Archie is pleased to be asked. "You'd like to meet the puppets? Why, sure, Charley! I'm sure they'd love to meet you too." The puppets are in hard cases that look like small suitcases or the kind of cases you'd carry a musical instrument in, either in a closet or pushed back against a corner of Archie's office, probably half buried by books and papers most of the time. Archie pulls out the top three cases, sets them on the floor, opens them all.
"Let's see, now. This is Hobo Stan..." (a hand puppet of a classic hobo with five o'clock shadow, a stogie permanently in his mouth, a tin can for a hat) "He says he's the King of the Hoboes. Now, he sometimes uses naughty words, but he's a good fellow at heart.
"And this here is Enki..." (a weird looking soft puppet that looks like a sea serpent, with goat eyes and extra legs on his thorax like a cockroach). "I know he looks a little scary, but he's very friendly, and he loves children."
"And this is Dragon Lady ..." (a wooden Chinese-style rod puppet, looks like a Peking Opera empress)
"She's a very fancy kind of puppet they've been making in China for thousands of years. I have to warn you she's a little bit snooty because of that."
He doesn't open the Ransom Kid's case, at least not yet. Archie makes a point of showing Charley all the puppets in their cases, letting her see how they're made, how they work, before he makes any of them talk. If she wants to take them out of the case, play with them or make them talk herself, she can.
"Now, you can see they're not alive. They're just felt and wood and so on. But a good puppeteer wants to make his puppets seem alive. And the best way to do that is to sort of... believe that they are alive. So don't be alarmed if they seem like they have minds of their own. Sometimes I think they really do." "Of course I can only 'wake up' one at a time. Who would you like to talk to?"
"Oh! I love them! But where is the Ransom Kid?"
Archie looks a little troubled, but it passes. "Oh, he's here too. He's just a little, ah, fragile." But he gets the fourth case and opens it up, for the first time in a long time probably. It's a wooden ventriloquist dummy, a little boy dressed as a cowboy: cowboy hat, bandana around his neck, etc.
Charley, will start to play with the Dragon Lady. She uses an old woman's voice and says in a slightly mocking tone, "There he is poor boy. Don't listen to him girl, he's not the fragile one."
"I've been in that awful box for too long! Now it hurts to move Archie!"
(to Charley): "You're a natural at this!" (to the Dragon Lady): "Hello, your ladyship! I'm sorry it's been so long, but it's good to talk to you again." (to Charley again) "I'll see if Hobo Stan wants to join us too." Archie picks up the Stan puppet.
Charley, walks the Dragon Lady moaning and groaning along the way over to the Hobo Stan, "Wake up bái chī!"
Hobo Stan "wakes up," sputtering like he's surprised. "Hah? Hrm? Whazzat? Whasshappenin?"
Archie in his own voice: "It's okay, Stanley! It's just me, and the Dragon Lady." Hobo Stan: "Oh, oh, it's you, Reverend. Ya shouldn't sneak up on a feller like that, Arch, I was half fixin to cut ya!"
Stan does an exaggerated bow to the Dragon Lady "Howdy, yer Dragonship. Salootations and peramboolations!"
And then addresses Charley. "And who's this little ragamuffin? Howdy, young missie!"
Charley in her own voice: "Hello, Stan, it's Charley"
Dragon Lady: "Yes, King Hobo, it's Charleeee can't you see?"
Hobo Stan: "Charlie? Is that you? Well, tarnation. It's been a long time, young feller." Archie: "No, Stanley, this is my friend Char--" Hobo Stan: "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I heared everybody th' first time, Arch." Stan horks up an imaginary loogie and spits at an imaginary spitoon, which makes a dinging sound when he hits it (a good trick).
Hobo Stan (to Charley): "Listen, squirt. Your old pal Stan is powerful dry. You got anything to drink around here?" (exaggerated nod towards Archie) "I know he ain't got nothing."
"Better yet, gwan out in the next room and see if yer Uncle Mitch has any of that wacky tobacky, we'll burn one." Archie (indignant): "Stanley!"
Charley giggles. But the Dragon Lady grumbles, "Fool." And then to Archie, "Now that the Gang is back together the show will go on, yes?"
Archie answers as if he's completely talking to the Dragon Lady, no winking to Charley or whatever. "I don't know about that, your ladyship. I'm sorry. It's swell to visit like this with all of you, but the show was cancelled several years ago."
Dragon Lady: "Well, if you think, for one moment, that you are putting me back in that box, that prison, you have got another thing coming. I am an Empress from a Dynasty too sacred to be named, and by rights, this should be my show. I only joined your inconsequential group because I wanted to see the West, but what has that gotten me? A curse upon you if you imprison me again! Enki!! Enki!! I command you to free us from our oppressor!"
Hobo Stan to the Dragon Lady: "Hold on, hold on, yer Serpentude. I know you're one high and mighty sockdolager, but the Kid's the star of the show! He's the one the boys and girls all came to see, ya know. We cain't do no show without the Kid." Hobo Stan to Charley, in a confidential whisper: "Now level with me, youngster. Is you is or is you ain't the Kid?"
Charley, to Stan, "I is and I ain't." She then puts the Dragon Lady down (who protests as she does) and looks up at Archie and says, "Mr. Ransom, my mom called me Lily."
Archie puts Stan down too, or at least lowers him down. "Lily. That's a lovely name. I like both your names, Charley. I like them very much. And you know I'd be happy to call you by whatever name you like." "It must be very hard, to lose your mother. It's always hard to lose somebody you love."
Charley looks through Archie for a moment, then blinks and says, "I don't know. Lily was a wish, but Charley is well, what happened. But maybe, Charley is a wish too... I had a dog named Jack. My mom played the piano at our house when I lived in 29 Palms. We were going to leave, go on a trip after a man with red hair came to the house. I think they fought, but it's hard to remember some of it. We had to give Jack to Carol, my mom's friend. I don't know why we couldn't take him with us? The number 29 is important; at least that's what Fi told me. But she hasn't explained why; I guess I'm supposed to figure it out." She breaks from the flow of memories, and worriedly says, "I don't think SANDMAN can be completely trusted."
Archie takes a minute to process all this.
"I'm so sorry about all of that, Charley. You've had to deal with a lot more than you ever should have. And you've been very brave. ... But what makes you say SANDMAN can't be trusted? Hobo Stan interjects, "Yer darn tootin, kid! You caint trust nobody but yerself in this world."
Archie to Stan: "Now Stanley, I don't think that's fair."
Stan to Archie: "It's the goddamn truth, Arch, and you know it!"
Stan to Charley: "Listen here, young scholar: you're one of the lucky ones, see? You're a free agent! No ma, no pa, no teacher, no boss man! Don't let the reverend here tell you what to do. Why, you ought to be out on the open road, riding the rails, sailing the seven seas!"
Archie to Stan: "OK, that's enough, Stanley. I think it's time to go back in your case."
Charley isn't sure if she should say more. She is watching as Archie puts Stan away.
Archie puts Hobo Stan in his case and closes it. "You're so perceptive, Charley, and you've seen so much for a girl your age. Sometimes it's hard to know whether to talk to you more like a grownup or more like the little girl you are."
"I know you know that SANDMAN isn't one person, it's a whole lot of different people, all over the world. And, well, I think most of the folks working for SANDMAN are good people, and I think most of them are trying their best. But if anyone with SANDMAN has ever treated you badly, or made you feel not safe, well, I want you to know that you can tell me about it."
Charley studies Archie's face as she considers saying more, then looks down at the Ransom Kid silently holding witness. She nods at the Kid and says, "You're right Mr. Ransom, he does look fragile." then gently shuts his case.