An: Thank you for reading! I'm glad you are enjoying the story so far, and hope you continue to do so!

Lula maneuvered herself out of the G-Wagon and looked at the building. She was wearing poison green maternity leggings, with pink baby footprints on them, and a hot pink tank top that read, "I don't waddle. It's called Pregnancy Swagger."

She was about six months pregnant, and so far she'd suffered through morning sickness, and the worst gas known to man. Aside from having to be careful about how much effort she put into sneezing, she was feeling pretty good now, and she was tired of being cooped up in the recording studio in the basement of the house she shared with Sally Sweet, the father of her child. So when I had to think about who I knew would truly appreciate where we were going, I gave her a call. She was bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet in her driveway when I pulled up in front of her house, I thought maybe she had to pee, but she was actually just excited. In the 67 mile drive from Trenton to Moonachie, we stopped four times, twice for her to pee, and twice for snacks.

When Ranger gave me the street address for Parade Studio, I resisted the urge to look for it on Google Streetview. I didn't want to know, I wanted to be surprised. I wanted there to be giant statues of past balloons, maybe Snoopy on the roof with his flight hat and goggles, and Santa's sleigh in the front. So to pull up and discover that it was an ordinary red brick building, with grey-brown accents, was a bit disappointing. The only thing whimsical about it was a discrete sign that showed a cartoon parade in silhouette.

"Maybe they're going for the understated look because they don't want to have people bugging them all the time for tours," Lula suggested.

"Maybe," I said.

We went to the front door and were met by reception.

"Hi," I said, "I'm Stephanie Manoso, and I'm a private investigator, hired to look into a missing person. I was wondering if you could help me?"

"Who's your friend?"

"My partner, Lula," I said.

"You say this is for a missing person?"

"Yes," I said, "He's a school teacher, and his wife is really sick. We'd like to find him so if there are medical decisions to be made, he can make them."

"I'll get my boss," she said.

She had us wait for a few minutes and directed Lula to a bathroom. Lula had just come back when the manager came up. She was a bubbly woman by the name of Shirley Galbert. She was five seven, with bottle blonde hair, a big toothy smile, and dressed in baby pink slacks and a baby blue sweater set. It may have been an oven outside, but the AC in the office was cranked, and it was chilly.

"What can I do for you?" she asked. I introduced Lula and myself again, and she frowned.

"And it brought you to us?" she said. "Come back to my office, and we'll talk."

She led me through to her office the walls of which were covered with pictures from previous parades and little statues of past floats.

"So tell me what's going on?" Shirley asked. I had my lie all lined up, and ready to go. I didn't really want to go into too many details just yet.

"We have a witness who claims that the last person they saw Mr. Dickerson with, was disguised in a muppet costume, and it looks like the costume was from the 1986 parade. We were wondering if it was missing?" I said.

"What's the costume?"

"Rowlf the Dog," I said. I showed her the picture, and she shook her head.

"It's not one of ours," she said.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"The 1986 parade didn't have the Muppet Babies in it. There were Muppets, but no Muppet Babies."

"That doesn't make sense," I said. "This picture is from a newspaper article about the Parade in 1986."

She did some typing on her computer, and shook her head, "It must be mislabeled in the archives. From what I can see, there was a Kermit the Frog Balloon to celebrate the Muppet's 30th birthday, but that was the extent of the Muppet's involvement. That year was all about He-Man, and Alvin and the Chipmunks."

"There is a police report about two performers dressed as Muppets getting mugged," I said. "It's dated November 27th, 1986."

"Let me look again," she said. "Kermit was the first muppet to be part of the parade as a balloon in 1977 and Kermit was there, live in muppet, to report on it. In 1979 the Muppet Cast appeared, again live, Kermit and Piggy in a Rolls Royce and the rest of the cast in the Electric Mayhem Bus. 1981 Gonzo, Fozzie, and Kermit were in Beauregard's Taxi, and there wasn't another live appearance of the muppets until 1987 when Jim Hensen and Kermit were there to accept an award for services to the parade. The only time the muppets appeared as costumed performers was in 1994 and it was an adult Kermit and Piggy. After that, all appearances by muppets have been live."

I pulled out a picture of the Gonzo costume from the Police Report and handed it to her.

"Is that one of yours?" I asked. "Maybe something is missing in your records? Because the Rowlf the Dog picture was definitely from the parade."

"We can check with costumes," she said and stood up. "I'm assuming you came all the way here from Trenton when a call would have sufficed because you wanted a peek at the production floor?"

"That's a big yes," I said.

She motioned for us to follow, and she gave us a tour as we made our way to costumes. She showed us how the balloons were made, and explained how they were first drawn in great detail, then sculpted, to scale, out of clay, then molds were made, and finally, the models of the balloons were painted precisely how they would appear in the parade. Each balloon had two models, the second one left white, with lines to show the construction of the balloon, and where inflation points and lines went. We also learned that the balloons had to be painted while they were inflated, so their paint didn't crack.

"So if I wanted to be a balloon operator…" I said, as we walked by some new floats (that we were told had about 100-200lbs of glitter on them, and even though some were as tall as three stories, they all had to be disassembled to fit through the Lincoln Tunnel, and each component could be no more than 12.5 feet tall, and 8.5 feet wide.)

"You have to either work at Macy's or be sponsored by someone who does, and there has to be a spot open on a team before you can do it, and if you get a spot, then you have to take a course at Columbia University in balloon aerodynamics and handling."

"How long is the course?" I asked. Jeeze Louise, you need a University degree to do anything nowadays.

"Oh only two days," she said with a laugh. "Now, this is what you really want to see."

She showed me a big red cedar chest, standing like a wardrobe, and unlocked it, revealing Santa and Mrs. Claus's costumes.

