Chapter 5

Raindrops drizzled on the windshield turning the world into a swirl of mystifying colors. Izzy stared at the bokeh effect the rain made on the windshield when the traffic lights suddenly turned green. The cab driver turned the corner and glided onto the main highway. It had been another disappointing evening for Izzy. Another awful, blind date.

A co-worker had set Izzy up with her boyfriend's cousin. Rachael, Izzy's co-worker had made him sound like a dream guy. He turned out to be well past his expiration date.

He was 32, with a circle of baldness on the top of his furry brown head, a large pot belly, and chipped, yellow teeth. So looks weren't everything.

What did he do for a living, Izzy inquired? He replied that he only had a high school diploma and worked at sewage plant. He dropped out of high school in the middle of 9th grade year to hang out with pool buddies and smoke pot. Not exactly Izzy's idea of the perfect date.

She had been polite, hoping there was more to him then what he seemed. Instead he had spent all evening talking about his disgusting job at the sewage plant. He made rude jokes, snorting uproariously at his own sense of humor.

Tto make matters worse, he had ordered her dinner for her without even letting her look at the restaurant menu. It was the same thing he had ordered for himself, veal chops in red wine sauce over linguine. Nevermind that Izzy was a vegetarian.

Izzy moved the veal chop aside to pick uninterestedly at the linguine. She tried not to look as her date managed to splatter more of his linguine down the front of himself than get in his mouth. What he did manage to eat he chewed with his mouth open like a cow chews cud.

Izzy looked away in disgust and drank long sips from her wine glass. Even the wine was cheap and mediocre. When the guy had cleaned his plate he asked with a mouth still full of food, "Yow gownah eet thaht?" He gestured to the untouched veal on Izzy's plate.

Izzy mutely shook her head and watched as he learned forward over to the table to take the veal off her plate. She downed the remainder of her wine in one gulp and politely excused herself from the table claiming she had to make a trip to the ladies' room. She hadn't returned to the table, but had walked straight out the front door to hail a taxi.

Now as she headed home she couldn't help thinking what was wrong with her. She was 25. Had a degree in psychology and a Master's degree in Dramatic Arts. Immediately after finishing her Master's she had landed a job working at a small set design studio that doubled as a theatre so she could hone her acting skills in her spare time. She loved playing Shakespearean or Elizabethan roles, though no one ever came to see the performances the little theatre produced except for nerdy college kids and professors who couldn't afford to go to a more upscale theatre.

She was attractive, wasn't she? She had a good job she enjoyed that paid the bills, though it didn't leave her with much money to burn on trivial things. She had saved enough to purchase a small loft apartment overlooking the vegetable market in the artsy side of town. She was young. Twenty five wasn't old age, after all.

So why then did everyone seem to think she would be a perfect match for their cousin or brother or friend who always turned out to be middle aged and balding with a less than mediocre job and no goals for future? So much for the idea of romance in her life.

She felt like crying. She had no real friends who cared anymore. Her college friends had either married and were starting families or getting divorced already. No one stayed in touch. Izzy had tried to keep in touch. She called or emailed occasionally to say hello and leave her number but her messages were never returned.

The last time she had seen Collette by chance one day last winter, Collette had been distant and left in a hurry. And she hadn't heard from Meredith since the day of her parents' funeral.

After the funeral Meredith had decided she wanted nothing more to do with Izzy because being around someone who had no family "was depressing." Izzy never felt more alone than she did at that moment. Silent tears rolled down her cheeks as the taxi pulled up to the street corner in front of the vegetable market. She hastily wiped them away as she paid the cab driver and got out of the cab. She stood in the drizzling rain watching the yellow cabbie disappear down the road.

It was a cold night. The rain was turning to sleet. Still Izzy stood on the curb long after the cabbie had dropped her off. She didn't feel like walking up the stairs to her loft. She was in no mood to answer Mrs. Venti's questions, the wife of the elderly Italian man who owned the vegetable market.

