THE GUARDIAN

You will be happy to know that I've finally updated this thing again! It's taken me almost a month to figure it out, but I got it now!

We're almost to the end, people; after this, we only got about two more chapters! I'm so excited! This was my favorite chapter to write thus far. And after thinking it over, I have decided to do a sequel to this. I won't tell you about it, though, we still gotta get through this story first! One adventure at a time.

Pinocchio and Jiminy © Disney

Terence and Other Characters © unicorn-skydancer08

Story © unicorn-skydancer08

Chapter 21: Last Curtain Call

"It's just about that time, kid," Fabrizio announced to Pinocchio. Pinocchio, who sat on the edge of his cot in his full clown getup with his clown hat in his hands, peered up slowly at his master. Fabrizio, as always, was decked out in his long black tailcoat, milk-colored breeches, and knee-length boots, and his black top hat rested jauntily atop his head.

His eyes looked as dark and sinister as ever in the shadow of the brim.

Pinocchio said nothing—he always avoided speaking directly to Fabrizio, whenever it could be helped—but he hunkered down slightly, as a frightened dog hunkering before its imposing master.

"Don't give me that look," Fabrizio told him sharply.

He brandished the handle of his whip that he carried at the boy's face, and went on malevolently, "I didn't save you from homelessness and total starvation for this, Pinocchio. I didn't drag you all over town, and have you go through all those exercises, for nothing. I brought you into my circus so that you could work, and work is exactly what you are going to do. You will go out there and put on a big smile for everyone, and you will give them what they want. If you don't, so help me, boy, there will be the devil to pay. Is that understood?"

When Pinocchio still wouldn't say anything, Fabrizio shot forth a white-gloved hand and snatched him by the front of his costume, jerking Pinocchio closer to him.

"Answer me, you dressmaker's dummy!" he said nastily. "Is that understood?"

"Y-yes, sir," Pinocchio finally stammered, his own voice small and tremulous.

"Good," said Fabrizio bluntly, and he let the puppet go with a shove. "See to it that it is. Now, go take your position with the other clowns."

Pinocchio obediently leaped to his feet, setting his hat carefully in place as he did so, and Fabrizio followed him out of the small tent, toward the big pavilion.

Inside the pavilion, Terence stood behind one of the massive flaps with Bernardo, secretly watching the audience that had gathered that night.

It was quite a crowd—clearly as big as the crowd on the night Terence and Pinocchio first attended the Fabrizio Expo, if not bigger.

Jiminy, for once, was not with Terence at that time; the cricket had already gone off somewhere to hide. He and Terence had agreed to meet up with each other later.

"You all right?" Bernardo whispered to Terence, at length.

Terence merely nodded. In truth, the young man was quivering with fear, and anticipation.

He was so close to getting Pinocchio back; he just hoped this rescue plan would work, that Bernardo and his other accomplices knew what they were doing.

He heard something behind him, and he and Bernardo looked simultaneously over their shoulders to see a small clown come in, with Fabrizio close behind. Terence's heart leaped upon realizing it was Pinocchio! He nearly cried out to the boy on the spot, but luckily he caught himself just in time, remembering Armando's warning about revealing himself too soon.

If Pinocchio knew him right then, Fabrizio would know, too.

Pinocchio hesitated for just a moment, caught by an overwhelming memory of how he was once here before, with Terence and Jiminy.

No matter how much the little lad tried, he just couldn't get Terence out of his mind. Remembering Terence, and how kind and gentle he had been to Pinocchio from the moment they met, pierced the puppet's heart with acute longing. Even though he knew Terence was gone, just like Geppetto, he still wished the white-haired youth were there.

He wished he could see Terence again, one more time, if only for a minute.

Oh, Terence, Pinocchio inwardly bemoaned, I need you.

"What are you waiting for?" Fabrizio demanded. "Don't just stand there! Get moving!" And he gave Pinocchio a heartless kick with his boot, very nearly knocking the poor boy flat on his face.

Terence's insides seared with white-hot fury at the sight. He wanted to fly out at Fabrizio on the spot and break his face, and he actually began to lunge at the man, but Bernardo restrained him. "No!" Bernardo whispered fiercely to the youth, as he held him back. "Let it be, Terence; it's not worth the fight!"

"That vile, disgusting, two-faced son of a jackal!" Terence swore, struggling to free himself. "I'll break his skinny neck—"

"No!" Bernardo repeated, and he gave an especial hard jerk on his companion's arm. Leaning in toward Terence, he spoke urgently into the youth's ear, "One wrong move on your part, Terence, and everything is ruined! Do you want to get Pinocchio out of here, or not?" It took a minute to calm Terence down, but even after Terence ceased to fight against Bernardo and stood still, he continued to flex his fingers every now and again, itching to place them around Fabrizio's throat.

