Puppet Wrangler (19 page)
I realize now that they must have been sick with worry over both of us, especially after reading those e-mails. But when I looked up and saw my parents there, they were both smiling. Smiling at the sight of us hugging and crying. They were crying too, of course, but mostly they were smiling and looking at us like we'd just won first place for piano duet in the Kiwanis Music Festival or something.
Like we were the two best daughters anyone could ever ask for.
I'm just glad Bitsie was hidden safely away in my knapsack because, believe me, the whole sappy scene would have been enough to make him throw up.
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Though not very well. He obviously hadn't had much practice.
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It was the first thing I thought of. I guess because of that mushy stomach of mine.
It's two years later now. I'm back in Beach Meadows. I'm in Grade Nine. I'm still shy, but I did talk to a boy yesterday. (“You dropped your pencil.” It's not much, I know, but it's a start,) My language arts teacher is really impressed with how “imaginative” my writing has become.
Bitsie 'n' Bytesie
got renewed for one more season. Production didn't go into overtime once.
Kathleen has a huge hit on her hands with
Obsessive-
Compulsive Home
. Laird has no idea why she keeps thanking him when she wins yet another award for Excellence in Lifestyle Broadcasting. When Kathleen's lonely, she calls me. We usually just talk about new trends in window treatments and closet organizers, but it's always nice to hear her voice.
Zola lied and told Kathleen I spent that weekend with her. I never had to ask her to do it and she never asked me to explain. Zola said she knows I only did what I felt I had to do. No wonder I love her.
Nick married his girlfriend and it didn't bother me a bit.
I did crawl into Dreemland when I found out, but I was planning on doing that anyway.
Arnold van Gurp is pitching a television series about a puppet who comes to life as a dance instructor. He has several broadcasters interested in it.
Mum doesn't talk about the time Bess stole the Winnebago and drove nonstop to Toronto. She talks about Bess's “rescue mission.” She's very proud of her, even though she can't understand for the life of her why Bess would have thought that blurry picture in the paper was of me.
Dad got a tattoo and now Bess and he have a lot more to talk about.
Bess is doing community service at the children's hospital instead of jail time. She's really good with the patients. They love her “energy.” Sometimes I come along with her and bring my puppet. His name is Gord. He has black hair and a black mustache and a completely normal nose.
Only a few kids with really high fevers have ever suspected that he might just be Bitsie.
Photo credit: John Sherlock
The Puppet Wrangler
is funny and fast-paced and set against the fascinating backdrop of the television industry, a world that the author, Gemini-winning
Vicki Grant,
knows well. She is the writer and creative director of
Scoop
& Doozie
, a TV puppet show. Jim Rankin was one of the puppeteers on the show. “Between takes,” Vicki says, “Jim's puppet âDoozie' would carry on conversations with the crew, conversations that showed a whole different side of the little orange bulldozer. Very funny, but definitely not preschool material. Bitsie owes a huge debt of gratitude to Jim Rankin.”
The Puppet Wrangler
is Vicki's first novel.
*
Vicki's got a cool website,
check it out at
www.vickigrant.com
Watch for this new Orca novel
coming soon to a bookstore
or library near you!
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Dayle Campbell Gaetz
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Mystery from
History
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