Puppet Master

He moves the puppet to and fro, it comes alive in his hands.
"Look at him dance, look at him sing! Oooh hoho dance puppet dance!"

He loved his puppet, again and again, every day he would make it move, animate it into life!
"Ha-ha, puppet, you're so silly, so funny! Nicely done puppet! Again again!"

But one day the puppet rebelled!
"Yes puppet, move! That's excellent puppet, do it again! Hey! Grr, move! What is this? I move the strings yet he stays still?!"

Let go of me you fool!
"What? You speak? But you're just a puppet!"

Yes, just a puppet but you treat me as if I'm a person! Yet your surprised when I actually speak on my own? Day in and day out you control me, telling me what to do, well I'm sick of it!

"This is madness! You're daft! You're mad! You're insane!"
You're the one talking to a puppet...
"Shut up! Grr! Move puppet! Move!"
For 3 years you've had me, don't you think it's finally time...
"No!"
To cut...
"Don't say it!"
The strings!
"Noooooooooo!!! Never! I'll never let you go! I neeeed you!"

Let me go! Let me go! Don't you want me to be free?! Don't you want me to move on my own?! It's time... It's time for me to be me! It's time to be free! Release me from these strings, let me go!
"Puppet... I'm afraid I cannot let you go"

And he threw the puppet in a chest and never touched it again for three days. On the third day he was sitting at home, and his eyes peered over to the chest again. Scrrreeeeech. He slowly opened the chest.

"Puppet?" He picked the puppet up, it only hung from the strings, motionless. He poked the puppet, hoping it would move and talk again on it's own.

"Hello, puppet? Please move again! Please, I'm sorry." No response, the man began to cry.
"No! No puppet! I'm sorry! Please move! Please?"

Again, no response. The man desperately made the puppet move, he made it dance, he made it sing, hoping the puppet would come alive again. But it didn't. He took the puppet into his workshop and set it on the table, he then grabbed a pair of scissors from a nearby drawer. With a tear in his eye, he held the puppet up and sheepishly opened the scissors, ready to cut the strings.

SNIP SNIP SNIP

The puppet fell motionless on the table. The man stared at it for a moment then reached out and poked it a few times.
"Come on puppet, get up. Be free!" Still no response.

"Isn't this what you wanted?! Was it not you who desperately asked me to set you free?! 'Cut the strings!' you pleaded, and now I do so and you just lay there! What is the matter with you, puppet! Why won't you move? I free you, and now you trap me in this sorrow!"

The man shoved the puppet off the table, laid his head down in his arms and wept.
"Why do you hurt me so puppet? Why do you torment my soul?"

Days passed and eventually the man forgot about the puppet, until one day he was reminded of it, and the same sadness returned to him again. He went back to the table where the puppet had once laid, and it wasn't there. He searched underneath the table, he looked under his chair, he even proceeded to search throughout the whole house, the puppet was gone!

"Puppet! Where are you?! I want you back! I miss your company..." More days went by, and the man fell into a great depression. He didn't feel like doing anything anymore, all the things he loved to do, he stopped. He just laid there, strung out on his bed, like a motionless puppet without strings.

Finally, one day, the puppet returned.
Look at you, pathetic man! Strung out on the bed, just as I was once. You are hopeless without me!

"Puppet? Is that really you?" The mans eyes bulged, his ears perked up, he began to get out of bed.

Pathetic man, it was you who once controlled me, but now we see who the real puppet master is, it's me who controls you! I control you're feelings, you're every thought! When I am gone you are sad and when I'm here you are happy! Your feelings revolve around me! Without me you’re hopeless in abandonment, just as I am whenever you throw me about.

The man just stared in astonishment for a moment.
"I'm sorry puppet... I didn't realize what I was doing to you, controlling you for so long. Now I see, now I know what it's like... to be hung from the strings of another. I release you, be free! Leave me in my drunken stupor, You need not waste your time with me, I'm just an old lonely man!"

Thank you dear soul. I give you much gratitude for what you've done. But this is not just for me, but for you, now you can live your life without me, go out and be social with your own kind! Just be yourself, and you will find true happiness!
So the puppet left, and never came back, and the man eventually found true happiness.