Chapter Seven

Once everyone had settled into their seats and it had quieted down, the little curtain that draped the hole in the wooden theater parted and everyone clapped as a king and princess puppet appeared. The Doctor and Alan listened to the old Nagelian fairy tale being acted out before the Doctor reached across, nudged his brother and jerked his head over to the children. Alan nodded and both of them concentrated while the women giggled. This time, they allowed the other adults to see what they were doing so everyone could be more entertained than they were by the dull story.

Namid was quietly listening to the story when suddenly the puppet theater appeared in her mind's eye and she giggled in anticipation of what was going to happen next. A moment later, the Doctor appeared off to the right of the vision, hands in pockets, while Alan came up beside him. Both of them stared at the puppets of the princess and a dragon before they glanced at each other and made loud snoring sounds. The Doctor walked over to the theater and entered it through a red curtain in the side. Alan grinned and winked as he followed him in. For a moment, the action continued and then everyone laughed when a little Doctor hand puppet came up beside the Princess. The children laughed as the Doctor hugged the Princess from behind and went past her to the Dragon. A teeny tiny screwdriver appeared in his hand and he aimed it at the Dragon. It turned on and the Dragon burst into several pieces of fabric leaving only a hand. The Doctor bowed at the audience while everyone in his family clapped softly.

Then a puppet of Alan came up beside him. Puppet Doctor and Puppet Alan stared at each other and then began to sway back and forth in a dance. Then they bobbed up and down and swayed again. Then Puppet Alan noticed the Princess and went over to her. He grabbed her and began to knock his head against hers, giving her kisses while Puppet Doctor stopped and watched them. He then went over to his puppet brother and tapped him on the shoulder. When Puppet Alan turned, he jerked him away and grabbed the princess; kissing her while Alan made his puppet mouth drop open in indignation. The children giggled as Puppet Alan vanished for a moment and returned, holding a tiny water pistol in his hand. A teeny stream of water sprayed onto Puppet Doctor's head and he turned and glared at Puppet Alan. He dropped down and Puppet Alan's mouth dropped open when he came up with a tiny fire hose and began to spray him as he ran across the stage. While he was doing that, the Princess left so when he finally turned back to her, she was gone. The children giggled as he began to cry and water poured in two large streams out of his eyes while Violin music played. Puppet Alan came back, saw his brother in tears and went over, patting him on the back and comforting him as the violin music became louder. Then Puppet Alan ducked down and came back with Puppet Rain. Puppet Doctor stopped crying and stared at her. Then he ran over to her and Rain's mouth dropped open when he ripped off her fabric dress and a huge censored box appeared over both of them while Puppet Alan turned to the audience with an evil grin.

"Alright, you, let's keep it clean for the children," Rain said to the Doctor as he sniggered with his eyes closed.

The Doctor and Alan finished with the skit and made themselves disappear for a moment. Then the theater grew to three times its size and the Doctor and Alan popped up, dressed as Punch and Judy. The children laughed as they argued for a moment in high-pitched falsetto voices and then Alan hit the Doctor over the head with a large stick while the Doctor punched Alan in the face with a bright red boxing glove. They continued to hit each other for a few minutes before stopping and vanishing. The theater went back to its normal size and the Princess puppet returned along with a King puppet. While the princess and the king talked to each other, the vision widened out and the Doctor and Alan were sitting on the stage beside them in Chippendale chairs. The Doctor was on the left side and Alan, who had a pipe in his mouth, was on the right.

"Good evening," the Doctor said to his family, "and welcome to another edition of Puppet Theater Review. Today we will be reviewing the Nagelian fairy tale, The Princess and the Dragon Stone. With me as always is my co-host, Alan TImelord."

"Good evening," Alan said, taking the pipe out of his mouth briefly before putting it back in again.

"Brother, what do you think of the show so far?" the Doctor said to Alan.

Alan took the pipe out of his mouth.

"Well, to be frank, dear Brother, I've seen better performances from shadow puppets," he said. "The actors are unconvincing, the dialogue is stiff and the Princess puppet looks a bit manky. I think she needs to go in the washing machine."

"Quite, quite," the Doctor said as Alan stuck the pipe back in his mouth. "I concur, dear brother, when I come to a puppet show, I expect to be transported to a magical world of fantasy, not sit and think about when's intermission so I can go to the loo. I mean, look at the king there. His acting's more wooden than Pinocchio's bum. Where did he take acting lessons from, a sock?"

"Exactly! Not feeling the King's distress at all! And I don't believe the princess is in any real danger from the dragon. They should live the parts! They should make me feel as if I'm not watching pieces of old cloth, but living breathing actors. Total rubbish and a waste of a good fairy tale."

"Quite, quite," the Doctor said, nodding.

Alan blew hard into the pipe stem and a large soap bubble grew out of the bowl of the pipe. When it was the size of a grapefruit, it took off and sailed over the brother's heads. The Doctor reached up and popped it when it came near his tousle. Alan gave him an incensed look and took the pipe out of his mouth.

