A mundane scene. In the far corner of a classroom N is sitting at a desk. His face is completely covered by a canvas mask. On his right hand is a canvas puppet. Silent and spooky. It is impossible to focus on both the head and the hand at the same time. Even though I know exactly how it is operated, it is the handpuppet whose message intrigues me.
I look across the busy road at a man in a gorilla outfit jumping over a two storey building. Some awestruck teenagers run over the viaduct to join me. Now a gang of overdressed girls clamber over the house fearlessly. They are all dressed colourfully. "Hey you girls are dressed like Bratz!" I say. "Yeh we love them!" they answer enthusiastically. I secretly think they look a bit ridiculous but I like them and tell them they look great.
As I wander around a sun drenched Spanish city I come across a square of modern architecture. Here two mechanised statues lead me into doorways to the tourist attractions. They are supposed to be fun but are a bit irritating. I enter one building and find a huge photograph of a wall of ancient rocks with a hole in the centre. The image suggests something pagan and mysterious.
Encased inside a cardboard puppet C performs a mesmerising tightrope trick. Although you can see into each cardboard compartment he is nowhere to be seen. Everyone is baffled. He tells no-one his secret not even me. When I tell him how good it is he says nonchalantly yes I should give up the daily job and do this full time. I fall back to sleep and am woken sharply as half of the cardboard puppet explodes with a bang. This is C's finale - he is of course safe within the other half.
A reporter who works for an art magazine called Process has come to look at our life size puppet, and is unsure whether it is real or not. As we step upstairs its eyes light up and seem to follow us, but when I lift it up it is clear it is made of plaster. I glimpse at some of the slides of meticulous paintings this reporter has with him and feel slightly out of depth. This feeling dissipates when he tells me that for a number of years he played the part of the grandmother in the musical "Annie".
A taxi is due to collect an older flirtatious woman and myself from hospital. Someone produces a Xmas tree wrapped in green netting which unpacks to form a tall witch puppet. Its long branch of an arm whips and crackles around the waiting room.
I am manipulating Judy, my old pyjama case dog, in a model theatre. The scene is a violent sea with a shark heading towards the dog.
