Bel came to while lying on carpeted ground. She didn’t open her eyes because she never closed them. She just became awake amid early morning bird noises coming from far away. She rolled her head up and saw the ceiling through an opening of tree leaves. It was still dark, but had the faintest glow of pre-dawn light.

While she wasn’t where she had been, that didn’t surprise her. She knew someone had moved her, and she vaguely recalled a woodsman.

“Thank you, I can see she’s awake. I have eyes, you know,” an old, sweet voice said from behind Bel.

The jester turned to see a woman in a rocking chair, going back and forth on a house porch. The woman was, of course, a doll, carved from painted wood. In fact, her wood and the chair were carved from the same piece, all except for her arms and head, which were jointed and moved separately from the rocking. She looked from Bel to the item she was knitting. Or fake knitting.

Bel pushed herself to her feet, feeling as rested as she had ever been in her life. She started to say hello, but no sound came from her mouth.

“I’m not ready to invite her in,” the woman said. “We are a mess.”

The jester glanced around, but didn’t see anyone the woman could be talking to. But she wasn’t talking to Bel, and so Bel couldn’t speak. She waved to the woman, to get her attention. It did, for a second, as she glanced at the doll in her front lawn.

“Well, I still don’t know if she’s a good toy, or a bad toy.”

Bel tapped her throat and made a talking gesture with her mitten, hoping that might communicate what was needed. But the toy kept rocking in her chair.

“You know I don’t trust fools, and she looks exactly like a fool.”

Time for some drastic action. Bel moved to the woman’s sight line and did a series of jumping jacks to get all her bells jangling. Let her ignore that. She did.

“And she’s very rude,” the old doll said.

Bel crossed her arms and stamped her foot. This was ridiculous. The jester turned to leave, and froze in her elfin shoes. The knight and rider stood on the other side of a short brown fence, both in silence.

The jester threw herself back against the patio, tripping and falling onto it. The knight clicked her head once to look at Bel, then back to look at the old woman.

“That one is property of. The Queen!”

“Is that true?” The woman said, and it took Bel a moment to realize she was being spoken to!

She turned to the woman, opened her mouth, and then the crone snapped, “Keep quiet, just nod.”

Bel frowned.

“Are you the property of the Queen?” The crone asked her.

Bel shook her head fiercely, and for once enjoyed her bell jangles.

“She swore an oath of loyalty,” the knight added.

“Did you swear loyalty to the Toy Queen?” The granny asked.

Bel paused, then nodded, hating the short chime she made.

“I see,” the granny said, before turning to the knight. “I will keep her for now.”

In response, the knight drew her sword from its scabbard in a herky-jerky, but sudden, movement. “You are a subject of. The Queen! And. The Queen! demands her jester.”

Bel’s eyes went wide and she spun on her knees, kneeling before the granny and clasping her mittens in prayer. The older doll never even looked from her knitting.

“Put your weapon away. I am subject to no one, and you know it. And if you want to test me, come into my yard.”

Bel looked from the granny to the knight, overwhelmed by the terrible silence. The knight didn’t move forward. Granny kept knitting. And then the knight sheathed her plastic sword.

“You can’t protect her forever.”

“I don’t plan to. I will return her to you if I see fit.”

Bel kept her hands clasped and she shook her head. That made Granny turn to her quickly.

“Did I say you could speak?”

Bel...did nothing.

“You can be smart, then. Keep it up.” At that moment, the front door opened. On its own. “Go on in, toy. I’ll meet you in the kitchen.”

Bel furrowed her brow, noting once again at the way granny doll was part of her chair. She didn’t see any tracks or way for her to get up. Bel got up, and the knight shouted to her:

“Best not to get comfortable, fool! The Queen! will have you on strings by sundown!”

The jester covered one of her string loops with her opposite hand, embarrassed by their existence. But she didn’t respond, and walked into the house. The door closed behind her once she was out of the way. Granny remained on the other side.

