hand held to her breasts as she gave the boy a little bow.
“Thank you,” She said with a smile as she put her hat back on.
“Now let’s start the show, and please no interruptions, and if you are have a device on you please turn it off,” Said the girl as she began her act.
She pulled out a plain wooden puppet from behind her back.
“You children like puppets, right?” Asked the girl to the audience.
“Yeah!” Said the boy with enthusiasm.
“Then you’ll love this!” Said the girl.
She began to make the little puppet dance, the boy tried to reach out towards the puppet so he could play with it too but it kept dancing away from his hand. After the little dance was over the girl picked up the puppet and cradled it in her hands like a child.
“Since you loved this puppet, I bet I have something you’ll love even more,” Said the girl.
She threw the tiny wooden puppet behind her like it was and old candy wrapper, then with a snap of her fingers 4 life sized puppets fell from the ceiling. Their heads were downcast and their body were limp, but that was expected of puppets.
“Can they dance too?” Asked the little boy.
“Yup,” Said the girl with another smile.
“1, 2, 3,” The girl chanted, then the puppets began to dance, but their heads were still downcast, their heads bobbed and their body moved in an action that was more of a thrashing about then an elegant dance. But the magical movement of these puppets fascinated the boy. He thought that he puppets dance because of the power of magic, but if an adult was watching they would have probably assumed that people that we couldn’t see were controlling the puppets.
After the puppets finished their distorted dance the little boy cheered from his seat.
“Now it is time for me to tell you a story. Sadly I am not in this story, but I will be telling the story for our puppets, since they can’t exactly tell it themselves,” Said the girl.
She then went up to a white haired puppet and lifted its face to the audience, it was revealed that this puppet didn't have a moveable mouth like most puppets do, he didn’t even have a mouth painted on, there was nothing there.
“They don’t have vocal cords to speak, or even a mouth!” The girl explained with a snort as she let his head fall downwards again.
“So since I’m telling the story, I guess I would be called a narrator.”
Now as the our hostess tells this story, we will see it how the boy imagines it as he is told the story. Boys around his age have big imaginations, so in his mind these characters are alive.
Our story starts with a nun with long teal hair. She is alone at her church, the head priest has gone to fight in war and the other nuns have gone to be nurses for soldiers, but this one young nun stayed in the church since it was her paradise.
The nun stood infant of the beautiful stained glass windows and held onto the cross around her neck as she prayed.
She prayed for head priest’s safety, she prayed for her sister’s success, and she prayed for the war to soon end.
As the girl focuses on her prayers, outside of the church a brown haired soldier and his blonde haired slave ride to the front of the church.
“This will be a good place to rest, it seems abandoned so nobody will mind if we stay,” Says the soldier.
He gets off his horse and hands the reins to his slave, he then goes up to open the big church doors.
The girl who was in prayer hears the doors creak and quickly turns around in surprise.
“Oh sorry, I had no clue anybody was here,” Said the soldier with an apologetic voice.
“It is quite alright, are you a soldier?” Asked the girl.
“Not just a soldier, I am a general, well I was…” Says the man with pain in his voice.
“What happened?” The nun asked him.
“I was in a town about a day’s journey from here, but all my soldiers were killed and the town was burnt down before my eyes, sadly the only thing I could do was watch…” Said the soldier.
“Oh dear! That is awful!” Said the nun with shock.
“Yes, my brother who also died said I should be the one to report this to the head general, but I lost my map and have no clue where to go,” Said the soldier.
“Well the head priest probably had a map of the area in his study somewhere, if I give it to you can you find your way then?” Asked the Nun.
“That would be very helpful,” Said the soldier with a smile.
“But first I must feed you,” Said the nun.
“I’ll be back in here in a second, is there anywhere I can leave my horse?” Asked the soldier.
“There is a tree behind the church you can tie him to, there should also be some hay out there that you may feed to your house,”Said the Nun.
“Thank you sister,” Said the soldier as he went outside.
The slave had waited for his master outside, he hadn’t moved an inch.
