With a 20000 dollar cheque in hand, his ten year old Corolla and pretty much everything he owned he headed towards Alberta to start school at the National Institute of Technology where he would pay his tuition and be enrolled in the schools computer programming course. Jake was happy to take the money from his parents, and also happy to get away from them. He never really got along with them and couldn’t help but feel that the money was just a way to get rid of him. One thing he was sure of was that he wasn’t going to lose no sleep over it.
Two days later he finally made it into Edmonton. Once there he knew the first big thing he wanted to do was visit the big mall. West Edmonton Mall is the largest mall in the world. He had heard about it several times back home and now he was finally going to see it.
First thing he had to do once inside was to deposit the cheque that was burning a hole in his pocket. After that he decided to walk around the mall. He couldn’t believe how big the mall really was. No pictures or explanations could have prepared him for the sight he was now witnessing. The sights were all too numerous to take on all at once. He was quite convinced that he would be spending a lot of time in this mall. As he was walking through the mall he saw something that peaked his interest. There was a stage set up with a bunch of chairs set up out front. There were two signs set up in front of the stage. One said Mandres Traveling Puppet Show. The other said next show in five minutes.
The crowd was already beginning to gather. Jake didn’t know why he was attracted to this puppet show but never the less he was. He sat down in the first row and waited for the show to start. About 10 minutes later the show did finally start. His instincts quickly told him that something weird was going on. He had no interest in the show but rather for some reason he was intrigued by the puppets. He had no clue as to why.
After the show Jake decided to walk back stage to try and find the owners of the show. Once back there he saw a lot of puppets but no human beings. After a few seconds he saw a door that was just begging him to walk through. As soon as he walked through he couldn’t believe his eyes but what he did believe was that he was in a lot of trouble. There were 3 adults acting as servants to many wooden puppets which were actually alive.
Jake tried to turn around and run but he was too slow. One of the puppets had slammed the door while 3 more stood in front of him not letting him get anywhere near the door. Under normal circumstances he would try and fight but this was absolutely not normal circumstances. Some how he knew that trying to escape would be fruitless.
The humans said nothing with their mouths but their eyes said it all. They were signaling to Jake that it was hopeless to fight. Jake was always a strong believer in faith and good will but some how he knew he was doomed to live the rest of his life as a puppet slave and this was how Jake deferred college to join the traveling puppet show.