The house didn’t have a back and the lower level was split into three. An opening to her right, a door to her left, and a living room with plush blue furniture. But dust covered the entire inside, and Bel didn’t notice any footprints.

“In here, toy!” Granny’s voice called from the right. Bel glanced around, but followed the voice and walked into a dusty kitchen. It was small, cramped with a table and an island. She was the same toy Bel saw earlier. The same green dress and apron, the same spectacles and bonnet. But this Granny stood at the island with a knife and cutting board, slicing a carrot.

“Hello, again.” She said.

Bel waved. How could this be the same doll?

“I apologize for the rudeness. I have appearances to keep, you know. Please, sit down.” Granny nodded to the nearby table, and Bel pulled out a chair to sit in, wiping dust away before she did.

“Who...” Bel asked tentatively, “who are you?”

“I’m Granny Haus,” she said, as if that explained things. But the name sounded familiar, though Bel couldn’t say why. “What may I call you?”

“Isabel, but I prefer Bel.”

Granny smiled, and it was strange to watch her wooden face deform. “Then I’ll call you Bel. I’ll be blunt: are you a Good Toy, or a Bad Toy?”

“I...I’m human. Or a person; owner, whatever you toys call it.”

Granny cocked her eyebrow, “That wasn’t one of the options, Bel.”

“I know, but it’s the truth. Last night, the Queen turned me into...” Bel motioned to her flowy jester costume, “this.”

“And did the Queen turn you into a Good Toy, or a Bad Toy?”

Bel looked down, “I don’t know. What’s the difference?”

“Well, good toys do what they’re supposed to, they don’t cause too much trouble, and they love to be played with.”

She shuddered. The very thought of being picked up by a human, and to be owned, terrified her.

“That doesn’t sound like you, does it?”

Bel didn’t move. If she wasn’t a Good Toy, she was the other kind.

“There are two types of Bad Toys,” Granny said, “There are the ones who don’t do what they’re supposed to do, and the ones who were made to be bad.”

“The Toy Queen,” Bel whispered.

“The Toy Queen,” Granny agreed.

“I am not like her.”

“Then why did you swear loyalty to her?”

Bel gulped. She really didn’t want to explain the whole story. Who sent her here and what he wanted her to do. “I wanted to shut her up and she said she would if I swore loyalty to her. Then she ordered me to be her court jester.”

“For what it’s worth, I think she meant you to be a Good Toy.”

“Why?”

“Because that’s more fun for her.”

“Oh,” Bel said.

“May I ask you something about your supposed human life?” Granny asked, stopping her chopping.

Bel nodded.

“Were you a Good Human, or a Bad Human?”

Bel thought about all the fights she got into in school, the crowds she ran with, the things she did to get by, and the things she did for fun. But so much of that was in her past. Not all of it, but most of it. Maybe it wasn’t enough, and that’s why she was a toy now. This was her punishment for all the things she did. “I was a complicated human.”

Granny sighed, “And a complicated toy. Go to the parlor room. I’ll meet you there. I want to read your fortune.”

The jester looked up to Granny and saw the doll completely still. Even her eyes had dimmed, like she had never been alive at all. Gingerly, Bel stood up and walked across the foyer separating the kitchen from the parlor room. She looked out the window, noting Granny still sat in her rocking chair, but it didn’t move. And the knight still stood outside the fence. Bel gulped and continued on, and the parlor room door opened for her.

Red curtains draped every wall of the room, and it was lit by a glowing crystal ball on a round table in the center. The room smelled different; herbal and perfumed. And Granny sat at the table. The same Granny Bel had seen twice now. But this one waved her arms over the ball, and she wore a purple turban instead of her bonnet cap.

“Hello again, Bel,” she said, “have a seat.” The chair across from her moved on its own, and Bel grabbed onto it when it moved back toward the table.

“Hello, Granny...Haus?”

The fortune teller version of Granny grinned. “Please, put your mittens on the table, one on either side of the crystal ball.”

