Chapter TWO: Be Careful What You Wish For
Aboveground a beautiful dark haired woman was wishing for an excuse to turn down a chance to be the understudy to the lead for a play on Broadway. To Linda that she wasn't chosen for the lead role was a mistake that should not have been made and there was no way she was playing second fiddle to a washed up has been like Tara Thompson.
As she sat across from an old college friend, Robert Williams at one of the more exclusive restaurants in town, she heard her name being called and after having to listen to her play's producer talk about her getting her turn, next year, struggled not to snap that it should have been her turn this time.
That evening, she seduced the handsome upcoming lawyer with a big firm that often handed entertainment contracts and had no idea that her wish was being answered. Yes, she wouldn't have to play second fiddle to Tara Thompson, instead, she would be playing a whole new role.
A month later after she fainted on set and to her horror found out she was pregnant and that that big mouthed Tara Thompson had told everyone in the theater, she smiled and giving the finest acting job of her life accepted her boyfriend's proposal thinking that at least with Robert around and working with people in the entertainment industry, surely that could only benefit her.
Too bad that Robert felt differently, upon finding out he was to be a father, he transferred from the firm's entertainment division to it's insurance division which paid it's attorneys more and was headquartered in Connecticut. He soon had his reluctant pregnant new bride living in a large house in a moderately wealthy town preparing for the birth of their child. While Linda wished to complain, she had no one else in her life to take care of her.
Her parents were dead and due to the public nature of the announcement of her pregnancy other options had been closed to her. So there she was, at the end of the year, already a nothing, a has been in the world she craved to be a star. So being pragmatic, Linda accepted that Robert was her future and that the baby she was carrying would be the child who she would turn into a star instead, after all with her genes surely her baby could not be anything but beautiful.
Sarah was born in December and Linda found it difficult to look upon her child. Sarah was born red-faced and squishy-eyed, a baby who cried, ate and needed her diaper changed which was more than Linda had signed on for. Still, she persevered, tried to accept her lot in life as the mother of a future star, not the star itself...
July came and Linda escorted her seven-month-old daughter to the park and began to realize that Sarah was slowly becoming the beautiful child she had been expecting and she proudly accepted all the compliments from complete strangers as she pushed the stroller. Sarah turned a year old and Linda was still basking in the praise heaped on her daughter, then the call came.
Tara Thompson was moving to Los Angles and a role she had auditioned for needed a certain body type, one that Linda fulfilled. Hiring a babysitter, the still stage-struck woman rushed off one week before Christmas to audition for the most successful producer on Broadway...
Sarah lay in her playpen, her eyes looking around for the woman who spent all of her time talking to her in funny words. Frowning a bit, the one-year-old, recalled that the woman had tried to get her to say mommy a lot and wanting her attention, Sarah struggled but said "Mamamama."
The babysitter, an elderly neighbor was in the living room watching her daily programs, paying no attention to the young child she had laid down for a hopefully long afternoon nap.
When the baby kept repeating mama ma mama but no lady appeared, she went quiet, her eyes widening as tears fell. Wiping away her tears, she looked around the soft place she spent much time in and saw the soft cuddly toy that the man who she knew as dada had given her.
Reaching out, she grasped hold of it and yanked it close to her. Rubbing her face against it and wishing even if she didn't understand the concept of wishing for comfort so that she could sleep, Sarah Williams never noticed that she was no longer in her playpen...neither did the babysitter.
In the castle by the Goblin city, Jareth was holding court in the throne room, watching as the little boy he had just brought back from Above played chase with the Goblins. To his surprise, the boy's mother had voluntarily run the Labyrinth but it was clear from her lack of skill that she would not make it that she was doing so because she felt she had to not because she truly wanted her child back, now he just had to wait until the thirteenth hour and offer her her dreams.
There was a sudden end to all noise and Jareth looked around to see that the Goblins had frozen still and the young toddler was squealing and trying to get to the small round baby pit at the center of the throne room.
"Wheres, she comes from?"
"Whos dat?"
"Shes aint ones of us, did Kingly do this?"
Jareth heard the goblins cackling and starting to speak as his eyes took in the unexpected baby in the small round baby pit. "Which one of you stole this child?"
After a loud and unanimous chorus of not ayes, the goblins fled the throne room and Jareth was left with the two children. Hearing the clock announcing that it was the thirteenth hour, he looked between the wide away two-year-old and the sleeping baby girl.
"Let's deal with you first, Olaf." A quick visit to the errant mother, he watched as she quickly grasped a hold of the crystal and took the offer of her dreams and the ability to forget her child had ever existed. When she had left to return to her overly neat house that her young son had disturbed, Jareth called for a nanny goblin and sent young Olaf to be prepared for life among the fae before returning to the throne room.
