Phish - Esther lyrics

It was late one fall night
At a fairground near town
When Esther first saw the Armenian man
Who groveled toward her and stood by her side
With a bucket that swung in his hand

His grin stretched the folds of
His pasty white cheeks
And his lips hurled a dollop
Of murk on the curb
And the lights from the rides
Showed a mischievous sparkle
That flashed in his hollow eyed stare

He said "Little girl
You can chop off my legs
And then peel off my socks if you want to
But, I'd rather you took this
Old puppet from me
That I hold in my pail as we speak"

And he stood looking down
At the innocent girl
And she stared at the bucket, bewildered
Then he lifted the doll for
The young girl to see
And a giant smile grew on his face

She saw the doll's eyes
And she couldn't resist
And she thanked the man quickly
And ran to the church
And she burst through the door
With puppet held high
And a hush filled the chapel
And the people looked mean
Esther tried in vain to pacify the mob
Quibble grew to spat, to wrangle
Then to brawl
The frenzied congregation struggled
Desperately to fetch
The pretty puppet snugly nestled deep
In Esther's leather sack

Through the window of the church
A storm began to rage
And Esther knew the time had come to flee
She scurried down the aisle toward
The doorway in the distance
And out into the rainstorm
Where she felt she would be free

But the wind was blowing harder and
Her skirt began to billow
Until finally her feet began to lift
And she rose above the houses and
The people and the chimneys
And Esther and the doll were set adrift

Floating higher over the hills
And the valleys and treetops
They'd flutter and glide
Soaring and turning, suspended on air
With the earth far below them they'd
Tumble and dive through the clouds

And she began to plummet earthward
'Til she landed in the nasty part of town

She glanced about the village
Sure to find the evil men
Who rob and pillage in the
Darkest hour of night
Nervously she fumbled for the pouch
That held the puppet on her rump

Feeling quite outnumbered, Esther hid behind
A nearby pile of lumber
Where she waited 'til the dawn
'Cause it would have been
A blunder to succumb
To a hoodlum on the prowl

When the morning came
She wandered through the streets
Along the chilly lake that
Lay beside the town
At last a peaceful moment
But she thought she heard a sound
It was an angry mob of joggers
Coming up to knock her down

As Esther stood and shook her head
The joggers were approaching
And she knew she had no
Choice left but to swim
As the frosty water sank it's
Bitter teeth into her hide
She tried to slide the heavy
Clothing from her skin

Naked now she made her way toward the shore
When suddenly she felt a tiny
Tugging at her toe
And the puppet she'd forgotten wrapped
It's tiny little arms
Around her ankle and it wouldn't let her go

The waves seemed to open
And swallow her whole
As the doll pulled her down
Through the eerie green deep
And the sound of the laughing
Old man filled her ears
As she drifted away to a
Tranquil and motionless sleep