Disclaimer: I don't own nothing.

Rushing Wind

By

Jaffee Leeds

The house was quiet. The rain had given up around four in the morning and only the wind made its presence known. Hoggle was snoring in the guest room and Bevel and Sybil had curled up on the window seat in the living room. They lay spooned up like lovers although they had fought nearly the entire day over everything. Theirs' was an innocent babyish anger and, like children, they resolved their differences before dropping off to sleep.

I couldn't sleep. Nothing in the world would have induced me to even feel tired although I was tired; dead tired. Pressing my fingers against my hot eyelids I flipped over to try and find a more comfortable position on the couch. The room seemed warm and close; the air stale and lifeless. The windows were closed tight against the wind and it was driving me crazy. Sliding off the couch I crept over to the window and slipped the catch back. The house was fairly old but the windows were new and opened with a gentle sigh.

Fresh and damp air rushed into the room and for a moment I could feel it hitting the opposite wall before swirling around the room like a caged animal looking for freedom. I leaned my forehead against the sill and allowed the breeze to ruffle my hair out of place. I hadn't had the courage to watch the movie after what Mom had said. Instead it had sat on the kitchen table all evening, resting like a cobra, poisonous and untouchable. I felt like a coward.

"You still awake?"

I twisted around to see Mom slumped on the doorframe, her hair mused from tossing and turning, her bathrobe thrown over a light nightie. Her eyes were red-rimmed and faded. She'd been crying for hours.

"I couldn't sleep," I admitted, "Considering the day it just didn't happen."

"Yeah, I didn't sleep much either." She moved to the couch and I joined her each of us claiming an end. For some reason we had kept a careful distance between us since I had found out about Jareth's impending death.

I pulled my knees to my chin and played with my toes while I tried to think how to broach the next subject with my mother. She rested her on the back cushion and closed her eyes. Her breathing was gentle and even, but weary and interrupted by a little hitch every once in awhile; the remnants of a good cry.

"Mom, I know you don't want to talk about it, but why is Jareth dying?"

"I don't know," she answered without opening her eyes, "I just don't know." She opened her eyes a little and stared at the window seat where the goblins slept, "I never thought he would. I didn't think it was possible."

"Is it—" I took a deep breath, "Do you think it's your fault?"

"Oh, Emily, I—" her face crumpled and she covered it with her hands, "I don't know! I've been going over and over it in my mind, trying to think if there's way I did something to cause this. But I just don't know!"

I put my arms around her, "I know. I know."

"I would never hurt him, never," she cried into my shoulder, "But I'm afraid I did—am."

"There's nothing you can do," I soothed, "Please, don't cry."

Bevel and Sybil shifted in their sleep and Sybil's coils tightened around Bevel's rotund middle as they settled back. A contented sigh came from the rat's lips and suddenly I found myself tearing up. I blinked rapidly and focused on my mother.

"Are you sure?" I asked, "Hoggle seems to think—"

"It doesn't matter—what he's suggesting is impossible," she pulled away and grabbed a tissue from the box on the coffee table. Dabbing her eyes and blowing her nose, my Mom heaved a great sigh. Resolve settled over her like a mantle and I could see the strength of her character coming out of hiding, "It can't happen."

I picked at my pajama leg for a moment, "What is he suggesting?"

"Emily—I told you it's impossible—," she began.

"Look, can we please jut stop it with the game?" I asked angrily, "Can we just stop pretending that we're dealing with reality here? For crying out loud Mom, we have three goblins sleeping in the house tonight! You admitted that my father isn't human and isn't even from our world. You talk about the impossible, but it seems to me like we're sure as hell living it!"

I had risen from the couch and paced to the end of the room from where the two goblins were sleeping. The breeze had dropped the temperature a few degrees and my anger made me cold. I wrapped my arms around myself and stared at my mother. She had moved to her knees on the couch and looked at me as if she'd never seen me before. Maybe, like me that afternoon, she was seeing the real, whole me for the first time.

She pushed her hair back with both hands, pausing with them just behind her ears as she thought of a reply. I went on.

"We're talking about the end of the world as Hoggle and your friends know it. And even if I didn't know or care about my…Jareth, he is still a living being that you once cared about. You're suggesting that we do nothing about it! And if we don't the labyrinth could fall into nothing and the lives of all kinds of creatures would end. Mom, you've never been able to kill a spider and now you're letting a whole world die."