When Pinocchio was joined with them, Bernardo did crouch down to ask him, "Are you all right, Pinocchio?"

"I'm fine," said Pinocchio softly.

Fabrizio, meanwhile, looked at Terence, and for a heartstopping moment, Terence feared the man would see through his disguise.

He stared long and hard back at Fabrizio, determined to not blink too much. For good measure, he maintained hold of his tongue and kept silent.

"What's the matter with you, Armando?" Fabrizio inquired at length. "Cat got your tongue?"

"Oh, he's got laryngitis, sir," Bernardo hastily invented. "I'm afraid he can't talk. "

Terence nodded in agreement, and even raised a ginger hand to his throat.

"That's queer," Fabrizio said, keeping his hawk eye on Terence, with hardly a change of expression. "He talked just fine this morning."

"It's developed just now, sir, and I am afraid it's quite a nasty case indeed."

Terence nodded again. He pressed a fist to his lips and coughed quietly a few times, hoping Fabrizio would buy it.

"Well, whatever you've got, Armando, it doesn't change a thing," said Fabrizio coldly. "You're still going out there, and you're doing exactly what you're supposed to do."

Almost as an afterthought, he added on, "Luckily for you, and for the rest of us, your act does not require you to speak."

Terence nodded a third time, and mouthed the words "yes sir" to him.

Fabrizio gazed into the silent clown's painted face one minute more; then, to everyone's relief, he marched briskly past them and went on his own way, without another word.

When Terence was sure he was out of earshot, he whispered fervently to Bernardo, "Thanks."

"Don't mention it," Bernardo whispered back.

The show had now begun. The performance this evening was just as spectacular and eye-popping as the one Terence and Pinocchio had attended, if not more so.

Everyone was fantastic with their assigned acts, but of course it was Pinocchio the crowds were most anxious to see. When the time came for the clowns to be on, Terence felt a little apprehensive about being in front of all those people. But Bernardo just reminded the young man to go along with him, and the clown added with a broad, almost pretentious grin, "Above all else, maintain a big smile—like you actually mean it!" Terence just smiled weakly, and adjusted his cap and wig a bit before following Bernardo out into the ring.

Inside the ring, while Fabrizio introduced them, Terence felt unusually warm under his costume, the heated glare of the spotlight, and the watchful stares of the audience around him.

He prayed he wouldn't start to perspire, and ruin his makeup. The last thing he needed was to dissolve into a puddle in front of everybody.

Though Pinocchio was wildly applauded and cheered for, the boy only felt like he was going to be sick on the spot.

Fabrizio shot the puppet one final murderous glare, before stepping aside and leaving the clowns to their work.

For the next solid hour or so, the clowns carried out their humorous, laugh-inducing jaunts, with Terence struggling to keep up with the antics.

Terence felt he wasn't really contributing much, but the audience appeared to love them anyway. Bernardo did his job amazingly well, with making brazenly colored scarves appear and disappear at random, juggling raw, unboiled eggs, producing a full bottle of soda from his pants, and everything. He and Terence were an especial riot with the banana-in-your-shoe routine, and with Bernardo pouring milk into his hat and secretly swapping Terence's hat for it. And practically everyone was in stitches when Bernardo attempted to sneak up on Terence from behind with an enormous cream pie in his hand. When he tapped Terence on the shoulder to get his attention, while the audience screamed out warnings to Terence, Terence turned around—only to bring up his own pie to meet Bernardo squarely in the face. That was when the whole pavilion exploded.

Terence felt like he was making a complete fool of himself, but he decided that was the whole point.

Pinocchio, needless to say, was the biggest hit of them all. Everybody adored the little clown marionette, who was forced to sing silly songs, dance a ridiculous dance for them, and take part in Terence and Bernardo's frolics. Terence had to admit to himself, the puppet wasn't a bad actor.

At the very end of the gig, when all of the people were clapping and screaming and stamping their feet in approval, Bernardo then turned to Terence, and silently mouthed the word "now" to him and fervently motioned for him to run for it. Terence understood the signal, and did not hesitate to scoop Pinocchio up, taking the boy by complete surprise.

With the puppet cradled gently in his arms, the young man turned and was gone like a streak of lightning.

"Hey!" Pinocchio protested, as Terence whisked him from the arena.

Fabrizio, who had been standing by, saw what was happening, and immediately became suspicious. What was going on here, he wondered? There was something screwy about that clown…

"Hey!" Pinocchio said again, when Terence had taken him all the way to the very back of the pavilion, where no one else could see them. "Put me down!"

Terence stopped, once he was certain he wasn't being followed, and he set the puppet down carefully on his own feet.

"Armando, what are you doing?" Pinocchio asked bewilderedly. "What is going on?"