“A nun here has allowed us to stay tonight and she will feed us, take the horse out back and tie it to a tree then find it some hay to eat, once you have done that you can come inside,” Said the soldier.
His slave gave him a nod then took the horse outback, behind the church was a graveyard, many graved littered the fenced in property, in the back was a dead tree which the slave took and tied to the horse too. around the front of the graveyard was a well and near the well was a bundle of hay. The slave took the bundle and brought it over to the horse. The horse started to eat and the slave went into the church.
There was nobody in the church which made the slave confused, was his master messing with him? Was he lying about the nun and hiding to frighten him?
He went from the church the the house that was connected to the church.
There was a small table that his master sat at as a young nun chopped up carrots.
“Who is this?” Asked the Nun when she noticed the slave.
“This is my companion, James,” Said the soldier.
“I thought you said that all your soldiers died,” Said the Nun.
“They did die, this man is my slave, not a soldier,” Said the soldier.
“Oh,” Said the Nun as she awkwardly went back to her cutting.
The slave sat next to his master and watched the teal haired girl as she chopped away at the food they would soon eat.
“You never told me your name General,” Said the nun without looking back at the boys.
“My name is Harrison, but you can call me Harris. What is your name?” Asked Harris.
“I am Cordelia,” Said the nun.
“Nice to meet you,” Said Harris with a smile.
The nun finished chopping all of her vegetables, she put all of the vegetables in a bowl then went over to the boiling water over the fire and started to put the vegetables in the water. She then pulled up a wooden stool and sat down as she used a big spoon to stir the stew.
“You’re a nun right?” Asked Harris.
“Yes, why do you ask?” Cordelia questioned with confusion.
“Well don’t nuns always have hat like thing on their head?” Asked Harris.
“You mean a habit?” Asked Cordelia.
“Yes! That’s what it’s called, why aren’t you wearing one?” Asked Harris.
“Nobody comes here anymore and it is really hot wearing it in the summer, so I only wear it on Sundays,” Cordelia explains.
After this Cordelia and Harris had some more small talk before the stew was finished. She poured three bowls of stew and passed them to Harris and James.
“You don’t haft to give James so much stew, he isn’t worth it,” Said Harris.
Cordelia looked at Harris in slight disgust then said with a calm expression.
“No matter who he is, he deserves to eat as much food as we eat, he is another one of God’s creations,” Said Cordelia.
“More like god’s mistake,” Mumbled Harris. Cordelia didn’t hear him.
She asked him if he had know head priest Johnny or if he had met any of her fellow nun sisters in the medical ward. He apologized and said he didn’t know any of the people she mentioned. When everyone finished Cordelia served everyone seconds and soon the stew was all gone.
“It is getting late and I bet you boys would like to rest,” Cordelia said as she picked up the bowls and spoons.
“A bed would be nice right now,” Said Harris with a yawn.
“There are some bedrooms up stairs, you may sleep in any of them except for the room with the teal cross on the door, that is my room,” Cordelia told them.
Harris went upstairs and ended up sleeping in the head priest big room. James took the room across the hall from Cordelia and right next to his master.
In the middle of the night Cordelia was awoken by thunder, she jumped out of bed in childish fear. She looked out her rainy window and saw Harris horse who was now soaking wet. Cordelia ran outside in her nightgown and went to the horse.
“Poor, wet creature,” Said Cordelia with a sigh.
She lead the horse to a shed and let it in, she then went back and forth from the house to take stuff out of the shed to make more room for the horse, but she left her final (not soaking wet) hay bundle in with the horse.
Now both her and the horse were soaking wet, but the horse was out of the rain so Cordelia was satisfied.
When Cordelia went back into the house James was waiting for her with confusion and concern.
“I’m okay, Harris’ horse is okay, I just need to change and dry my hair,” Said Cordelia as she quickly went up to her room.
She left James standing in the kitten in confusion, but he eventually just shrugged away strange actions and went back to his room so he could go back to sleep.
Everyone in the house woke up for breakfast that morning, it was still raining and Cordelia explained how she put his horse in a shed to shelter him from the rain.
