1.6 Puppet on a String

With four children in the house time went by very quickly. Before I knew it Luke was with me dabbling with the science set that showed up so many years ago. I tried my hand at it once, and when Luke started to show some interest I tried to show him how everything was supposed to go, but it didn't take him long before he outsmarted me. Half of the time I don't even know what he is creating at that table, and what I do know is because he keeps talking to his imaginary friend that seems to always be with him.

At first the dolls were everything to the twins. We thought it to be pretty normal behavior, but at one point we never saw the dolls. The boy's would be talking to thin air, but their dolls were never to be found. Except at night, when they were sleeping the dolls would be just sitting there, by their beds, as if they were waiting for the boys to wake up again.

Cathelijne and Rudger still seemed to have their dolls, which made it even stranger.

When we asked Luke what had happened to his doll, he told us that he didn't do anything to the doll. More questions soon made clear what had happened that day that Luke had been standing in he yard all by himself.

When he had sat down Doll to get them both some drinks, he heard a strange noise behind him. It was at that very moment that Doll had started sparkling and turned to life. 

Apparently Luke figured out very quickly that he was the only one able to see doll, but we grew accustomed to him bashing pillows at thin air very quickly.

Though Luke was very sure of his story, we were not entirely sure if it wasn't just a figment of his imagination. So we questioned Levi about what happened to his doll. His story came out much the same.

The moment he put down Lucky she started to spark and came to life. Only difference was that Levi did saw that whole process, and that he was quite sad to see his doll go. It took Levi a bit longer to adjust to this new form his friend had taken.

We never doubted their stories, mostly because it became a common thing to see a mop cleaning up the floor all by itself. We soon came at peace with the sort of dolls they gave to our children.

And while we discussed taking them away from our youngest ones, we could not see the harm in them. So we decided to let them keep them, because well, it would feel like stealing candy from a baby to take those dolls away from them.

The moment Doll came alive, Luke started to spend more time then ever mixing potions and searching for ingredients. He was always accompanied by his doll, we never saw it, but we knew because Luke would be talking to her constantly. It took him several years, but one day we could hear him rejoice all the way in the kitchen. We realized that whatever he had been working on, had succeeded.

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Just pretend you don't see the beginning of next chapter coming okay??