"Pinocchio, it's me," said Terence, and to make himself at least somewhat recognizable, he removed his hat and false wig, so that his own silvery locks came spilling down into his face.

Pinocchio froze, not daring to believe it. He thought for a split moment that he was seeing what he wished he could see, that he was hearing what he wished he could hear.

It couldn't be…it wasn't possible…was it?

"Terence?" the boy said, his voice barely audible, his eyes nearly popping out of his head.

"Yes, Pinocchio," said Terence, smiling down at him. "I'm here."

Pinocchio continued to stand and gawk, still thinking inwardly that this was all a mere hallucination. But when it at last dawned on him that this was no hallucination, no dream, no figment of his imagination, that Terence really stood before him, and that he was alive and well, his whole composure fell to pieces. With a noise that was somewhere between a laugh and a sob, the clown puppet hurled himself at Terence with full force and hugged the young man's sturdy legs, just as hard as he could squeeze, very nearly causing Terence to lose his balance.

He felt Terence's warm, familiar arms wrap unhesitatingly about him, and he felt Terence get down to his knees, so that they were at a more equal level.

The puppet promptly adjusted his grip, so that his scrawny arms now encompassed Terence's shoulders, and he buried his face in Terence's neck and burst into tears. Tears streamed down Terence's face as well as he returned Pinocchio's hug with all his heart. He knew the tears were causing his clown makeup to run, but he didn't care.

"Pinocchio!" he sobbed gratefully. "Oh, Pinocchio, my boy—oh, I'm so happy to see you!"

"Oh, Terence!" Pinocchio wailed at the same time, his voice garbled by tears and his face's contact with the young man's neck. "I thought I'd never see you again!"

"I have found you at last!" Terence wept. "Thank God, you're all right!"

"I missed you so much!" Pinocchio knew he should stop crying, but he couldn't; feeling Terence holding him was just too wonderful for words.

He could feel that tremendous weight he had come to accept lift from his heart, and he was just so happy, so thankful to have Terence back, all he could do was bawl.

"Pinocchio!" a small voice called, and Pinocchio lifted his head in time to see none other than Jiminy Cricket spring over to them, looking positively delighted to see him.

"Jiminy!" Pinocchio cried elatedly. "Oh, Jiminy! You're here, too!"

Suddenly the whole world seemed right again, and the puppet found he no longer felt lonely, or afraid.

"Pinocchio!" said Jiminy, taking one great, ecstatic leap onto the boy's shoulder. "It really is you! I don't believe it!"

"Are you all right?" Terence asked Pinocchio solicitously, taking the boy's chin gently in his hands. "I've been worried about you. Jiminy and I have looked everywhere for you."

"We have spent weeks searching every nook and cranny of the entire town," Jiminy said.

Pinocchio stared at them both, especially at Terence. "You mean, you have been looking for me, all this time?" the boy asked. "And you came all the way here, just to help me?"

If the little marionette was astounded before, he was totally and utterly knocked for six.

If this wasn't a sign that Terence truly loved him, he didn't know what was.

"What else could we have done?" said Terence, looking and sounding close to tears again. "I couldn't leave you, Pinocchio…especially in a place like this. I could never have lived with myself." Fresh tears began to flow forth, and Terence's already streaming makeup turned all the worse, as he engulfed Pinocchio in yet another impassioned embrace.

"Oh, Pinocchio, forgive me for putting you through this," the white-haired youth pleaded. "Please, forgive me!"

"Oh, Terence," was all Pinocchio could bring himself to say, as he clung to him in return.

"Forgive me, Pinocchio…forgive me," Terence kept sobbing over and over. Neither he nor Pinocchio knew how long they remained in that spot, crying and fondling each other, and covering each other's faces with endless kisses and tears, but when they drew apart in the end, Terence besought the puppet one more time, "Can you forgive me, Pinocchio?"

"Sure, I forgive you, Terence," said Pinocchio, and he meant it. "I'm just glad you're here."

He choked up as he added on, "Back at the alley…Fabrizio…I thought that you were…that you…"

He couldn't bring himself to say it, but Terence understood perfectly what the lad meant to say. "I'm all right, Pinocchio," he assured him. "It takes a lot more than that to finish me off."

With one gloved hand, he stroked the child's cheek tenderly, lightly brushing away the new tears that had begun to fall. Pinocchio could only smile, the first time he had smiled in ages, unable to express his relief and gratitude at having Terence with him again. It was the next best thing to having his real father back.

"Come on, Pinocchio," Terence beckoned, now scooping the boy into his arms like an infant, and rising to his feet. "It's time to take you home."

But before he could get out of there and make his escape, an antagonistic voice from the shadows stopped him cold:

"Going somewhere?"