“Follow me, comrades,” the Devil said. “More wonders to behold.”
In the next room, more puppets cheered their arrival. They were dizzying in their variety, long and short, fat and thin, bright and somber in design. Three giant disembodied heads—long-forgotten buffoons made for a political satire—propelled themselves forward by chomping their jaws. A quartet of skeletons shook their bones and danced a mazurka. Old familiars from children’s stories sang out: the Three Little Pigs pink as hams, a Dish and a Spoon with the glow of the recently eloped, and a little old lady who sat by a giant shoe, eight tiny heads peering through the eyelets and another young one sliding down the tongue. All the people were happy to see the new arrivals and clamored for their attention.
“No wonder we heard voices from our room,” Kay said.
“Wait,” the Devil said. “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”
Some of the gulag refugees stayed behind in the impromptu celebration, but the Devil and his entourage crowded into the narrow hallway and proceeded toward the next room. Stopping suddenly and holding his hand for silence, he motioned for Kay and the Good Fairy to join him. The space was dark and cool, and a small circle of light appeared and expanded from the size of a dime to the size of a dinner plate. Delicate notes from a koto set the tone, and a bunraku puppet took the stage, a beautiful Japanese woman in a marvelous embroidered kimono whose movements harmonized with the music for six measures. Then a switch in her head was thrown, and she rolled back her eyes to a hideous yellow, horns popped out of the front of her skull, and she grimaced to reveal two rows of sharp teeth. Kay yelped at the sudden transformation, and the demon quickly changed back into the young woman and began laughing hysterically at her own joke. A deranged monkey clapped its hands against a gong. Two samurai drew their swords and waved them in a blur, and a braggart waggled his bushy eyebrows.
Introductions followed all around, and bowing low, the ningyō proved gracious and begged forgiveness for having scared the visitors. The Devil took delight in the machinations set in place but could barely contain his enthusiasm to show them the next chamber. He led them into a tableau which Kay recognized at once from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Fairy marionettes hung from the ceiling and spun slowly, the light reflecting off their silken wings—Cobweb, Peaseblossom, Mustardseed, Moth, and the rest surrounding a life-size Oberon and Titania reclining on a mountain of pillows brocaded with gold and silver threads. The changeling boy, an Indian prince, done as a rod puppet, nestled in the bed between the fairy king and queen, and off to one side lolled the rude mechanical Bottom in his ass’s head crowned with a garland of paper hibiscus. The four youthful lovers were shadow puppets flat against the wall, and perched on a cider barrel, Puck awaited his cue.
“My people,” the Good Fairy exclaimed.
“Lord, what fools these mortals be!” Puck shouted, and all at once, the puppets danced to life, shouting their huzzahs. Bottom brayed. The lovers swapped places and swapped back. Oberon joked, “Ill met by moonlight” to Kay, and the fairies swam in the air on invisible wires. Kay felt as though she was back in the cirque and stretched her limbs, wondering if she might ever be so fluid as to tumble and balance again. The others from the other rooms jammed into the scene till it nearly burst with puppets exuberant with performing before a new audience.
“I had no idea you were so many,” Kay said to Puck.
“This is but the floor below. Wait till he takes you to the loft. Wait till you see the Original.” He pointed to the wooden staircase leading up.
“The Original?”
“The man in the glass jar.” Puck clapped his hand to his mouth, suddenly aware that he had let out a secret.
Intrigued by the prospect, Kay pestered the Devil, pulling on his tail to get his attention. “Will you take us there? To the upper floor.”
In the din, he pretended not to hear her question. The Russians were singing about vodka, the bunraku witch played a surfing song on the koto, and Puck ran amok, spreading mischief. Even the Good Fairy had joined the party, branches thrown into the air, allowing the children from the shoe to have a good climb.
“I want to see more,” Kay said.
The Devil took her hand. “All in good time. We should be getting back. We can’t leave No? swinging from a rope all night long.”
“How did you know about what we were doing in the stalls?”