FINAL WISHES
By Gary Curtis
Powerpuff Girls created by Craig McCracken and all related characters owned by Cartoon Network
TEN
Outside the jail, the girls sat in the back of the police cruiser they would all ride home in. They watched with interest as the professor stood next to the open rear window of Morbucks' chauffered limousine. They heard him insist that no harm had been done, but could the professor please, ask the girls to just call first if they had any concerns, either with him or his daughter? The girls couldn't see their arch-nemesis but could imagine her pouty little face. It was almost worth the whole ordeal.
Then the two men shook hands and the limo sped away. The professor crammed himself into the back of the police car, Bubbles promptly hopped onto his lap, and they rode off, with a different pair of officers than had brought him there.
"So, Professor," Blossom started out. "Are you gonna put it on the internet?"
"No, Blossom. I was going to when it was finished, but Morbucks was right about changing the names. Problem is, it will change the story."
Bubbles looked up at him. "Then why'd you tell 'im you would?"
"I saw an opportunity. The only way Princess will ever change, girls, is if he changes first. I think he got the picture...though I never dreamed he'd ever see that!"
"Sorry, Professor." Buttercup cast her eyes downward.
"Well, Buttercup, that's what I get for being so absent-minded that I forgot to get a baby sitter and then had to trust you girls to entertain yourselves without getting into anything...and for not passwording my passwords! I can't believe I did that! But it's all right, girls, things worked out just fine."
"But Professor," Bubbles asked. "What made you want to write a story about us in the first place?"
"Oh, to be popular with all your fans out there who like to read the interesting tales people write about you." he fibbed. "Besides, writing is a great outlet when you have things on your mind." That part was true.
They were astounded. Blossom asked, "You mean there's more stories about us?"
"Oh, a few."
"Can we read them, too?" Buttercup wanted to know.
"If you saw some of the fixes people get you into, I think you'd be glad you didn't read 'em."
"Tell us who they are and we'll kick their butts!"
"Can't do that, sweetie." he told his young firebrand.
"Why not?"
"Some of them are my friends."
Bubbles asked, "Are you popular, Professor?"
He looked down at the three little girls who looked up to him. "With the only audience that really matters to me, I sure hope so!"
Blossom smiled sweetly. "Aw, you'll always be popular with us, Professor!"
"Yeah." Buttercup said. "But don't give up your day job."
"Here we are, folks!"
They got out, thanked the officers for the ride and said good night. As he walked up the driveway and they floated alongside, Buttercup asked, "Are we gonna get punished for snooping?"
"Well, I had thought about doing something. What do you think is appropriate?"
"I know you'll be fair, Professor." Blossom said, hoping he'd say that frightening the heck out of them was punishment enough.
"Well, girls, as I was walking to the car tonight, my mind wasn't even on the great speech I'd just given. All I could think and worry about was what I'd done." He pulled the garage door remote out and they watched the door start to go up.
"You mean about leaving your story where we might find it?"
"Oh, no, Bubbles, not that! About me letting the car get so dirty! There's your punishment, girls."
"Aw, Professor!"
"Hurry up, girls, and then it's bedtime."
As they watched him go, Buttercup grumbled out loud.
"Some happy ending that was!"
Bubbles agreed. "Hey! Shouldn't he get punished too, for bein' absent-minded?"
Blossom watched him go inside the house and said quietly, "I think he has been, Bubbles. Grownups get punished different from us, that's all."
"What kinds of things DO you have on your mind, Professor?"
He went downstairs and started the computer up, intending to fix his compromised security measures.
"They never cease to amaze me. How they were even able to understand all that, let alone show the restraint they did once they thought I was in danger. And they were so ready to embrace someone who's shown them nothing but meanness and cruelty...such loving children they are, in spite of their outward aggressiveness at times. I feel terrible for tricking them like that, even though it was an accident. How can I explain to them that those words I wrote are just as much about my failings as they are about his? He's a selfish man and has raised that poor kid to be the same way, but am I any better? I spend my time working, working, working, and then complain when their duties take them away from me. I hate it that I have to share them with the world, even though I know it can't be any other way. And, I have no real idea what Morbucks' problem is. Maybe she's just a flat-out bad seed and money's the only thing he knows. It's my fear of losing my girls that is causing me to shy away from women and deny the girls the mother's influence they ought to have. I need to overcome that, for their sake."
Bubbles grabbed the hose away from Buttercup just in time, before her angry sister could blast Blossom with a jet of water.
"Where do you get that he's a bad father? Huh?!"
"I didn't say that, Buttercup!" The large, pink eyes blinked in shock. "I said he's worried that he's a bad father. His story shows he's afraid that he's not doing a good job of raising us!"
"I don't see that at all, Blossom." Bubbles said, matter-of-factly.
Buttercup took the hose back and finished rinsing off the car. "Yeah. Did we turn out bad?"
"No."
Bubbles dumped the wash water onto the driveway and Buttercup gave the suds a quick rinse, sending them to the street. She hung up the hose and Bubbles put the bucket away in the garage, and the two floated up to their sister, who hovered in the combined light of the garage flood and the moon, holding three big, white towels. They each took one from her and began toweling off the car, starting with the roof.
"What that story says to me, " Buttercup said, "is that he's a little weird. And so are his friends. I mean, why would anyone wanna make up stories about us when all they gotta do is watch the news at night? How can you top that? But still, he ain't a bad father."
"He's not weird!" Bubbles said forcefully with a scowl that disappeared just as quickly. "What that story says to me is just how much he loves us."
Blossom realized she was just floating there and pitched in with the drying. The moonlight threw their long shadows onto the grass, making them resemble the monsters their owners battled so often. "I guess you're right, Bubbles. Maybe I think too much."
"I know I'm right. We should go tell him why we were really lookin' at his stuff. We wanted to find out what he really thinks about us. That was wrong..."
Buttercup looked at her and said quietly, "Yeah...when we knew it all along."
Bubbles wiped the last drops of water from the back bumper and straightened up, her serious look replaced with a smile that reflected the love she felt. "But I want him to know that we found it anyway!"
The professor sat there at the keyboard; with the machine turned off for the night. He looked at his watch. A little past nine. Late for the girls, and he felt guilty for making them wash the car. Still, he believed they needed some real, concrete thing to teach them the lesson, because words didn't always sink in with them. Even so, something very good had taken place this night, and he shook his head in wonderment.
"It's amazing how even when they do the wrong thing, something good comes of it. I might not have ever showed this little piece of self-analysis to anyone, and now look what's happened. Princess may turn out all right someday, and I dearly hope she does. And if it does happen, I'll be able to look back to tonight and say, 'Once again, the day was saved...thanks to the Powerpuff Girls.'
THE END
1. Song lyrics from 'Taxi' by Harry Chapin, 1972, WEA/Elektra Entertainment
Story written August 15-23, 2002.