The door closed quietly behind them. As their eyes grew accustomed to the light they found themselves in a large room. Red light glowed from a single bulb in the ceiling. The walls of the room were lined
with shelves containing one of the oddest assortments they had ever seen. Most of them appeared to be religious relics and icons mixed with a large variety of books, bottles, and small boxes with age dimmed labels.
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By far the most interesting oddity in the collection was the woman attached to the bony arms. She stood nearly six feet tall and was as thin as a rail. She wore baggy swami styled pants, a loose white cotton blouse, and a bright red beaded vest decorated in peacocks and dragons. The whole effect was made even more ridiculous by the fact that she was wearing a turban and elf like gold slippers with upturned toes which were actually tipped with bells.
She bolted the door behind them and turned with a smile, “I’ve been wondering when you would pop round to see me.” Seeing the concerned looks on the boys faces she removed the turban and laughed. “I don’t normally dress quite like this. Bit of a costume, I’m afraid. I have a puppet circus and I was going out to the childrens' hospital to perform tomorrow.”
Although it seemed to be common place these days, meeting people from his dreams was still a little disconcerting, “A puppet circus?” he stammered.
“Oh, yes!” their seemingly genial hostess indicated a faded poster hanging among other miscellaneous artifacts. It read, ‘Madame Prunella’s Puppet Circus’, and was decorated with a portrait of her, surrounded by marionette circus animals and performers.
Joey looked at the poster, “That’s you?” he asked.
“Madame Prunella, at your service,” because of her tremendous height she looked so ridiculous bowing that both boys burst out laughing. She didn’t seem to mind. She took off the vest and placed it with the turban on a rack filled with costumes. “Most people assume it's a stage name, but my name is actually Prunella, Prunella Merriweather,” she led the way through a curtained doorway into an even larger room where she turned on the lights. The boys were amazed at the sight that met their eyes. They stood on the stage of a small theatre. Rows of marionettes dangled from hooks and the auditorium was filled with neatly upholstered red and gold, child sized seats.
Joey was first to speak, “Wow! I never knew this was here!”
Prunella looked at him sadly, “No one does, anymore. Since they took away wishes no one’s bothered to come here for a very long time.”
Joey looked around curiously, “But isn’t this the back of the billiard parlor?”
“Yes, my husband turned our lobby into a billiard parlor after we shut the theatre down. He’s no longer with us I’m afraid,” Prunella said sadly.
Roger changed the subject, “You acted like you expected us.”
“Yes, I’ve been waiting for this moment for a very long time.” With that she led the boy across the performance space, and threw open a large wooden cabinet that sat against the stage right wall of the space, surrounded by racks of puppets, and costumes. The cabinet looked like an antique armoir. The weathered paint had once been a brilliant scarlet with gold trim. Inside were row after row of keys.
There were keys on hooks, keys in boxes and keys piled to overflowing on every shelf of a cubby section that took up the center of the cabinet.
Joey whistled, “Wow, that’s a lot of keys!”
Prunella smiled, “I’ve become quite the expert on fountain keys. It’s a good thing we finally found the right one. It took us nearly three decades to regain it. These are all the keys we found on our search, there’s more than five thousand of them.”
“You found all of these right here in Wishful?” Joey asked, wide eyed.
“No we followed that key over five continents. Then about four years ago we found the carton you discovered in your garage, less than half a mile from our front door. Then it disappeared suddenly about three months ago. I’m surprised you figured it out so quickly. Tell me how did you do it?”
It made Roger uncomfortable for so many people to know his business. He looked at Joey who nodded, indicating that Prunella seemed trustworthy. Roger considered for a moment longer. Joey was right. They had to trust somebody.
“Okay, but we'd better sit down, it's kind of a long story.” Prunella said, indicating the first row of theater seats.
The three found seats, and Roger began from the beginning. Roger explained everything, including the dreams. He told Prunella about his move to Wishful, about their adventures in the library and their discovery of the fountain, right where it had always been. He told her about Matthias and tried to remember every detail of the whole story right up to the black limousine at the end of the alley. When he finished, Prunella sat quietly for a moment, looking deep into Roger's eyes.
“They were right about you, you have vision.” Prunella said matter of factly. She stood and turned to lead the way out of the room.
Roger was curious, “What does that mean?” he asked, not sure he was ready for whatever might come next.
Prunella turned back to him and smiled, kindly,“Your dreams are not like everyone’s. You get glimpses of what you should do next, like the prophets,” she told him.
“Prophets? Like in Sunday School, Elijah and those guys?” Roger could not believe what he was hearing.
“Yes, those guys. May I see the key?” Prunella asked quietly. Indicating a small square table at the back of the stage.
Joey and Roger followed her, Roger opened his backpack and removed the wooden box, placing it carefully on the table.
He took the silver key from the string around his neck and inserted it into the lock. Prunella's eyes never left the box as he opened it.
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