Chapter 3: Meeting the Downy's

After Jareth left Sarah at the park, she decided to go home for lunch, she was really hungry. When she got home she looked around the kitchen and there was nothing there, so she went to a sub shop down the street from her house. She got a steak and cheese sub with a Dr. Pepper. She ate there, sitting at a window seat so that she could look out at the passerbys. She finished her lunch. She went to work to see how things were going. Only staying there for a short while because she was afraid the Jared could come in at any moment. Brenda told Sarah that he showed up at work two times already. So Sarah left.

When she got home Toby was there with a friend from school. School had gotten out fifteen minutes ago, and it only took Karen five minutes to drive Toby back from school.

            "Hey Sarah! This is Matt"

            "Hello!"

            "Hello! Matt, nice to meet you!"

            "Like wise" Matt smirked at Sarah.

Sarah just smiled and turned around. Sarah went into the living room and sat down to watch T.V. She flipped through the channels but nothing was on. Well there were soap operas but she hated those. There were also talk shows like Riki Lake on. She would have watched that but because her brother was in the next room, she did not want to set a bad example.

            "Hey Sarah! Mom called and she wanted to know if you were still interested in going shopping with her."

            "Is she on the phone or was it a message?"

            "It was a message!"
            "Okay thanks! Oh hey, did anyone else call?"

            "Ah, yeah Jared, called, he wants to talk to you about last night."

            "Ah! That bastard!" She whispered so that Toby and his friend could not hear her.        

            "Okay thank you"

            "Your welcome!"

Sarah shut the T.V. off and went into the study to pick a book to read. She saw Pride and Prejudice, and pulled it from the shelf, cozied up in the wing chair and began to read. She thought that Mr. Darcy was much like Jareth. He was kind and a complete gentleman, but at times you would not think so. She also thought herself to a lot like Elizabeth, because she was stubborn too and could not see the love that Mr. Darcy offered, much like Sarah not seeing the love from Jareth.

The next day, Sarah got up did her routine, of brushing her teeth, eating, taking a shower, getting changed and going to work. And today she stayed at work. Today was an important and big day for Sarah. Because one of the richest families was coming in to pick out a wedding gown, they were planning on spending lots of money, in Tres Jolie. Sarah was a nervous wreck, she wanted everything to be perfect for when they arrived.

            "Ah, good morning to you, Miss Downy." Sarah said when the bride to be arrived.

            "Good morning, you must be Sarah! What a pleasure!" Miss Downy said with her thick English accent.

            "Oh no, the pleasure is all mine." Sarah replied.

The entire family came. Parents, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents. You name it, they came. They were all filed in a line awaiting their turn to shake Sarah's hand. Sarah was very polite,

            "Ah, hello, nice to meet you….nice to meet you…etc."

Then there was a man that had been waiting his turn to meet Sarah. When it came to his turn and he was standing in front of Sarah he dropped his pen, bent over to pick it up, got it and then straightened up to stare at Sarah.

            "Oh! Forgive me for holding up the line!" He chuckled. He smiled at Sarah and then followed all the others that had already said hello. Sarah turned around and looked at him, she was in shock. That man had, gold hair, was slender but built, he was tall and he had mixmatched eyes. Sarah was confused, but she did not stop greeting the rest of the family members. Once the greeting was done, Sarah asked miss Downy, whose first name is Polly, what type of gown she wanted to try on.

            "I don't know. They all look beautiful. Can I try them all on? If that's alright with you."

            "Absolutely! Brenda, the first cart please!" Sarah asked.

            "Here you go Sarah" Brenda replied.

            "Thank you! Now this gown here is the type of gown that one would wear if she was outside, it is lite and breezy, but still is very elegant. And it has quite the intricate details on the sleeves."

            "Oh that one is lovely, please let me try it on."

Polly came out of the dressing room with the gown on. She stepped in front of the mirror while all of her family members scoped out the gown on her, to decided whether they liked it or not.

            "Oh I really do like this one. What do you all think?"
They all began to speak at once.

            "Oh please one at a time, you all don't want to frighten the bride to be." Sarah stated.