"Oi, quit popping my bubbles," he said as his family giggled.

The Doctor took the pipe from him, wiped the saliva off the stem and put it in his mouth. He blew so hard into it, his face turned beet red and his family laughed when a bubble grew and grew and grew until it was bigger than Alan.

"Eeek!" Alan said as the bubble pursued him out of the vision.

The Doctor smiled at his family.

"That concludes today's edition of Puppet Theater Review, join us next time for…"

"Ah! Get me out of this thing!"

The Doctor's family laughed as Alan went bouncing across the stage, trapped inside the giant soap bubble. The Doctor watched as he bounced out of view before he looked at his family, shrugged and waggled his eyebrows.

"As my bubble brother would say, I'm just an impish little scamp," he said to them.

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After the puppet show was over, the Doctor took Namid's hand as all of them left the stage. On the way back to the trail, they noticed a man selling candy floss.

"Daddy, can we have some?" Christopher asked Alan.

"Oh, I don't see why not," Alan said, steering him towards it.

"Daddy…" Sokanon said, turning to him.

"No! Keep walking!" the Doctor said quickly.

He grinned when the children giggled.

"Yes, you can have some candy floss too," he said to them.

He was about to head with them towards the booth when he felt someone tap him on the shoulder. He turned to see a young man in his mid twenties who was holding on to a little girl's hand. The man was tall and thin with a slight muscular build. He had a chiseled face with long brown hair that was tied back in a ponytail and piercing grey eyes. The child was eight years old and resembled her father except her long, brown hair cascaded down her back.

"I'm sorry to bother you but can I talk to you for a moment?" he said.

The Doctor looked at Rain.

"Go on ahead, I'll catch up with all of you," he said to her.

Rain nodded and took Namid's hand. She led her and the other children away as the Doctor turned his attention back to the man and gave him a quizzical look.

"I'm really sorry to bother you, my name is Derek and this is my daughter, Julia," he said.

"I'm the Doctor," he said, extending his hand.

Derek shook it. The Doctor smiled warmly at Julia when he shook her hand.

"What do you need?" he asked Derek when he finished.

"Well, I'm sorry, but I couldn't help noticing you have a blind daughter," Derek said.

"Yes, I do," the Doctor said hesitantly.

"Have you tried to cure her blindness?"

"I have but so far I haven't been successful," the Doctor said.

"Well, the reason I'm asking is my daughter was born blind and a man named Jacques Prevensie placed a chip on the back of her brain that took over for her eyes and allowed her to see again."

The Doctor glanced down at Julie who smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, he helped me to see," she said to the Doctor.

"I was just wondering if you'd ever heard of him before," Derek said.

"No, no I haven't," the Doctor said.

"Well, if you want to cure her blindness, I can give you the information on how to contact him," Derek said.

"That would be lovely. Wait a tick, I'll be right back," the Doctor said.

Derek nodded and reached into his pocket for a pad of paper and a pen while the Doctor hurried over to Rain. She was standing at the back of the line with the triplets clustered around her. She smiled at the Doctor when he walked up to her.

"Need you to come with me, you and Namid," he said to her. "There's something you have to hear."

"Okay, Tara, can you watch Soki and Chas while I do this?"

"Sure, Mommy," Tara said to her.

Rain took Namid's hand as they followed the Doctor. He led them back to Derek.

"This is my wife, Rain, and my daughter, Namid," the Doctor said. "Could you tell them what you told me?"

Derek nodded and repeated what he had told the Doctor along with what he knew about how the chip functioned and the details of the operation. While he talked, Rain looked at the Doctor in disbelief.

"Oh my God, I can't believe it," Rain said when he finished speaking and handed the information he wrote down to the Doctor.

"I might see, Daddy?" Namid said.

"Yes, but if we do this, I want it to be your decision since you're the one who'll have to undergo the operation," the Doctor said to her. "If you wanna do this, I'll take you to see this chap but only if you want to. I think you're old enough to make this decision on your own."

Namid fell silent for a moment while she considered it.

"Will you still show me things, Daddy?" she asked.

"If you like," the Doctor replied.

"Show her things?" Derek said.

"Our race are telepaths. I'd been compensating for her blindness by mentally projecting images into her mind and showing her things. And sometimes my family and I get a bit silly and show them silly things."

"Wow, that's handy, wish I could have done that for Julia," he said.

Namid nodded.

"I wanna do it, Daddy. I wanna be able to see you for real," Namid said.

Then, we'll go get it done after we finish here," the Doctor said.

The Doctor fought to keep from crying when he saw the huge grin on his daughter's face. Rain kissed him.

"I'll go tell the others," she whispered to him.

She took Namid's hand and led her back towards the booth while the Doctor shook hands with Derek.

"Thanks, mate, I owe you one," the Doctor said to him.

"No problem, I hope the operation is a success," Derek said to him.

"Same here."

Derek nodded. The Doctor patted him on the back and waved goodbye to both him and Julia before he hurried back to his excited family who were waiting for him by the candy floss booth.