Read Part 1 first...
Ten years later...
Yvonne slowly focussed again. She had not aged in the second that a decade took to pass, but Martha was still sitting in her deep purple gown, her face looking older again, but just a composed as before. Firgo was nowhere to be seen.
Yvonne noticed that she herself must have sat in one of the seats a moment ago. Her legs had obviously made their own decision that the room was safe enough to rest in. She also noticed that her ears had just heard the door open behind her, and she turned to see who had decided to join them. Yvonne froze when she saw that the figure who had walked through the door was Eric.
It was a younger Eric. His beard was a lot shorter, his grey suit a bit less worn, and he easily sauntered over to a chair with no walking stick in hand. He sat, and looked at Martha and Yvonne with dissappointment, as if he had been expecting something more impressive.
"You- you're still here- ?" stuttered Yvonne.
Eric leered at her, "Yes, but hardly enjoying it. Nothing to do, as you've probably guessed. Or maybe you haven't. I don't care, anyway. The good days have been and gone, so what's left for me now, eh?" He looked over to Martha, "Look at you now, eh? Look a bit lonely, eh? Bet you don't feel as low as me! Do you understand how empty it feels just sitting here? I just get to sit around, telling you fascinating and joyful things like how my left leg is starting to play up, and I've never felt so bored..."
Martha sighed. "At least you can be honest about how you feel. I cannot understand my own mixed emotions, let alone talk about them. Or can I? Maybe I can talk about them, but not to the person that needs to know."
"What do you mean?" asked Yvonne of Martha.
Martha looked at the girl for a moment, indicating that what she was about to say must be kept secret. Then she stood up, crossed her arms, and paced slowly around the room. The movement seemed to help her think. "I love Firgo, I really do. But our relationship does not seem complete. He takes me many places, he gives me many things. He takes things away, too, when the time is right. But I feel like I am still missing something, and nothing he says or does seems to really satisfy. What am I looking for? I don't know. But should I tell him? I don't think so, because I don't even know what I would tell!" She had stopped pacing, and now turned to Yvonne.
Yvonne felt that a response was expected, but realised that the situation was over her head. "I'm sorry," she said quietly, worried about upsetting her, "but I don't know what you should do either."
Eric, who was still slouched in his chair, grunted. Yvonne was glad that the attention was taken away from herself.
"At least you have something to live for," Eric reprimanded Martha, "I've got nothing left. Nothing! The best has been and gone for me. But you and your silly little situation," he squinted his eyes up with thought, "Yes. Yes... Like I said- a silly situation. Won't last."
Marthas eyes opened wide, "Won't last? What do you mean it won't last? Why will it end? Will I-"
Eric waved his wrinkled hands in front of his face to stop her. "Stop asking me questions, woman! Pah! All of you, that's all you do, just ask me questions!"
Eric had had enough of the company. He rose from his chair and marched to the doorway.
As he slammed the door behind himself, Martha sighed. She looked worried with thought. Yvonne sat still and said nothing, feeling that Martha might unpredictably change moods again. Eventually Martha seemed to give up on her thoughts. She took her leave, bowing lightly to Yvonne, and sweeping a side of her purple gown over herself. As the material covered her, it dissappeared into nothing.
Yvonne was alone, but a humming noise was reverberating through the air again, and the room began to blur...
Ten years later...
Yvonne blinked, and noted that the room was still empty. In the silence, she started to wonder if she should go somewhere else to try and find people, but The Entertainer burst through the door with a shout and ran around the room, his hat jingling and his mouth nattering at her the whole time.
"Whoop! Hello Yvonne, my little lass! What shall we do next? Shall we play a game of duck duck goose? Backwards talk we shall? Whoop! There's not many places to hide in a room with nothing but chairs, but even so, I reckon we could-"
"Stop and be calm, foolish Entertainer," echoed the deep voice of Firgo, who was standing behind one of the chairs. He had not exactly appeared, because somehow he had always been there. It was just that Yvonne had looked there a moment ago and not seen him.
The Entertainer stopped, and wriggled where he stood, looking like a child that has been told off and found it funny. Then he seemed to realise that something interesting was about to happen, so he paid a more genuine attention to Firgo.
Firgo spoke to Yvonne, "I know that Martha is not completely happy with me. But that is the way it should be. She is not supposed to be happy with me- she is supposed to be happy because of me."
The tall man then looked around himself, as if he was browsing an invisible shelf of items to pick from. He raised his large hands and made a motion of pulling some air into a space in front of him. Out of the air, a lightbulb appeared appeared between his hands, and hovered there. The Entertainer laughed.
Firgo gathered his hands again, and this time an old-fashioned smoking pipe appeared next to the lightbulb. He did it again, and a folded paper map joined the items hovering in the air. The Entertainer giggled and hopped from one foot to the other. Firgo kept creating new items in front of himself of various shapes and sizes.
"Add marbles! Marbles for his mind!" The Entertainer suggested between chuckles. Firgo smiled at this suggestion, and the next item to appear was a bag of marbles.
When enough things had been made, Firgo started pulling them together into a shape, and used a needle and thread to keep them in place. He was clearly skilled at this work, and a clear shape began to grow from the many.
The Entertainer jumped in the air, spun, and landed with feet on the ceiling. Then he skipped around the ceiling in a circle, singing, "Maybe she will call him Anthony, or name him Adam, oh, her fortunate heart! Even if she calls him Azwillidope, we will all call him Art!"
Yvonne looked at the model which Firgo had created, and saw that it was the shape of a man. In fact, as Firgo pulled together the final elements of this puppet, the parts began to meld together and become flesh. Skin and bone were forming before Yvonne's eyes.
Firgo stood back from his finished work, and Yvonne wondered who this new man was. He was medium in height, black skinned, and wore patchwork clothes of many colours. If you looked closely at the patches of fabric he wore, you could see that they had words, pictures, or patterns on all of them. His face looked very friendly, and familiar, as if you had seen many faces like it before. His eyes remained shut, and he did not move at all.
Firgo called to The Entertainer. "Entertainer, he is not complete. He will not be so for some time- he does not have life, but I will make sure it is brought to him. In the meantime, I want you to teach him some of your own character."
Firgo moved the new man onto a seat and sat him down, while The Entertainer called back from above, "Teach a dead man to entertain? Very funny, good sir! But no amount of lessons from myself will being laughter where there is no breath."
"He is not dead, he has simply not yet been born. As his body sits here, imagine he is watching. When you have taught him, he will be ready for his life." After letting these words echo up to the ceiling, Firgo was no longer in the room. As mysteriously as his arrival, it seemed as if nothing had really changed.
The Entertainer jumped down from the ceiling and landed next to Yvonne, the bells on his hat jingling. He put his arm around the girls shoulders, and they looked at the man who had not woken up yet. "Well then,"said the foolish man, "It seems we will be able to play our games after all! For what is a better way of learning than observing? So we shall play, we shall laugh, and we will, in the most serious way my friend, have fun!"
Yvonne and The Entertainer spent many hours playing games, running around the room, telling jokes, and having a good time. There was no furniture delicate enough to break, and both the silly man and young girl were in too good a mood to being anything but joy to this time. Eventually, not through lack of energy, but from a feeling of satisfaction, Yvonne sat on down on a chair. The Entertainer, slightly out of breath, sat on a chair on the other side of the man in patchwork, http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifwho had obediently sat still for the whole lesson.
A humming began to sound through the walls, and Yvonne found her vision beginning to blur again. As focus left her eyes, she heard The Entertainer say "Oh, no! I don't know why, but I'm not supposed to be in here when..."
Read the conclusive part 3...
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