Bel did as she was told. She knew fortune tellers were supposed to be quacks. But Granny seemed on the up and up. “Will this be able to tell if I’m a Good Toy or a Bad Toy?”

“Usually, but for you, I think it will be more complicated than that. Which would you want to be?”

“Good,” Bel said quickly. Then, she amended, “I think. I don’t want to be a toy.”

“So, just good?”

Bel nodded and set her bells jangling. “Do you believe me? That I’m human?”

“I believe, whatever you think happened last night, that you’re definitely a toy now. And I want you to be a Good Toy.”

Bel frowned at the insinuation that she was lying, or crazy. This whole place was crazy and impossible, why was it so hard to believe that she had been human? And as soon as she thought about it, Bel knew the answer. Because to the toys living here, everything was perfectly normal. Everything except humans becoming toys.

“Now, Bel, I want you to relax. Let your mind be at ease and gaze into my crystal ball. Open yourself up to the possibilities of the future, that I might read your fortune.”

Maybe she was crazy now, but Bel didn’t think so. She gazed into the flickering, dancing purple light inside the ball. She saw her reflection, the smiling doll with rosy cheeks and yarn hair. And she relaxed. She let go of the tension held in her shoulders, her neck, and listened as Granny Haus spoke.

“I see...you on strings. Merriment all around. Dancing. Laughing. You will embrace your strings.”

Bel shifted in her seat, “Will I...”

“Now is not the time for questions, Bel. I see...A game of winner takes you. And I see...” Granny fell silent. She paused the other times, but this time she froze for several seconds. Bel glanced at her face, risking to look away from the crystal ball. “You will betray the one you love.” Granny said, but her eyebrows were furrowed, as if she didn’t understand

Bel’s chest tightened. How could she betray Eddie while she was a toy? Or did Granny see beyond? Perhaps see a time when Bel was no longer a toy. Or did she mean someone else?Who else could she mean? Eddie was the only person Bel had loved in her whole life.

“Hurry, Bel, before the connection weakens, you may ask three questions with yes or no answers.”

“The one I’m to be betray. Do you mean Eddie Anderson?”

“Yes,”

Bel’s stomach turned. How was that possible? And why did she believe it? “Um, will I become human again?”

Granny twisted and turned, her face scrunching up, “Unclear. Hurry, ask your last question!”

“Can I become human?”

The crystal ball suddenly went off. Bel shouted and tried to jump from her seat, but her legs banged on the table and she fell down, off kilter, and to the floor. She saw beneath the table cloth and across to where Granny sat. Except the doll didn’t have legs, just a series of mechanical joints going into the house basement.

Bel struggled up, “Granny, I need to know: can I become human?”

The doll looked into Bel’s eyes. “The connection was weak, fading. But, I saw that, yes. Yes, you can become human. How, I do not know.”

Bel sighed with and fell back on her haunches. It was possible. At least it was possible. But it was a small comfort if she was going to betray Eddie. The part about being strung up, and being a prize worried her, but the last prophecy overshadowed both.

“Granny Haus, is there anything you can tell me about Eddie? How will I betray him, is someone else involved?”

“I saw...I saw a Prince. The Toy Queen’s son. You will fall in love with him, and love him as much as you do the human you call Eddie Anderson.”

Bel jumped up, and immediately fell back down. “That’s impossible!” She shouted. She could become a toy, she could maybe even like it. But she could never love a toy as much as she did Eddie.

“I have seen it, Bel.” Granny said softly.

“Well, then, what’s the verdict, am I a Good Toy or a Bad Toy? Because I’m feeling pretty bad right now!”

“You are a...complicated toy.” Granny said with a sigh, “and I scarcely know what to do with you.”

“Cool. Great. Awesome. I’ll just be leaving, then.” Bel said, turning toward the door. But it stayed closed. “Open the Door, Granny Haus.”

The fortune teller nodded. “Please, leave through the basement so you can avoid Lady Knight. Once down, make your way to the Toy Box Tavern.”

“Why? What’s there?”

“It’s where all your fortunes begin.”