One
"Where is all this glitter coming from?" Sarah swore everywhere she looked, she saw the silver flecks, catching the light, flickering and sparkling. Almost magically, some might say.
"Hoggle brought it," Gaby answered without hesitation.
Hoggle. The imaginary friend. One of the many imaginary friends. Bless Gaby and her wild imagination.
"It's the Goblin King's! He loves glitter!"
"Naturally."
"Hoggle says glitter is the Goblin King's favourite!"
"Yes..." She never should have let Gaby get her hands on that book. But as soon as Gaby saw the embossed red leather cover, with the word she couldn't pronounce in gold lettering, The Labyrinth, she had been intrigued, and begged Sarah to read it to her. Sarah had given in, eventually, despite knowing she would regret it.
And she did, of course.
What harm could a story do? A lot, as she herself had learned.
"Well, let's clean it up, or it will make a mess." It already was messy.
While they scooped up the glitter, Gaby continued describing her friends, nothing Sarah hadn't heard before.
"Hoggle. He likes riddles. And jewelry."
Yes, I know.
Gaby had made some beaded jewelry for her friends. Sarah hadn't seen the jewelry since Gaby made it, so she didn't know where it had gone.
"And Ludo is big and hairy, and gives good hugs!"
"I see." Yes, very good hugs.
This was a regular occurrence, though it seemed that the stories were becoming more and more extravagant.
And then there were times like:
"Mum, can we buy some dog treats?"
"Why?"
"Cause Didymus has a dog, Ambrosius, and I want to get him treats!"
The story just kept getting wilder and wilder, more and more lifelike - this is what Sarah had feared. Gaby sure had an imagination, taking after her mum in this way, so it was completely natural for her to become so heavily engaged in a story like this. In fact, it was the perfect story for a wildly imaginative mind.
"Honey, you look exhausted." Sarah's friend Caroline expressed her concern often.
"That would be because I am. But it's fine, really. It's a good sort of exhaustion." After all, this was her daughter she was talking about, her family. She loved Gaby so much - but even imaginative Sarah was beginning to feel like Gaby's fantasies were starting to go too far.
"Okay, good, just checking in."
"Of course, thank you, as always."
Caroline was always generous and had helped and supported Sarah a lot during her single-motherhood.
"Oh, and before I forget, my cousin has a friend-"
"Not interested, Carol."
"Mum, you scared them all away!" Gaby cried when Sarah peeked her head into Gaby's room to tuck her in and say goodnight.
Her reaction startled Sarah. "Scared who all away?"
"The goblins!"
"I thought you were reading before bed."
"I was! I was reading aloud to them."
"Ah, I see."
"But then they ran away cause they were scared of you."
"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm not really that scary am I?"
Gaby giggled. "No. They just don't like strangers."
"I see..." But she wasn't a stranger to them, at least not all of them.
"Jareth doesn't let them leave the castle often, so they don't meet new people very much."
"Ah. He doesn't sound so nice, this Jareth." He's a real jerk, in fact.
"Mum, don't say that! He could be listening!"
"I don't care if he hears me." Let him hear for all I care. Sarah was about to take a seat on the edge of Gaby's bed when she noticed the bedroom window was open. "Did you open the window?"
"The goblins did. That's how they came in and went out."
Looked like Sarah would have to have a talk with her daughter about leaving the widow open at night, but she decided to save that conversation for the morning.
Instead, she got up and went to close the window, becoming startled when a shadow flashed by outside. Peering out, she saw it was a barn owl who had been perched in their apple tree. The bird's movements rustled the whole tree as the owl took flight.
"What is it?" Gaby asked, noticing her mum jump.
"An owl. It startled me."
"Where?!" Gaby jumped out of bed and raced over to join Sarah by the window.
"It's gone, it flew away."
"Aww, I missed him." Gaby leaned her head out the window. "Goodnight, Jareth," she whispered, just loudly enough for Sarah to hear.
Sarah shut the window, perhaps a little more forcefully than she intended. "Okay, time for bed." She checked to make sure the window was locked, just to be sure.
"Rough morning?" Caroline asked the very flustered-looking Sarah when she raced into work with barely a minute to spare the next morning.
"A little - Gaby insisted on making extra snacks for her goblin friends, then we were almost late to school, and, in turn, very almost late for work." Sarah threw down her bag and shrugged off her coat. "But, just made it, thankfully."
Carol chuckled. "She's still into the goblins, huh?"
"Always. Should I be worried?"
"She's only six. It's common for kids to have imaginary friends."
"I know. I just don't want her to start relying on them too much, you know? She needs friends, real friends," she added, even though it hurt to say. Coming from her own big-imagination background, Sarah knew just how hurtful it could be to have someone call your imaginary friends unreal, especially at Gaby's age. This had happened to Sarah countless times throughout her own childhood.
"Has she had any trouble making friends at school?"
"Well, she talks a lot about her classmates, so I don't think so. Sometimes it's easy to forget I was just like that as a kid. Then, I grew up, and reality hit. I don't want the same to happen to her."
"Happens to all of us, I'm afraid. Sooner or later."
"Yeah..." Sarah moved over to the filing cabinet by the window. In the tree outside, something caught her eye:
A barn owl.
If she wasn't mistaken, the same one from their apple tree last night.
"Hey Caroline, do you know if barn owls are common in this area?"
Carol shrugged. "No clue. Why?"
"Cause this is the second time I've seen one. Never noticed them before." She met eyes with the bird, it's intense gaze locking onto her own, and she had to look away.
Wow, this took me a lot longer than I'd hoped! Sorry for the delay, I've been focusing on my other stories lately, but really wanted to get this one started! :) Thank you so much for reading and supporting this story and I hope you enjoyed! :)