The little girl, he was sure it was a girl, after all, she was wearing a frilly dress and tights along with strange looking shoes with bows on them and a matching bow in her hair. "Well, well, you aren't a wished away, there is no magic on you. So, who are you and how did you end up in my castle?"
The little girl who was now awake was staring at him, silently. Lifting her, he saw that she had some sort of stuffed toy in her grasp. Holding it aloft, he heard her giggling when he used magic to make it come alive. "So my precious, do you speak yet?"
Gurgles were her only answer as she would duck her head behind the stuffed bear then peek out around it at him then giggle before repeating her little game. "So, you want to play do you?"
Giggles were her only answer even as Jareth tried to figure out what was going on and how a mortal child who hadn't been wished away had ended up there. Just as he was beginning to think that he would have to go above, she tilted her head and grinning at him, handed him her bear then popped out of existence. As she faded, Jareth heard the distant sound of a man's voice calling out "Sarah."
Looking at the bear, it's ear rather bedraggled, he lifted his eyebrow and said: "Do you think you were really supposed to stay with me?"
The bear didn't answer but holding onto it as proof that this unexpected event had actually happened, the Goblin king shook his head and went to look through the adoption petitions to find young Olaf his forever home.
In Connecticut, Robert Williams was holding his daughter while listening to his wife's excuse as to why she had left their one-year-old with a woman who was suffering from dementia and was half deaf.
While he wished to argue with her regarding her reasoning that all was fine, after all, nothing bad had happened, he let it go, hoping to have a happy holiday celebration for their daughter's second winter holiday. When his wife told him about accepting an offer to spend Christmas at Lake George in New York for their family so that she could rehearse for a part, he had to bite his tongue again.
January came and Linda was slightly bitter as the producer told her that they had chosen another actress for the part. From the grapevine, she had heard that she had been passed over because they didn't think that a young mother was right for the part of a wizened prostitute.
When the actress who had gotten her part won a Tony award, Linda picked a fight with Robert and moved out of their bedroom. There were frequent arguments over the next few weeks but eventually, Linda had accepted that she had no choice but to stay after even being rejected for parts in commercials.
Later that spring, she was struggling to rehearse for a part in a play, community theater but it would help get her name back out there, she reasoned. When Sarah kept fussing, Linda sighed and deciding that the little girl was too much of a distraction, so she made up a fresh bottle of milk then laid Sarah down in her bed without thinking to raise the rails that kept the fifteen-month-old in it.
Sarah wasn't tired and didn't want any milk, she wanted to play and it clear that the mommy person was determined to make her take a nap which Sarah didn't want. Looking around and realizing that her favorite bear was still missing, she found it's brother and edged off the side of the bed, falling and hitting her head, blood flowing from the now open cut...
In the Underground, Jareth was in his study, reading one of his favorite books for the fifth time when he heard a disturbance outside his closed door. Eavesdropping on his gathered and frantic goblins, he heard them goading each other to be the one to tell him the news.
Finally annoyed, he yanked open the door and with a raised eyebrow demanded to know what was going on.
"Kingy, she's back." Called out the more sensible goblin while his mates all stepped back. "She is back."
"Who's back?" He inquired while his mind went through a list of people that would upset his subjects this much and who would dare come to his kingdom.
"She." The Goblin said pointing towards the throne room. "she just came back, quiet as you please but her head is wet and smells like iron."
Jareth was just about to order the Goblin away and return to his book when yet another goblin, this one wearing a pot on his head, rushed his way and shouted: "Wes didn't do it, I swears Kingy, Ayes only was watching, she dids this."
Looking at the goblin he had assigned to find the mortal girl who had appeared in his castle, the girl he thought was named Sarah and curtly asked. "She is back? How?"
Walking towards his throne room, listening to the Goblin speaking, he frowned when he arrived and the thick stink of iron filled the air. Moving to the little girl, he cursed when he saw the red blood flowing from the wound in her head.
Using magic to repair the damage, he ordered a goblin to find his healer then picked up Smee the goblin assigned to the girl and demanded to know what had happened and why he had not come to report to him before this.
Just as he was preparing to bog the wretched beast, Jareth heard a giggle and looked down to see that the little girl's eyes were wide open and that she was laughing at the antics of the goblins and himself.
"Smeeeeeeeeeees." She said grinning at the goblin, even if she didn't understand the goblin's origin, to her it was a creature that played games and ate the food she dropped on the floor.
"Goblin, how does she know your name?" Jareth's voice had gotten quiet which warned his subjects that he wasn't happy and an angry Jareth was not a good thing.
The Goblin was saved from having to speak by the arrival of the elf healer who checks the king's repair job and declared the patient well except for the bruise on her arm.
Jareth gently rolled up the sleeve on the frilly lace yellow dress that his young guest was wearing and saw the marks of fingerprints on Sarah's arm. The elf healed them then looked at Jareth and said: "Another wished away?"