“Thank you Cordelia,” Harris said with a smile once she told him the whole story. For breakfast they split a loaf of bread, Cordelia tried to make it as even as possible but Harris forces James to give him half of his bread.
“Well since you guys won’t be going anywhere in this rain I can show you where the study is,” Cordelia told Harris.
“That would be good,” Said Harris as he stood up.
Cordelia lead him to the study, it was a mess and Harris was almost overwhelmed.
“I have some things I haft to attend to, so I’ll leave you to look for the map, the desk is probably your best bet,” Cordelia told him.
“Okay… thank you Cordelia,” Said Harris as he started to go through things on the desk.
“Take nothing else but the map,” Cordelia told him as she started to walk out.
“Alright,” He responded as she left.
When Cordelia went back to the kitchen James was sitting at the table and drinking a glass of water. Cordelia sat across from him with interest.
“James? Why don’t you speak?” Asked Cordelia.
After he finished drinking his water he opened his mouth and pointed inside, open closer look Cordelia realized that he had no tongue and gasped in horror.
“Can you write?” She asked once she calmed down a little.
He nodded and Cordelia rushed to her room and got a pad of paper and a pen.
“Write to me who did this,” Said Cordelia.
James took the pen and paper and wrote at the top of the page “Harrison”.
This boy’s own master had cut out his tongue, and a dangerous man like that was in her house.
“Why did he cut out your tongue?” Cordelia asked.
The sentence that James wrote proved that his writing and grammar weren’t the best, so Cordelia read aloud what she thought it said.
“Because he said you talk back too much, right?” Cordelia asked to make sure she said the words right.
James nodded.
“I have another question, most slaves are black, why are you white?” Cordelia asked.
He wrote on the paper again and Cordelia read his words.
“My parents didn’t have money and had to sell their only child to Harrison’s father?” Asked Cordelia.
James nodded, she read the words right.
“That’s just awful,” Cordelia said with horror.
James nodded in agreement.
“Do you know where your parents are?” She asked.
“Probably dead,” He wrote.
“That is awful… and I thought my parents were terrible,” Said Cordelia.
Out of curiosity, James wrote, “What was so awful about your parents?”
“It’s a long story,” Said Cordelia as she tried to stray from the subject.
“Please tell me,” James wrote.
“Alright… my father was a sinful man, he cheated on my mother then left us. My mother said I was a lot like my father and took all her anger out on me. She yelled at me, blamed me for everything and even beat me. My life would have been living hell if it weren’t for the church. I believed that is I stayed loyal to the church and god that everything would be alright. I was going to become a nun when I was of age but my mother was sick and wouldn’t let me leave,” Cordelia explained.
“How did you become a nun now?” James wrote.
“Well she died,” Said Cordelia.
“How?” James wrote.
Cordelia was silent, as if she was thinking of something painful and terrifying.
“I-I told you, she was sick, that’s how she died…” Said Cordelia.
“Please tell me the whole story,” James wrote.
“She was so sick, she wanted to die but she couldn’t, so I poisoned her…” Cordelia confessed.
“I did feel bad about it, I killed my own mother, but she was so hateful and very sick. I put her out of her misery. I still apologize, I gave my life to the church so I could work off my sins,” Cordelia said as she began to cry.
She was a terrible person, she tried so hard to be on God’s good side so she may go to heaven and not tell hell with her mother and father.
As she was crying James bent over the table to meet her eyes.
“I-I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be crying,” Cordelia began to explain. Her words were cut off with a kiss from James.
Their kiss was long and warm, their lips were numb and when Cordelia could no longer breath she broke away from him and gasped for air.
Both of their lips were swollen but they both just smiled, but then Cordelia was suddenly sad again, but she was also shocked.
“We shouldn’t have done that, I have sworn my body and soul to the church, I might have committed a sin,” Cordelia said.
“Our love must have been from God, God’s love is no sin,” James wrote.
“I guess,” said Cordelia as a smiled formed on her face again.
James the wrote something else.
“Do you think you could pray to God for my tongue back? I would pay myself but I have no voice to preach with, and you are a nun.”
