The Puppets of Spelhorst

Martha and Jane take their places kneeling behind the table being used for a stage: Martha is holding the wolf and the boy, Jane is holding the girl and the owl, and Emma stands in front with the king puppet in hand. She announces to the audience that she needs their full attention to “tell a tale of truth and wonder and sorrow” (106). She leans down to tell Martha to read her lines exactly as written and tells Jane that there is a part where she will have to sing.

Emma looks at the king puppet and says, “You are now a wizard, […] Your name is Spelhorst, and you and I are in charge of this story” (107). She takes off his crown and replaces it with a wizard’s hat painted with the moon and stars. The king is delighted to take on such a role. He and the audience eagerly wait for the play to begin.

Emma begins to tell a story about a boy who “[feels] he [is] destined for great things” (109). The boy comes upon a girl who is “being held prisoner by a wolf” (110), and the audience gasps as they see the large and menacing shadow of the wolf puppet cast on the wall. The girl insists that she doesn’t need saving, but the boy attacks the wolf anyway, letting the girl run free. Once they are away from the wolf, the boy asks the girl to come see the world with him. She looks at him and sees that he is “kind and good, if maybe a little bit ridiculous and self-important” (113). She takes his hand and agrees to go with him.

For a while, Emma continues, the two are happy together. The audience leans toward the stage, and the girl and boy puppets sink into the euphoric feeling of telling a story for them. Then, Emma says something that puts the audience on the edge of their seats: The wolf has “not been fully vanquished, of course, for wolves never are” (114), and is plotting her revenge. This, Emma announces, is the end of Act 1 of the story.

The humans and the puppets all feel differently about how the play is going so far. Emma is flushed but excited. She says to Martha and Jane, “They’re listening to us. They’re listening to us tell them a story” (117). Meanwhile, Martha is feeling proud of the suspense and fear they are building in the audience.

The king is feeling left out since he hasn’t gotten to do anything in the play yet, while the wolf is reveling in scaring the audience with her ferocity. The boy and the girl are still basking in the glow of telling the story and “can feel the eyes of the audience on them, even though they [are] hidden behind the table” (120). Finally, the owl sits silently on Jane’s hand, thinking about the moment on the hill when he finally felt the wind beneath his wings. He is brought back to the present when Emma announces that it is time to begin Act 2.

Emma tells the audience that the boy believes he is destined for greatness. He tells the girl, “You and I are happy. But your parents do not think I am worthy of you. I will prove myself to them, to you, to everyone. I will go to sea. I will do great things. Then I will return to you” (122). The girl insists that this isn’t necessary since they are already happy together where they are, but the boy will not change his mind.

Just then, the owl puppet is raised to the stage. Emma says that a wise owl appears to the boy and tells him, “Leave, […] and you will only regret” (123). The owl is pleased that his character said something so wise, but the boy in the story doesn’t listen to the owl or to the girl he loves, instead setting off. 

Now only the girl puppet remains on the “stage.” Jane begins to sing a song that captures what the girl is feeling as the boy leaves her behind. She sings:

You will leave

and I will stay.

But fate plays tricks.

There could come a day,

When you search for me

And find me gone (125).

After the song ends, Jane lowers the girl puppet. Emma holds up the king with his new wizard cap, and Martha raises the boy again. Emma speaks for the wizard, placing a curse on the boy. If he leaves for the sea, he will die of a broken heart the moment his feet touch dry land again. With that, Emma steps in front of the stage to announce the end of Act 2.

Introducing Act 3 of the story, Emma tells the audience that the boy ignores the words of the owl, the woman who loved him, and the wizard who cursed him, leaving to search for glory and greatness. She says, “The boy stay[s] at sea, searching, searching, searching. He [becomes] a man. And then, somehow, he [becomes] an old man” (130). As an old man, he still looks out to the sea, but now with regret, for he never found the glory he was seeking.

Finally, the old man returns to land, where he can “feel the curse upon his head. It [is] as if he [is] followed everywhere by a dark, hungry shadow” (132)—the wolf. He looks for the love he left behind, but she is nowhere to be found. He remembers that in her song, she said that there might be a time when he returned and found her gone. Now, he realizes, that time has come. The old man dies of a broken heart.

Emma doesn’t end her story there, however. She instructs Jane and Martha to raise up the sun, moon, and stars, all at once. The wizard ends the story with a blessing for the audience: that they will look to the skies with wonder, explore the world, and always remember to love without regret.

After the play has ended, an old woman from the audience approaches Emma and asks if she’s the playwright. When Emma says she is, the old woman tells her the story was “Very entertaining, very moving” (138). The story reminded her of a love she lost once, an old sea captain who left in search of glory. She tells Emma that she never forgot him.

Meanwhile, the puppets are ecstatic over their performances and the joy they got from doing the play. Emma’s uncle approaches Jane and tells her that she has a marvelous singing voice that should be heard on the stage. She smiles and curtsies for him, and an idea begins to form in her head.

Long after the play and party have ended, the puppets are on the mantel again in the blue room. Each of them recalls how exciting it was to be a part of the story, and they wonder if there will be another one. The boy says, “There must be, […] That must be the point of it, the purpose. We must contain stories upon stories, stories without end” (141). The puppets are pleased to hear this and content with their purpose.

Suddenly, Jane enters the room, but she isn’t in her typical cleaning clothes. She is in a traveling outfit. She approaches the mantel and tells the puppets that she’s been thinking a lot about how little time there truly is in life and says that she doesn’t want to waste a moment more.

Years later, Emma and Martha are adults remembering the puppets their uncle brought them and how they mysteriously vanished the night after they performed the play. Emma tells her sister, “I like to think, […] that Jane Twiddum took the puppets and traveled the world putting on shows” (146). She says that she would like to write a book about that. Martha agrees it’s a lovely idea and insists that Emma include the fact that the wolf had very sharp teeth. The final illustration in the book features Jane traveling on a camel with the trunk of puppets in tow.