"No, and that is part of the problem." He replied as he looked at the little girl wearing yet another fancy dress, hose, shoes and ribbons in her hair and grasping another bear, the twin to the one she had left before.
Dismissing the elf after reminding him to stay silent about his guest, Jareth looked for Smee and demanded answers. Hearing about Sarah, her father, and her mother, he frowned, knowing that if something didn't change soon, the young girl was likely to be wished away and he wasn't sure that that wouldn't be a good thing if the bruise was any indication.
When Sarah reached out for him, he couldn't help holding her and letting her play with his emblem that signaled his position as Goblin king. "How are you ending up here, young Sarah? Smee, if she returns to above, watch over her and report back to me nightly."
Before he could demand agreement, he once again heard the distant sound of someone calling out for Sarah and the little girl popping away yet again.
Smee popped out immediately afterward but when Jareth went to follow either the little girl or the goblin, he was unable to. Frowning, he returned to his study and placing the book he was reading on his desk, went to locate the book on the history of his lands.
Not finding anything by the time Smee returned, he listened as the goblin filled him in the history of Robert and Linda Williams. Their life with Sarah and how the mother had argued yet again with her husband after Sarah had fallen out of bed.
Robert had not been happy to find his daughter locked into her bedroom and unconscious on the floor with a pool of blood beside her. That Sarah only had a bump on her head and no cuts, according to Linda was proof that the little girl was fine, but Robert who was not a happily married man, not by a long shot went to his office still carrying his daughter to document this latest proof of maternal neglect.
The next few years, Linda who had found Robert's file toed the line, chaffing at the bit when she lost part after part as a result of being a mother and a wife. A few commercials here and there, a bit part on a soap opera and the guilty wife on an episode of Judge Wapner just enough of a tantalizing bite to keep her determined to be a star.
That those were the result of the casting couch didn't bother young Linda who as time went on found it more and more difficult to play the loving mother but she did at least attempt to earn the Emmy in that category.
Sarah meantime had found herself often alone in her room during the day where the funny little leathery creature brought some of his friends for her to play with. As time went on, small stuffed animals, in strange monster shapes joined her menagerie. Robert thought that they were coming from Linda and took them as a sign that all was right with his wife who believed he had bought them but she wasn't interested enough to ask.
By the time that Sarah was five, she had often disappeared to the Underground, where she played with her friend that made bright shiny glittery balls appear for her and who sang to her. When she returned home, she didn't remember the mysterious man, but she did remember learning her words in leather bound books and to count and do simple mathematics.
Robert who had been living in a fool's paradise had no idea that his world was about to crash and in a spectacular fashion when he suggested to his wife that they, Sarah and them go to New York City for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade the year that Sarah was to turn five. Thanks to her birthday falling past the acceptance date she wasn't starting school until the next year. The family was staying at the Carlyle hotel in the city and Linda was thrilled.
By the end of the week, things had turned sour as Linda spent more time networking with her old friends and returning to the hotel suite with liquor on her breath than she did with her husband and daughter. Still, she was happy when all of her hard work meant that she had been offered a part in a play by an up and coming award winning director produced by a well-known producer.
The small family spent Thanksgiving together but immediately after dinner, Robert told his wife he had to pay a visit to his boss. Linda was angry, she had promised her new director to join him and his boyfriend for a late dessert and nightcap and taking a child along would not be helpful.
Swearing Sarah to secrecy when Robert called to say that he had to stay at the house on Long Island, Linda locked her daughter inside the hotel room after getting her room service and a movie on the television.
Heading to her party, she never knew that there were goblins in the room with Sarah, playing and basically trashing the hotel room. When Sarah giggled and demanded that Smee play more games with her, he winked at the beautiful child whose aura he could see and told her to call for the Kingly.
Sarah looked around then said, "I can't leave the hotel room, Smee."
Smee looked at the hotel room then called out for the goblins who quickly cleaned up the room and then at Sarah before saying that they were going to play a new game called Hide and Seek.
Sarah giggled and when Smee left, remembered how she had tracked him down by thinking of where the Goblin was last time she had wanted to play and popped out of the hotel room to try to locate him.
Ending up in the throne room, she chased the chicken she found there and two hours later wound up in a dark corridor that she had never seen during her many visits to the castle. Hearing the sound of giggling, she grinned and followed it only to find a wood door in her way. Frowning at being denied her playmate, she knocked softly at first, then when she was not allowed in as normally as soon as she knocked it would magically open, kicked at it.
Jareth was not thrilled with his visitor but decided a little entertainment would work to keep him occupied this evening. As the fae woman who was married to a minor aristocrat giggled yet again, he inwardly sighed at the lack of serious thought in her head but found no problem with how she was leading him to the nearby bed.