I paused and caught my breath, "I would have said that was impossible."

"You're right,' she agreed finally, "You are right, I am letting a world die. I could be the one responsible for the deaths of friends who are very dear to me. But don't you think that I'm just doing it willy-nilly! You talk about the Underground as if it were the same as earth, it's not. You talk about Jareth sympathetically, but that's because you don't know him. He has kidnapped hundreds, maybe thousands of children in his life time and tormented just as many older siblings. He has been little better than a tyrant to his subjects and the labyrinth was hardily more than a ruin most of the time. You tell me I'm being harsh to the labyrinth world, but I know it! I am conscious of the world I am destroying and I know the responsibility of my actions."

She was white to the lips and she was beginning to shake, "I have loved the people of the Underground, for God's sake you are alive because of that love. I know better than anyone in this world what I am doing and believe me I do not do it lightly. You want me to save them—I won't. I know what I am doing."

"Did you know it when you wished Toby away?"

We both whirled to find Hoggle standing watching us. He was angry and breathing hard as if every breath hurt. I realized he must have heard everything mom and I had said. I looked at her and saw the panic on her face. Hoggle, her dear friend, had just heard her refusing to save his world. At this point not even the goblins could continue sleeping and Bevel and Sybil lay observing.

"Hoggle, you don't understand. I can't do what you're asking."

"I think I understand very clearly," he huffed, "You think that you can waltz into our world turn it upside down because of a mistake you made and then—and then after winning our trust, go and dump us into oblivion because it's good for you."

"I didn't mean it like that and you know it! I had no intention of leaving you or Sir Didymus or any of our friends to die in the Underground."

"Oh, so you were going to call us all into this world where we don't belong and then what? Let every other living thing in the Underground die?" he moved forward and for the first time he looked like a force to be reckoned with, not a funny little man, "We loved you, Sarah, when it was easy, when it was hard and sometimes it was very hard, but none of us would have thought of destroying your world around you so that we won't lose something."

"But you have never had a daughter," my mother challenged, "You don't know what it's like."

"Maybe," he agreed, "But my love for Ludo and Sir Didymus is none the less strong because they are friends and not relations. We love the Underground."

"We all make mistakes."

A dead silence followed this. It was as if the whole world was holding its collective breath in the seconds—or was it hours—that followed this pronouncement. Hoggle came to me and took my hand in his leathery palm, but addressed my mother instead of me.

"I can't send her, Sarah," he choked, "But if she were my only child and my only comfort—I would send her for you."

Bevel and Sybil crept over to us, Sybil wrapping herself comfortingly around Hoggle's ankle while Bevel took up a guard's stance on behalf of his friend. I stood there with them as if the four of us were one people and my mother was someone else entirely. Her mother's face was half in shadow now as the sun was just beginning to appear over the horizon. She was stooped slightly forward, her arms holding her middle as if she felt a great pain there.

"Do you know what you're asking me to do?" she rasped.

"Yes," Hoggle replied gently, "But you know it must be you. No one else can do it this way."

Tears were pouring down her cheeks. I made to go to her but the goblins stopped me, "Wait," Hoggle advised. She wept quietly for a few seconds.

"I promised to never do it again," she whispered.

"Most promises are broken," he told her, "Everyday—and few for such good reasons."

"Let's get it over with then," she said, suddenly grim and determined. She straightened up and came to me. Pulling me into a hug she whispered, "Know that I love you, Emily. That I love you, no matter what happens."

"Mom, what's going on?" I asked, suddenly afraid, "What are you doing?"

Instead of answering she went to the window and threw it open all the way. As the spring air rushed into the room sending the curtains into wild dances she turned to face me, her hair whipping around her like a black cloud. The sky was just a pale violet as the rim of the golden sun peeked over the edge of the world. I stared at it with all my strength, as if I would never see it again. The goblins each grabbed hold of me and squeezed their shut tight.

"Mom!"

"Trust me," she said, already her voice was far away.

Facing the rising sun, she called out, "I wish the goblins would come and take my daughter away from me right now!"

The wind shrieked and the bottom fell out as all the world exploded into light.

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Review Responses:

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