Fairly Oddparents copyright Viacom

Chapter 34: Searching for Answers

Written: 1 May 2006-9 May 2006

Posted: 9 May 2006

Vicky wasn't moving.

She just stood there, with a foot hovering in the air, staring vacantly into the distance.

"I see what you mean, Lucas," Fanny murmured. She rubbed her chin in thought. She had no idea what could have caused a young girl to be frozen in time like that. "Perhaps we should get A.J. to take a look."

"Okay, but I somehow don't think that he knows anything about magic."

"It never hurts to have a second when we do find somebody who actually knows what they're talking about."

A few minutes later, Lucas returned with A.J. and Sally. A.J.'s eyes brightened with joy when he saw the frozen Vicky. "This is something I thought I would think I ever would see."

"So I see that bad things do happen to bad people," Sally added.

Fanny looked toward her son for an explanation.

Lucas shrugged helplessly. "She said she wanted to see Vicky frozen into place."

"I see." Fanny turned to A.J. "Did Lucas explain everything to your satisfaction?"

"No. He didn't say anything about why I should help."

"Yeah," Sally agreed. "Vicky is the foulest, most evil creature in the universe."

"And you can quote me on that!"

"The thing of it is, A.J.," Fanny began, "should you not help this young girl just because of she behaved in the past?"

"Actually it's me not helping her of because of what she's going to do in the future."

"And how do you this for fact, hmm?"

"It's the same thing what she always does."

"But what if Vicky is so grateful to you that she never bothers you again?"

"That would be extremely unlikely."

"But there's still a chance, right?" Fanny pressed.

A.J. sighed. "I suppose that there's a very slight chance of that occurring."

"So perhaps that's a chance worth taking."

-OOO-

Timmy's voice was hoarse from calling out Wanda's name so many times. "Wanda! Where are you? Wanda!" He was still getting no luck. Wanda was nowhere to be found. He wasn't surprised, though. With all these rolling hills, box canyons, caves and switchbacks, you could hide an army.

He found himself crossing paths with The Oracle. "No luck, either."

Timmy shook his head.

"Me neither. Where could she be?"

He couldn't think of anyway of answering her question. "She's gotta to be around here somewhere, right?"

"Of course. She's in the last place we would think of looking."

-OOO-

Wanda arrived at camp, the dull ache in the back of her head already fading greatly. At least there was some aspirin in her tent, so the pain can go away completely. She had kept an eye out of another ambush, but fortunately none had been sprung on her.

She frowned when no one had come to greet her. That was funny. She had to have been gone awhile.

Well… they must have sent search parties to look for her. And everyone else was busy. Her second theory was proved when Juandissimo appeared carrying a water pitcher. She could tell from the water that he was sloshing everywhere.

He glanced in Wanda's direction and, upon seeing his ex-girlfriend, dropped the pitcher and rushed toward her with flung-out arms. "Wanda! You have returned to me!"

Before Wanda could say anything in reply, he got her a great, big bear-hug. "I wouldn't say that exactly."

Juandissimo released her. "Whatever do you mean?"

"You're my ex-boyfriend, Juandissimo. And I'm still happily married to Cosmo."

"Can it be true? You have your memory back? You actually remember Juandissimo Magnifico?"

"Yes," Wanda said wearily.

"It is good to see to see that you are still well."

Wanda began to head deeper into camp. "Where is everybody?"

"Oh," Juandissimo pointed toward the wild lands that Wanda had just left, "Timmy and The Oracle and Johnny went looking for you. Everyone else are trying to unfreeze Vicky."

Wanda blinked when she heard. "Pardon?"

-OOO-

A.J. had finally agreed to save Vicky from the weird time freeze she was. So he immediately began a close examination of her to find the slightest clue that could possibly help. He started at the top. As he worked his down, he continued to find nothing out of the ordinary. But he got to her left hand, something grabbed his attention.

Vicky was holding onto a funny-looking marble. "That' odd! What is this?" He started reaching for it.

A hand touched his shoulder. It was Sally. "I wouldn't do that."

Hmm, on second thought, she was probably right. That marble was undoubtedly the cause of whatever it was that had happened to Vicky. But how did you move something without actually touching it?

He turned to Fanny. "Does anyone have a pair of tongs that I could borrow?"

-OOO-

Johnny hadn't any luck locating Wanda. So he gave up and met up with Timmy and The Oracle under a long-dead oak tree to discuss how they were going to precede.

"You don't suppose that she had already made it to camp?" Timmy wondered.

"Maybe…" The Oracle looked off into the direction of the camp. "But if she did, someone would come here to tell us."

"If they could find us."

They sighed. There was nothing they could do except continue their searching. At least now Johnny had Timmy to help him look. Which was a very good thing indeed, as the dead hills around them were starting to get a little scary.

To pass the time, Johnny asked Timmy, "Does this sort of thing happen often?"

"All the time."

"Oh."

Timmy smiled warmly. "But I'm sure that you get into this sort of adventure with Juandissimo."

Johnny shook his head. "Not really. I just got him recently."

"Why did get a fairy? An evil babysitter?"

Johnny didn't answer right away. He didn't want to think about it just then. Let alone talk about.

A few minutes after parting with The Oracle, Johnny spotted a girl coming toward them, who kinda looked like his sister. As they grew closer together, he realized it was his sister.

"Heather! What are you doing here? Of all places?"

"Looking for you. That's what." She reached out her hand. "Come on, Johnny. Mom's getting really worried about you." She looked down and rubbed her arm. "And so am I."

"Heather?" Timmy blurted out. "Who the heck is Heather?"

"Johnny's big sister," Heather huffed. "Who are you?"

"I'm Timmy Turner."

Heather's face darkened. "I have also been looking for you."

Timmy blinked a couple of times. "Pardon?"

-OOO-

"Momma Cosma has Cosmo!" Wanda said when she entered her mother's tent.

Fanny looked from the book that Belinda had given her. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. I've witnessed her take him myself."

"Do you suppose that Momma Cosma's diary could us here?" Fanny asked.Wanda sighed. "We won't know until we can get somebody to translate this for us. Which is something that not even A.J. can accomplish."

"He did help get Vicky free."

"True." Wanda left the tent, leaving Fanny alone to ponder the cryptic symbols within the book. Just how did Belinda come to conclusion that this was a diary? She wondered. Let alone Momma Cosma's?

And would Momma Cosma be stupid enough to actually place a clue for them to use in her diary of all places? But they had no other leads, so she might as well as try to decipher it.

Even though it was probably a red herring.

-OOO-

Wanda squatted down to get a closer look at the marble on the ground that recently had Vicky trapped in time. She looked so innocuous, yet no one dared touch it. That had been Vicky's second mistake.

Her first had been thinking that she knew everything she needed to know.

Wanda's thoughts were interrupted when Fanny opened the tent flap and poked her head. "We have a problem, Wanda. A.J.'s missing."