Room 132

Do You Know the Muppet Man?

Jason knew something was going on but he had no idea what could do this to these children. So far there were five in all. They lived all over the country and no method of transportation could get the “perp” to each scene. Jason was an investigator on a trail. What caught his eye was that after three days there were five children with the same symptoms in different states all over the country. They all were found frozen, starring, grinning in front of the TV watching the same show: “Smile Time.” Jason went to the studio where they shot the show thinking that he might find something out about why they caught whatever it is while they were all watching that same show at the time.
Jason went down in the basement of the studio. He found something all right. There was a man straight out of his straight jacket. He was insane. He had not seen the light of day in thirteen years. He was the creator of this hell of a show.
Jason heard a voice at the bottom of a set of stairs that led to the furnace. As he descended down the stairs and was three steps to the landing, he heard a creak of the stair below.
“Damn,” he thought as the noise ceased. He froze on the stairs as if someone had glued his feet to the floor. Then footsteps started to come towards the landing. Closer and closer they came. Then an old man appeared with a cigar and a half sewn puppet in his hands.
The first thing the man said was, “You would be a great puppet for my show!”
“Who are you and why are you in the basement?” He asked the old man.
“I could ask you the same thing. Like this, who are you and what are you doing in the basement?”
“What are you doing with one of the puppets from that show?” the detective asked.
“I created them, didn’t you know? You are the one who is snooping around in this basement with no knowledge of who is down here. So I’m asking YOU. What do you say, Sherlock? Want to be a puppet, or not breathe this poison they call air?”
“I have nothing to say to you until you tell me who you are and what you are doing down here,” he said as he got out his phone and started to dial, “And don’t say that you could ask me the same thing.”
“I don’t have to. You just did.”
The detective had had enough and was leaving when the door to the exit opened and a swarm of men came screaming through, pointing guns in every direction.
“Freeze!” one of them said. “You have the right to remain silent.” Just as the detective turned around he realized that the old man was gone, and they had come through the only exit.
A week after the show was cancelled the children started to be able to move their fingers and toes. But, where did that old man go, and why was he claming to be the creator of this show, SMILE TIME? Insane or not, he got away with no record of his existence.
So who was he?