“I would love too, but I’m not sure God can re-grow body parts…” Cordelia said with hesitation.
“But God created me and he can do anything,” James wrote.
“I guess you’re right, I’ll go pray now,” said Cordelia as she stood up and headed to the church.
Once she was in the church she stood in front the stained glass and held onto her cross as she prayed in the same position as she prayed yesterday and years before this day.
“Dear Lord, I would like to ask if the poor young man James could get his tongue back. He did nothing wrong, he didn’t deserve to lose his free speech. I’m begging you, I think I love James almost as much as I love God, and I would do anything to get his tongue back for him,” Cordelia prayed, but before she could end her prayer with an “Amen” somebody interrupted her.
“Anything you say?”
Cordelia turned around to see a young man standing behind her. He had red hair with black tips and he was wearing black pants and a red shirt covered in ashes. But Cordelia became terrified of the man when she saw the black horns that sprouted from his head.
“W-who are you?” asked Cordelia.
“Don’t you know me? I guess not, the bible isn't a children's picture book. I am the devil,” said the devil to Cordelia with a bow.
“Why are you here?” Asked Cordelia as she tried to hide her fear.
“I’m here to help you, I feel bad for the boy and you said you would do anything to get his tongue back,” said the devil.
“I did say that…” said Cordelia in hesitation.
The devil got closer to her, she was frozen in fear. He was very tall and the girl was pretty short, so he looked down at her and she looked up into his red serpent eyes.
“Here is a gift for you,” said the Devil as he pulled a fancy knife out of his back pocket and placed it in her hands
“How will a gun give James his tongue back?” asked Cordelia as she looked at the knife.
“This is called the avenging knife. People have used it to avenge people that have killed other people. Use this gun to kill the man that took James’s young and James will get his tongue back,” The devil explained.
“But killing is a sin!” said Cordelia as she backed away from the devil.
“Killing a sinful man isn’t a sin in my eyes, it’s just another soul for me to eat,” said the devil with a grin.
“But don’t you want my soul in exchange for this gun?” asked Cordelia.
“Usually a soul is the price for this kind of thing, but I’ll give it you for free,” said the devil.
“Why?” asked a puzzled Cordelia.
“Because holy souls taste disgusting, souls full of sin are the souls I like to capture and feast on for all eternity,” said the devil.
“So before I use this gun to kill, you for sure won’t steal my soul?” Cordelia asked.
“Correct, and you can even go to heaven with your lover,” said the devil.
“Alright, I’ll kill Harrison,” said Cordelia.
“Perfect,” said the devil with a mischievous grin before he disappeared into thin air.
Cordelia went back to the house, James wasn’t in the kitten anymore, he must have gone back to his room. Cordelia went to the study and slowly opened the door. Harris was still looking for the map. Cordelia closed the door behind her quietly and Harris still didn’t notice her. She tip toed behind him, he was on his knees searching the bottom drawer of the desk. Cordelia stood over him and held up the avenging knife, she tightly shut her eyes and thrust the sword down into his head.
Back in reality on the stage, Harrison's puppet counterpart had it’s strings cut by the hostess and he fell face first to the ground and (hopefully fake) blood started to spill from his head and wet the stage. The little boy looked terrified from the blood and he wanted to leave, but something deep inside of him wouldn’t allow him to move.
In the boy's imagination, Cordelia stood infant of Harrison’s corpse, her outfit was now stained with his blood. She went back to the kitten when James ran down stairs.
“You did it Cordelia! You got my tongue back!” said James as he gave Cordelia a hug.
“Now you are free of your terrible master and we can stay here and worship God with our love,” said Cordelia with a smile.
James then realized from his hug.
“Are you crazy? I’m free for the first time in my life, I’m going to travel the world!” said James.
“Then let me go with you, I can spread the words of the bible to everyone we meet,” said Cordelia as her smile grew bigger.
“Cordelia, thank you for everything, but did you really think I loved you?” asked James.
“W-what?” gasped Cordelia in confusion.
