Babette ran up to her grandma while she was sewing.
“You’re making another puppet Gran?”
“I am, my dear,” she chuckled, “After you broke the last one, our cast is running thin.”
Babette flushed with embarrassment.
“It’s not my fault!” She crossed her arms in a huff, “They’re so heavy, even when I use the winches!”
Gran smiled at the child.
“Let me see your arm.”
Babette pulled her sleeve up and tensed her twelve-year-old arm to show off her developing bicep.
“This one should be perfect for you,” Gran smiled gently, “It’s smaller than the rest.”
As she pushed the needle through his skin, the little boy winced as much as the paralyzing agent would allow.
Tears trickled down his young cheeks.
“Is this one mine, Gran?” Babette asked in excitement.
“It is, my sweet,” Gran continued sewing, “Would you like to name him?”
“Yeah!” Babette jumped for joy, “I’ll call him Teddy!”
Gran stopped to look at her granddaughter in surprise for a second before her face creased with easy laughter.
“Such a sweet name,” she began to sew again, carefully wiping away the blood as it arose from the material.
“Can we put on a play when you’re done?”
“Of course, dear,” Gran chuckled, sticking the needle into the boy again, “Why don’t you go and get the rest of the puppets hooked to the winches? I’ll be finished soon.”
With a cheer, Babette sprinted off toward the back of her grandmother’s workshop to prepare their collection of human marionettes for a play.
Hey there! Seb here! I just wanted to thank you for choosing to spend your time reading my work. I’m so grateful that you chose to come on this journey with me and I hope it has prompted some fun questions for you to enjoy thinking about in the future.
Thank you.
If you enjoyed that, check out my Substack for more stories: https://sincerelyseb.substack.com/