            "Okay, how about starting from left to right we could all voice our opinion?" Said one of Polly's sisters, Molly.

            "Oh! What a great idea, Molly, good going!" Said Polly's mother.

Sarah leaned in towards Brenda and said,

            "Can you go and put the CLOSED sign on the door, I have a feeling we are not going to be able to help anyone else today, if they are going to be here."

            "Okay, sounds good to me!" Brenda agreed and put the sign up.

As she looked outside from the door she could see that Jared was across the street sitting on a bench staring at the store. Brenda locked the door as well and then ran over to Sarah and told her. Sarah was petrified but could not let anyone see it, so she kept a smile on her face.

Polly tried on several gowns and each family member got to voice there opinion. The man that Sarah had been unsure about was extremely nice, every time it was his turn to say something he always complimented the gowns, saying something different for each one, which can be very difficult considering how many gowns there were. But to come up this compliments each time seemed like a breeze for him. Sarah could not help but smile at him, and every time she was looking at him, he was looking at her. Finally she realized who he was. But could it be? His hair was much shorter and he was not wearing tights or his usual attire. He was wearing a white button down shirt and very nice dress pants. He looked to good to be true.

At the end of the day, Polly finally chose a gown that she was going to wear. It was the most expensive gown in the entire store. And personally to Sarah, she thought that the gown she chose was not well suited for her. But she could not complain because she was getting paid, it was good business for her. So after the gown was chosen, the family wanted to celebrate the good news, so they had rented a hall to have a party. By this time Jared was gone.

 The man Sarah, had an eye on approached her; and asked if she wanted to come to the party with them, after all she did work really hard all day, and was very patient with the family.

            "I except your invitation, and thank you for asking me, Mr?..." Sarah was playing stupid, to try and make it seem like she did not know him, so the family would question how they knew each other.

            "It's Jareth! Jareth Downy!" He introduced himself in the most formal way.

            "Polly!"
            "Yes dear Jareth! What would you like?"

            "I have asked Sarah if she would like to come to the party with us!"

            "Oh! That is a great idea Jareth, now she can be your date, since you did not have one to come with you to the party! She can ride with you in your car, since all the other cars             will be full! Okay?"

            "That is fine by me sis!" Jareth replied.

            "So it is you Jareth!" Sarah finally got to say. "I am so confused though!"

            "Remember yesterday, you said that you did not want to leave your home, even to be with me?"

            "Yes!" Sarah said remorsefully, while tilting her head down towards the floor.

            "Well I on the other hand can do that for you. I placed myself with a rich family, the one I knew that you were going to be assisting for a wedding gown. I did this so I could see       you. And this way now I can be with you. I am still the same person, only without my powers and a different look. Speaking of which, I don't see how men can wear pants like             these, they are so uncomfortable! Anyways, I still love you the same, and I want to be with you for the rest of my life as apposed to eternity now because I am a mortal now."

            "I see, and how old does this make you now Jareth?"

            "Well, if I calculated correctly, in your world that would make me thirty-nine years old. Why? Does that bother you?"

            "No, age has never matter to me, I just wanted to know!"

            "Shall we go now?"
            "You want me to go to a party in this?" referring to her blouse and work shirt.

            "Oh you are right. Hey why don't you put on one of your gowns, not a wedding gown of course, but one of those incredible evening gowns, how about the one over there?"

            "Okay, let me go change. I will be right out!"

            "And I will wait right here until you come out!"

She came out, she looked sensational. She was wearing a fitted gown that was fitted to the upper thigh and then the rest just poured down to the floor. It was maroon in color and when she turned at certain angles it appeared gold.

            "Sarah, you look absolutely beautiful, I am speechless!"

Sarah practically had to push Jareth's mouth closed, he was so stunned. He held out his hand and she took it graciously. They started to walk towards the door. Sarah stopped turned around and looked at Brenda and Jessica.

            "Brenda, Jessica, you don't mind closing up for me do you?"

            "Absolutely not Sarah, you go ahead, and have a great time!" Brenda said with a smile.

            "He is so cute Sarah, you go girl!" Jessica, attempted to whisper, but Sarah knew that Jareth heard because when she looked at him he grinned. And they were off to the party.