Five days until Halloween. Billy B. was excited regarding the Marionette Show that his friend Steve was going to put on this evening. Jane and Chet and Sally would be coming as well as Steve’s sister, Susie, who Billy B. had a crush on…and Danny and Pauly…his neighbors from the other end of the lane in Chicago. A few nights ago there had been the strange occurrences of the Hayride and the Halloween Party in the old barn…and finally the hairy condition of Chet when he walked out into the brilliant glow of the full moon. Billy B. wondered just what is happening this Halloween…as it was a season like none that he could recall. Tonight, Steve promised a regular Halloween puppet show…with marionettes of; Frankenstein and Dracula and the Wolf Man and the Mummy. There would also be the old favorites of Punch and Judy and that perennial star of Chicago…Bozo the Clown.

Ivy, Steve’s mom, had made Halloween themed cupcakes and cookies and brownies. Ivy and Billy B.’s mom were best friends. Neva Jane had told Billy B. that Ivy changed at night…and did not seem like the same person. Billy B. thought that his mom’s statement was strange. Ed, Steve and Susies dad, was a nice man who said little. He smoked Pall Malls…incessantly…as did Ivy. Billy B. wondered if he had ever seen Ivy and Ed…without a cloud of smoke around their heads. Billy B. remembered that he had seen Ivy late one evening last summer and greeted her…and she had simply stared at him with an unusual grin…and then turned and walked away. In fact he did not want to give in to his eyes…as he had thought for a moment…that she floated away…

Chet arrived at Billy B.’s house first and brought his marionette of Daniel Boone. He was hoping that Steve would use him in the show. Billy B. asked Chet if he had ever noticed anything different about Ivy or Ed. Chet responded that he noticed that Ivy talked constantly and the Ed said nothing…thus they made a good pair. He also said that Susie had asked him one time if had ever wanted to fly…and that she could show him how…if he wanted to stay overnight at her house. About that time Jane and Sally came in. Billy B. asked Jane the same question that he had just asked Chet. Jane responded to the question by noting that they were always surrounded by a cloud of smoke…and that at times their eyes looked sinister… As the intrepid group walked outside to go down the street to Steve’s house for the big show…there was Danny and Pauly. Billy B. thought what the heck…I’ll ask them the same question. When Billy B. asked the same question of the brothers…Pauly said that he had looked in their refrigerator once…and there was nothing in it…but packs of Pall Malls…

Susie greeted the Halloween Marionette Show audience with a warm smile and a hug for Billy B. Billy B. thought that what the others had said about the family…was a load of malarky. Steve said…’Everyone sit down and the show will commence.’ The first act was Punch and Judy. Then…on came Frankenstein and Dracula with Daniel Boone fighting them with his flintlock rifle. Finally…. came Marionettes that looked just like; Ivy and Ed and Steve and Susie. The Ivy puppet was talking a mile a minute and the Ed puppet was sitting in a puppet easy chair. The Susie Marionette went to answer the small front door of the Puppet Theatre…and in walked Marionettes of; Billy B. and Chet and Jane and Susie and Pauly and Danny. The Susie Marionette bent down to hug the Billy B. Marionette…and then the lights went up…

Billy B. rubbed his eyes and looked at his arms and legs…they had strings attached…and there was…Bozo sitting next to him…