“Years ago when Harris cut out my tongue, Satan told me that if I got someone to kill my master that I would get my tongue back, I was just using you,” said James.
Cordelia was crushed, tears started to spill from her eyes.
“The world isn’t fair Cordelia, but you were too Naive to realize that,” said James with some pity from his voice.
Cordelia said nothing, she just wept and grasped tightly to the knife behind her back.
“Now I will get on Harris’s horse and take my leave,” said James as he turned his back on Cordelia.
Then in anger Cordelia charged at him and dug her knife into James’s back.
Back on the stage James strings were cut as well and he fell to the ground as blood squirted out of his back. The little boys eyes filled with tears but he kept watching.
“I told you to kill Harrison, but it seems as though you have killed the your lover as well,” said the devil as he appeared behind her.
“He betrayed me,” said Cordelia with a sob.
“I know, but this little incident was still a sin,” said the devil.
Cordelia turned around and held onto the devil.
“Oh please pity me once more! What can I do to make my soul pure again?” asked Cordelia with desperation.
“Go to the empty confession booth and confess the sin you just committed,” the devil told her.
“That it?” Cordelia asked as she began to wipe her tears.
“But this time there is a catch,” said the devil.
“What’s the catch?” asked Cordelia.
“After you confess your sin you must hang yourself, then you may go to heaven,” said the devil with a wicked grin.
Cordelia looked horrified, but a moment later she calmed herself and told the devil that she accept his offer.
“Great,” said the devil as he shook her hand and disappeared.
After the devil was gone Cordelia went to the confession both, on the chair inside was a piece of rope waiting for her death. She moved the rope then sat down. She told the empty confession booth about how she killed Harris and James, she also told the confession both about her mother’s death.
“I know murder is a terrible sin, but I hope I shall be forgiven with my death,” said Cordelia before she stood up.
She grabbed the rope then stood on the chair to tie the rope to the top of the booth. She then tied a noose for her head, once she was hooked in the noose she kicked her chair back and was dangling in midair.
Back in reality the girls puppet had it’s strings cut but before it could hit the ground a rope came from the ceiling and daughter the girl by her neck and she dangled on the stage. The the devil’s puppet lifted it’s  head to face the audience, the puppet had a wicked grin painter on his face and he stared right into the little boys eyes.
The little boy was now crying, he had now been scarred for life.
The hostess just smiled and bowed to the empty auditorium.
“Thank you for coming everyone! I hope you enjoyed the show! You can promote us by tweeting about us with #TheLonelyPuppetShow. Have a nice day everyone!” Said the hostess to the almost empty audience. She then walked off stage and left the boy crying by himself.
“Timmy!” a woman called.
The crying little boy turned around to see his mother and father behind him.
“Mommy!” said the little boy as he stood up and hugged his mom.
“Why are you crying?” asked his mother as her son sobbed into her shirt.
“Because the show I watched was so scary!” said the little boy as he looked up at his mother.
“What show?” asked his father.
“That one!” said the little boy as he pointed to the brick wall his parents had found him facing.
“There’s nothing there,” his father told him.
“He must be frighted because he was separated from us,” the mother insisted.
“But there was a puppet show here,” said the little boy.
“There hasn’t been a puppet show here in 10 years,” said the father.
“I remember seeing that puppet show here with my mother when I was a little girl, it was so cute,” said the mother.
The boy just cried, he knew what he had seen and it was not cute. It was terrible and he hoped to forget about it later.
“Hey Timmy, would ice cream make you feel better?” asked his mother.
“I would love ice cream!’ said the boy as her stopped crying and smiled.
“The park is closing now so we can get some on the way home,” said the boy’s mother as she held him in her arms.
“I want rocky road!” said the little boy.
“Anything for my little champ,” said the father as they started to exit the park.
The boy ate his ice cream and felt a little better, he swore to himself that he would never go back to the park because of what he may or may not have seen. Even so, a year later, he went back for his birthday.
Like I said earlier, no matter what bad things happen at amusement parks, that doesn’t stop us from going and having fun; and the next time someone is sad or lost the hostess of the puppet show will come back to try to make you happy.