"Oh my God," I said. "Can I…May I touch it?"

"Sure," she said. "Want some more parade trivia?"

"Yes," I said, "Yes I do."

"When they filmed the Parade Scene in Miracle on 34th Street in 1946, it was done during the actual parade, and Santa that year was played by Edmund Gwenn, the actor who portrayed Santa in the movie. All of the parade shots are real."

"Well that's just cool," I said. Lula nodded. I looked at her, and she looked like she was going to cry. She was petting Mrs. Claus's jacket, reverently. "What's wrong?"

"It's just so beautiful. I mean I watch it every year and this just a dream come true. I just…" She paused, looked alarmed, and clenched her legs together, and made this weird squeaking noise as her eyes bugged out.

"Uhhh," I said, "What was that?"

"I sneezed; what the fudge did you think it was?"

"What the fudge?" I asked.

"I'm pregnant and standing next to Santa's shit. I'm trying not to cuss."

"Anyway," I said. "As fun as this is, we really do need to know about the costumes."

"I'll go get the head of our costumes department," Shirley said.

She walked away, leaving the Santa Closet open. "I want to try on Mrs. Claus's coat," Lula said. "Help me."

"No," I said. "You most certainly will not try on Mrs. Claus's jacket. If you wreck it, you're going to have to pay for it, and I think it's probably expensive."

"You saying I'm too fat to fit into Mrs. Claus's coat?" Lula said.

"No," I said, "I'm afraid you're going to sneeze and pee on it."

"I'm not going to pee on Mrs. Claus," Lula said.

"Leave it alone," I said.

"You never were any fun," she muttered and made the weird sneezing sound again.

"Aren't you afraid you're going to bust an eardrum or pop an eyeball by sneezing like that?"

"It's the only way I don't pee," she said. "And I think I might be allergic to cedar."

"Can't you do Kegels or something to help that?" I said.

"It ain't working. I'm doing a permanent fudging kegel every damn day. When I sneeze I let go, and that's the problem."

"Don't say, 'fudging kegel,' it sounds like some kind of doughnut. Like a chocolate cruller or something," I said.

"I should tell that to my friend Noreen," Lula said, "She sells porno cakes online."

"The idea is all hers," I said. Shirley returned with a woman about grandma's age and introduced us to her as Trina.

"Trina has been part of the parade for fifty years; if anyone is going to know anything about your Muppets, and costumes, it's going to be her," Shirley said.

Trina sized me up and narrowed her eyes. It was difficult to tell if she'd done this because she was suspicious of me, or nearsighted. "I have two costumes here that I have been told were part of the parade, but Shirley can't seem to find them on her computer," I said.

"That's because she doesn't actually know how to use her darned computer," Trina said, "I have paper records of everything over here; let me see what I can find. What year is this supposed to be?"

"1986," I said. Trina motioned for me to follow her to a bank of file cabinets, and she found her file on the 1986 parade. "We're looking for Rowlf the Dog, and Gonzo," I said. "Miss Piggy and Animal too, if you have them."

"Nope, the only muppet that year was a balloon. One of the few years around then where the Kermit balloon wasn't a pain in the ass. In '85 it got weighed down by rain and ripped itself all up the belly. We were always having problems with him."

"This costume is from that parade though," I said, "I saw this picture on lots of new sites, and these are muppets walking in the parade."

She looked at the picture of Rowlf, and then the Gonzo picture from the police report.

"These aren't ours," she said. "We put a ton of detail into everything; I mean a lot of shit that doesn't even show up on TV we do because we're that faithful to the design. We're not going to miss something like the chick on Gonzo's overalls."

"I'm impressed you noticed it wasn't there."

"He was going to be a balloon that year. We keep talking about a Gonzo balloon. I think they were considering Gonzo as Charles Dickens for next years', but who knows? I just make the costumes."

"Did you do any mockup costumes?" I asked.

"Nope," she said, "We don't have the time, and these costumes aren't cheap, and they are time-consuming to make. The collection is insured for millions. We're not going to the trouble to get this much detail unless we're going to make the thing properly. Something about this is familiar though."

She flipped through the pages of the file, and looked at me, "Right, there's an incident report. A bunch of college students made muppet costumes and tried to join the Kermit Balloon on the march. They were involved for maybe about ten minutes before parade officials removed them from the street, and they ran before they got arrested."

"That's not in the police report about Gonzo's mugging," I said.

"Want a copy of our incident report?" she asked.

"Yes please," I said. Trina took the file away and came back with the copies, and then squinted over at the Santa Wardrobe.

"What the hell? How many times do I have to tell her that she can't play dress-up with the costumes? She's like a fucking kid," Trina said.

I turned around, and Lula was wearing Mrs. Claus's dress and jacket, her clothes were draped over the top of the chest and Shirley was wearing a sparkly clown outfit. Things were going well, and then Lula's face screwed up, and she started frantically trying to get out of the costume, but a button was stuck, and she was beginning to change colors. Then all of the sudden she erupted.

"CHOOOHAAAAAAA!"

When the noise escaped her, she flailed, and her hands ended frozen in what looked like a weird martial arts pose.

"I don't get it," Trina said, "Is she threatening us, so we don't make her change?"

"No, she's allergic to cedar," I said.

"And it causes her to break out in Kung Fu?"

"Dyslexic Asthma," I said.

Lula very calmly took off the jacket and handed it back to Shirley. "Imma need your restroom."

Shirley slowly nodded her head and pointed to a ladies room closer than the one Lula used before. Lula waddled away, and I looked at Trina. "How hard is it to clean that costume?" I asked.

"You're good. That one is machine washable," Trina said.