Just as she was showing just how talented she was, which unfortunately wasn't saying much, he swore he heard a soft knock, but he knew that that wasn't possible. No creature in his kingdom was that polite to knock that softly, but turning back to the woman who now had his pants undone and was kneeling at his feet.
Her lips were on him when she pulled back frightened and tightening her grasp on his manhood at the sound of a loud thump against the wood door. "What was that?"
In spite of knowing it wasn't anyone with magic and more than likely just a chicken or a goblin chasing a chicken through the corridor, more than a bit bored with her supposed skill, he gave a wicked grin and said: "Are you sure your husband doesn't suspect you are here?"
She paled and her eyes went to the door with a panicked expression on her face. Her hands released him and she stepped back and said "Find out who is at the door, please, your highness. I can't be caught here, it just couldn't be borne."
Jareth gave her a slight sneer and said: "Maybe you should have thought of that before coming here and offering yourself up to me."
She stepped back so that her back was now almost to the wall and Jareth was considering tossing a crystal to return her to home, but more than bit annoyed at how she was acting the victim, so stripping her of her gown with magic, he flung open the door expecting in truth to find a goblin but saying. "Well good evening, my lord Fredrick. Were you looking for your feckless and unfaithful wife?"
The fae woman gasped in horror and shrieked out loud only to realize that her husband wasn't actually standing there. But instead, there was a small child who was glaring at Jareth then looking over at her, gasped then told Jareth, "That lady is being naughty, she forgot to put her clothes on."
Jareth who had been shocked to see young Sarah standing there, had hastily used magic to return his clothes to their normal state. "Well, Princess Sarah, how kind of you to grace us with your presence."
The little girl grinned at her older playmate and complained. "Smee ran away on me, I came to get him back."
Taking in the long white gown with blue ribbons and thick bunny slippers on her feet, plus the thick braid in the long dark hair, he said: "Did you escape your bedroom again?"
Sarah leaned in and whispered, "No, but it's a secret between Mommy and me. Your friend is still nakeds, though."
Jareth who had forgotten all about the naked fae standing behind him turned startled to see that Tasha had climbed into the bed and was rather obviously attempting to seduce him into joining her. "Get dressed, go home and you might want to consider that the reason your marriage is without children is your behavior."
Tasha glared and said, "Get rid of the baggage and I will provide you with a reason to fulfill my request."
"No, and in truth, you are providing me with even more reasons as to why to never hand a child over to you," Jareth said in a bored tone as he bent down to lift Sarah. Pretending to grunt at the weight of the child, he asked the young girl trying to distract her from the rather sullied sight of the fae woman. "Just how much are they feeding you now?"
Sarah giggled, this was a game that they often played. Touching Jareth's upper arms, she said: "Tossing goblins hasn't built up your arms strength yet, you need to toss more goblins into the bog, Kingly."
"Maybe I should practice by tossing you into the bog." He growled, a smile growing as she giggled and buried her head in his neck. "Okay, let's go find your goblin, I think it is time for little girls to go home and go to bed."
Pouting as she was carried down the corridor while Jareth gently remonstrated her for not being asleep when it was past midnight in the mortal lands, Sarah nor Jareth saw the calculating expression on the angry fae woman's face at being abandoned by the man she had been intending to use to get what she wanted for a mere child.
A mortal child at that if she was right and Tasha had no intention of letting the insult to herself go.
Jareth found Smee awaiting young Sarah in his usual hiding place and after watching the Goblin and the little girl talking about her adventure wandering his castle, he reluctantly suggested that Smee take Sarah home. He was still rather curious, normally by now, Sarah would be called for by her father or mother and would have returned but not tonight, so what was so different. "Smee return, once young Sarah is in bed."
Tasha hurried home, after coming up with a rather different version of why she had paid a visit to the Goblin King for her husband, one where she had begged and begged for a child from the Aboveground and had been mocked and denied, told her husband the news. "The worst part is, the selfish bastard has been keeping a mortal child, all for himself."
Fredrick, the rather obvious husband to the faithless Tasha gasped in shock at such a breach of protocol. "We must tell the High King."
"I doubt he will do anything, you know the rumors." She archly pointed out. "Maybe we should go a little higher, to the council so that he can't cover up the truth."
Fredrick wasn't so sure that was the best choice but was so besotted of his wife and despondent that it was his fault that they lacked the ability to conceive the much-desired child for his family gave into his wife's request.
An hour later, a request went out from the High Court to the Goblin Kingdom demanding his presence at the next council meeting and Jareth gritted his teeth as he paced back and forth in his throne room.
Smee had filled him on the latest with the Williams family and he was well aware that if he wished to protect young Sarah's heart from the mess her mother was making of her marriage, he needed to derail her current path, but alas he could not ignore a demand to attend the High Court.
To Be Continued
