Chapter 9, The Final Plan

Poof woke up and, out of habit, was about to go to the playground. But he stopped when he and Gabriel heard two adult voices arguing in the living room.

"Why don't you just tell me why you're impossible to deal with?" The man yelled.

"What about you? You always assume I have magic powers or whatever and know when to leave you alone! Couldn't you tell me what's going on with your father?"

"My dad has nothing to do with this!"

"Ever since he got sick, you've been hanging out in your room and never coming out and talking to me about what's going on!"

"Maybe, but what about you? You always assume I know just the right time to say 'let me do the dishes for you! You look tired!' Well, I care about doing the dishes about as much as..." Then Poof heard the man yell words that Poof never heard before and could barely translate. He said something about a politician getting kicked somewhere, but Poof had no idea what it meant.

Poof thought about it and realized that Gabriel's parents weren't getting along because they weren't being honest with each other. He'll have to fix that somehow when he gets back home.


He noticed Marie liked playing with him, even if she couldn't say it. Was it because she liked him as much as he liked her, or was it because she simply liked playing with new kids? Whatever the reason, he wanted to go see her.

He floated to the playground, which was ironically, both a figure of speech to show how much he loved her and a litteral expression because he was a fairy and fairies float. Poof couldn't see why his mother couldn't except them together. Did it really matter that he was a fairy baby and she was a human girl of three or four? It didn't to Poof, and in Poof's opinion it shouldn't matter to Wanda!

He thought about relationships he's wittnessed in his five-months of life. Timmy was in love with Trixie, and his love for her "burned with the burning white hot intensity of a thousand suns". Trixie didn't like him back because she was popular and he wasn't. Poof hoped that was not how Marie thought of him. That would be very upsetting.

Poof saw Marie. He smiled, and Marie gave him a weak smile back, like she was hiding something. Poof floated near her and she ran off somewhere.

Huh? Marie never ran away from him before! Puzzled, he ran off to follow her.

She walked up to another little boy. One Poof had never seen before. The boy had a striped shirt and black pants, and light-blond hair. The boy just stood there, stupidly staring into space. Marie ran up to him and hugged him, followed by a kiss on the lips.

Poof's smile dropped, followed by his eyelids and the rest of his body, landing on the grass unconsious.


When he woke up and remembered everything, t first, Poof tried to deny it. Why would Marie like that kid? Maybe this kid was her- brother? No, she kissed him on the lips! Maybe her family had a strange custom of kissing on the lips when you see your brotheror cousin, or maybe she was just being-friendly? I must have seen it wrong- maybe she gave him the hug and he forced the kiss and I should be saving her from this weirdo brother or cousin or best friend! It-she- she couldn't have just kissed him! Poof closed his eyes and fainted just before he was going to cry.

"HURRAY!" a few hours later, while Poof was spending his last day with his godkid, his family was having a party because of Poof signing the legal document stating he would come home and quit his godparenting days until he was thirty. But not everyone was happily celebrting.

"Timmy, why don't you try the limbo game?" Wanda asked. "Or have fun or something?"

"Because..." Timmy sat on his bed and sighed. "I still say that was wrong!"

"It was your idea!" Mama Cosma said, bending down and going under the line.

"Well, now I don't like it!" Timmy yelled angrily. "I felt good at first when I thought about Poof coming home, but we must have broken his heart!"

"C'mon Timmy! Let's have some fun!" Cosmo yelled, going under the line.

"But I still don't feel right!" Timmy said. "And I can probably say the sam for Poof!"


Timmy was right, Poof was misersble. But he felt better after about two hours of playing with Gabriel. He hadn't told Gabriel this was his last day, he didn't know the right way to tell him. Besides, he was supposed to erase his memory after this anyway.

"WHO WERE YOU JUST TALKING TO?" Gabriel's mother's voice boomed, bouncing Poof and Gabriel in the air.

"No one dear," Poof and Gabriel tiptoed to the top of the stairs to see the parents arguing, again. "just a wrong number!"

"Wrong numbers don't usually make a person happy like that!"

"Well, she-"

"SHE?"

"Um, yeah. It was a she!"

Poof was tired of the two parents beating around the bush! When were they going to get to facts of what just happened? Poof waved his rattle.

"It was my sister!" The dad blurted out exactly what he had been thinking but not saying. He suddenly covering his mouth.

"Your sister?"

"She wanted to tell me Dad's recovered!" He blurted again. He looked at his mouth in disbelief that he was even controlling it (since he wasn't, Poof was).

"Recovered from what?"

"Very bad cancer. He just recovered though, so everything's okey! For a while I was so scared!"

"Is that what's been bothering you?"

Gabriel's dad nodded. "I didn't want to tell you because I didn't want you to feel sorry for me or something. Or maybe it was because I didn't want you to think I couldn't handle it."

"You always were that way, never letting anyone know you could have pain!" Gabriel's mother sighed happily because she now knew what was bothering her husband.

Gabriel's dad waited a few minutes, then frowned. Gabriel's mother was confused."What?"

"I told you about Dad. You tell me about why you keep fussing at me."

"Well maybe if you would-" Poof waved his wand quickly to stop her from saying something bad. "I mean- I was upset because you didn't help out with some of the housework lke you used to, but with your dad being sick I can see why you wouldn't jump in to help with little things all that often."

"Well, um, thanks for understanding."

"I'm sorry."

"Me too." Poof and Gabriel watched them hug and smiled. Gabriel hugged Poof. "Thank you Poof! I hope you never haf to leave!"

If only that were the case. Poof thought to himself. If only that were the case...