Ch. 3 – You Remember
Sarah sat in her room, trying to concentrate on her homework. She really tried, but she kept looking out her window, watching the trees losing their leaves one by one. Then she'd glance at her clock and another fifteen or twenty minutes would have gone by.
She was nearly done writing an essay on the Treaty of Versailles when she felt a tug on her foot. She dropped her notebook next to her on the bed, and greeted a toothy smiled Toby.
"Hey kiddo," she said, pulling him onto the bed.
"AhhhSsahh," he said, chewing on a finger. It kind of sounded like her name.
"Ew, silly. You're drooling all over me!" she said, laughing and tickling her brother. He squealed, rolling up like a pill bug, trying to protect his sides and round tummy. Sarah set him on the floor, and let him play in her room as she finished her essay.
When she was done she crawled onto the floor to see what Toby had gotten himself into. He was playing with some of her old dolls. Once, she would have been angry but now she didn't mind. There was not much he could hurt. In fact he was studying them more than anything, holding them up, inspecting plastic eyes and embroidered mouths. Incidentally these were the dolls that looked like some of the friends she'd made in the Labyrinth. It was funny; Toby always had this conspiratorial look on his face when he was with her, like they shared a secret. She supposed they did. Sarah didn't know if and how many other people had ever been to that world. She figured that others had in the past but she knew enough to know that it wasn't something that happened every day. She and Toby had been on an adventure, the kind of adventure most people only read about. Parts of the trip had been frightening, but most of it was actually kind of exciting. Either way, it had changed both her and Toby. They had come home different in some small way. They were something more than before.
A few months ago Toby had turned two. Sarah had shopped for three days before finding the perfect gift. She was so surprised when she saw it lying there in that toy store. A furry goblin doll. It looked surprisingly like one of the goblins from the Labyrinth-that dumb one with the big nose. She'd wrapped it in shiny paper and given it to Toby that night after dinner. Sure enough something in his eyes said he recognized it. Sarah noticed the way Karen looked at it, though.
Toby was busy talking his mixture of baby talk and the few words he knew to the dolls in front of him. Sarah smiled, went to her desk and began brushing her hair. Her eyes fell on the picture of her family, or the family she used to have. Merlin was still here, but he was getting pretty old. Her dad was here in body only-he was so distracted by other things. The picture was so warm and sunny. Sarah sighed and clenched one fist in her lap, jumping when she felt a slight pain from her fingernails digging into her palm. That eased the tension a little, let her breathe again. Toby wandered over, pausing at her elbow.
Sarah looked over, dropping her head onto her arms, a little more at level with him. She smiled but it was not her he was looking at. He was staring at a statuette that stood by her mirror.
He pointed a finger and said, "Dat!"
Sarah drew in a shaky breath.
"So you remember him too, do you?" she asked softly, pulling her brother into her lap. "Was he nice to you? It seems like he would be, with all of the kids that have been wished to him in times past. I'm sure he's used to dealing with kids and all. It's like his job, I think."
Her eyes fell on Toby's soft hair. Smoothing its unruly waves, something occurred to her.
"I just hope you don't remember what I did someday and blame me for it. I was a stupid sister, okay?"
Toby laid his head back on her shoulder, looked at her in the mirror and grinned. Sarah smiled back.
"Do you remember this?" she asked, pointing to the crystal on her desk. It was sitting in a nest of sorts that she had fashioned from pieces of silk and leather that she'd found in an old box of art supplies in her closet.
"I actually found this in your crib that night. I think this is the one that he threw to you. You chased it all over that room. Scared me half to death, you know, you weren't affected by gravity there or something but I was. I couldn't get to you, couldn't walk up the wall like the two of you could. At least I don't think…"
She looked over to the Relativity poster that hung on her wall.
"It would be interesting if I could all along but just didn't know how to tap into it." She snorted, "Would've saved me a lot of time. Anyway, I guess you must have finally caught it. He never noticed, or didn't care. I hope you don't mind that I kept it."
Sarah laughed at the faces Toby made at her and neither of them noticed the figure silently watching them through the crack in the doorway. Karen had heard almost every word and her eyes narrowed as she spied the things on Sarah's desk that they'd been playing with. She didn't like this one bit.
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"I don't like it Robert. She's getting worse!" Karen said, as she poured a fair amount of bourbon into her tea.
"Dear, Sarah has always been different than other kids her age. She's just into different stuff. I know it's strange for her to still play pretend at this age but it could be worse. She could be out smoking, partying…"he finished lamely.
"Yes, I'll admit I thought she'd have grown out of this by now, and I guess she could be out sleeping around," she said, ignoring her husband's frown, "and while it was simple pretending it was okay, I guess. But it's gone beyond that. Robert, she actually believes this stuff now."
"Are you sure?" he asked in disbelief.
"You should hear the way she carries on! She always talks about her 'friends' that she met recently, although I've sure never seen anyone over here. Remember when she gave Toby that thing on his birthday? You asked her what it was and she said Toby would know. And I've heard her, and I know you've caught her at this too – she talks to herself in the mirror! Robert, she's losing touch with reality!"
He tried to ignore this, tried to drown his sorrows in his scotch. His wife wouldn't let him. Not this time.
"Robert, she's sick."
"It's not that bad! You never cared before, why now?" he asked, turning accusing eyes on her.
"Since she started dragging my son into these twisted games. She's feeding him all these stories and I heard her talking about this man today. You should have heard her. She even asked Toby if he remembered him. I don't know what she's done but I don't like it. I'm concerned about her being alone with the baby."
"I'll talk to her," he said, swirling the ice in his drink before downing the last of it.
"You always say that!" Karen said sourly to his retreating form.