A Tale of Two Cities
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it
was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness . . ..
Charles Dickens
Sarah was amazed at how much energy he had as he ran up and down the stairs. "I wish I could feel one tenth of that energy," she thought as he ran past her yet again to the SUV. Sarah found her anxiety slip away as she melted right back into family life again; it wasn't as awkward as she had imagined it to be.
Once all the luggage and boxes were carried to her room Sarah's parents left her alone to unpack and get settled. Dinner would be in a couple of hours and that gave her some time to get organized. Of course Toby was going to help her, he wasn't about to let her out of his sight. After about fifteen minutes he decided he didn't like this unpacking thing and went to go amuse himself downstairs.
Sarah was opening drawers to put her makeup away and was surprised to come across her old diary. She had gotten it for her thirteenth birthday and had immediately starting making entries in it.
Forgetting the unpacking for the moment she opened it up and started to read. "Today is the first day of my diary. I had a great birthday with my Dad. He took me to see Mary Poppins. Well, bye until tomorrow. P.S. I think Joey Gruger is very cute." Sarah chuckled to herself as she remembered Joey Gruger, and he was cute too.
On the next page she read, "Today I got a phone call from my Mom. She wished me happy birthday. It was nice to talk to her. I wish I could see her. I miss her." Tears were rolling down Sarah's cheeks as she read and felt the pain her simple words described. Not ready to deal with that now she snapped the book closed and figured she would read it later when she could handle it.
When she was mostly settled Sarah went downstairs and helped Karen set the table and then serve the food. It was really nice of Karen to make Sarah's favorite dinner, roast beef with mashed potatoes. Everyone had a good time during the meal catching up on news of friends, family and events that Sarah missed while she was away. Sarah also related stories of amusing incidents on campus.
Dinner seemed to be over all too soon and Sarah helped Karen with the clean up. When they finished it was only nine o'clock but Sarah was tired from the exhausting day. She excused herself for the night and took a long hot bath and then got into bed. She had all intentions of reading until her family was asleep and call Hoggle but she didn't quite make it and drifted off instead. When she opened her eyes it was 1:15 in the morning and the house was quiet. She was still tired but didn't want to miss the opportunity to see Hoggle again. Bleary eyed and yawning she quietly slipped out of bed and stood in front of her vanity.
"Hoggle, I need you", she spoke quietly to the mirror. Hoggle appeared behind her and gasped, "Sarah, I'ms glad to see you." Sarah ran to her friend and hugged him fiercely, "Shhh everyone's asleep. Oh Hoggle, I'm glad to see you too." Hoggle lowered his head and said, "Baaa" like he normally did to displays of affection.
"Are yous home for good? Did yous finish yer learning?" he asked with eyebrows raised in hope. "Yes, I can see you whenever I want. I missed you and Sir Didymus and Ludo terribly. Tell me what's been going on." At this Hoggle looked uncomfortable and shook his head, "I dons't want to spoil yer homecoming with tales", he stated sadly. "Are Ludo and Sir Didymus alright?" Sarah asked quickly. Hoggle looked up at her, "Oh yes Missy, I didn't means for yous to think that. There's different problems."
Sarah sat on her bed and put her hands on Hoggle's shoulders, which forced him to look her in the eye. She quietly said, "You are my friend and I want to know what is going on." Hoggle knew of Sarah's determination firsthand and decided to come out with it. "Jareth's getting married."
Dropping her hands from his shoulders in relief Sarah laughed, "Is that all? So what's wrong with that?' Hoggle sighed and looked down again and Sarah knew there was more. She sat quietly waiting for her friend to tell her the rest. Hoggle finally looked back up and said in a quiet angry voice, "It ain't that he's getting married, it's who he's marrying. She's meaner than he is and he don't need no help in that department."