Ironically Izzy had thought that living in the city would make her feel less alone, less exposed and vulnerable since she'd be constantly surrounded by traffic and noise and people. She was wrong. She realized tonight that she was more vulnerable here than she had ever been going up in the country.

She missed the small, white, framed house she had grown up in with its wooden swing set in the back yard and rose trellis that reached the second story window of the room that had been hers as a child. But like everything else in Izzy's life it too was gone forever. After her family's death the house was taken by the state for taxes. Someone had bought it a year later only to tear it down to build an apartment complex.

I wish… She thought, wallowing in her misery. I wish I didn't have to be so utterly alone tonight.

The pool of tears that had settled in her eyes spilled over onto her rosy cheeks. Her face, which was flushed with cold, was streaked with rivulets of frosty tears. How much time had passed since the cab had dropped her off? Oh well, it didn't matter.

She was unaware that an owl perched on the street lamp above her head watched her with interest.

A gust of wind whipped by, sending chills down Izzy's spine, breaking her from her sad reverie. She pulled her wool coat tighter around herself, climbed the back stairs to her apartment above the market.

She took extra precautions not to make even the tiniest of noises so as not to disturb Mr. and Mrs Venti. Izzy didn't think she could bare their knowing, sorrowful glances and invasive questions tonight.

When Izzy reached her door she dug in her purse for her keys for a moment before giving up and reaching for the spare underneath the doormat. To her surprise a familiar figure stood waiting for her as she entered. He had not aged a single day since their last meeting on another rainy night three years before. His eyes sparkled as he took in her expression but he said nothing.

In the instant that she saw Jareth's face the memory of the last time they had met came flooding back to her. In a matter of seconds Izzy's pale face registered shock, recognition, anger, and finally acceptance. She was actually glad to see him. She would have been glad to see anyone so she didn't have to be alone. She thought even a cat burglar would have been welcome company tonight.

"You wished that you didn't have to be alone tonight." Jareth spoke first. "So here I am. Hate me or love me as you will, what's said is said. It cannot be taken back."

Izzy impulsively ran into his arms. She hugged him hard and buried her face in his chest, just grateful for companionship. Then realizing who she was hugging backed away from Jareth just as quickly as she had run to him.

Jareth simply laughed. It was a carefree laugh, free of judgment. His eyes danced as he watched her. "Don't you trust me by now?" He asked quietly. "You know I would never hurt you. I've watched over you since you were a small child."

Out of nowhere he pulled a crystal orb, then another, passing them back and forth in his hand.

"Let me show you." Izzy watched as one orb floated delicately in thin air.

Inside she saw an infant, no a blonde haired toddler playing with a doll. It was her! Izzy was watching herself as a child. The little Izzy was talking to herself while a tawny owl perched on the window sill observed her. The owl flew in the tiny bedroom, transforming into Jareth in a flash of light and smoke. He told her she had fascinated him. He was attracted to her spirit. He told her to be a good little girl and in return he would watch over her always, as her protector.

The image in the orb changed to a 5 year old Izzy spinning in the back yard, the sunlight shining in her long, free-flowing hair. The tawny owl watched her from a tree branch as she spun around and around. Izzy spun until she made herself dizzy and collapsed on the ground in a fit of giggles. Slowly as she watched the scenes in the crystal orb the memories came back to Izzy. She stared transfixed.

Again the image in the orb changed. This time the owl watched through a window as a crowd of 9 year old girls lounged on sleeping bags watching the movie Labyrinth. The owl was fixated on the starry-eyed expression of 9 year old Izzy, who lay on her stomach with her hand propped under her chin.

Then 16 year old Izzy pushed baby Sammy on the swing in the back yard, telling him the story of the Labyrinth. Another change and Izzy was in a white, eyelet, gown dancing with Jareth in a marble ballroom. The horrible faces of the goblins Izzy remembered were not fear inducing, but rather admiring. The goblin subjects watched with adoration as she danced with their King. They seemed to know everything about her.

The first of the orbs darkened to blackness as it finished its memories. Jareth floated the second of the orbs in its place. This time it depicted the horrible night that Izzy learned of her parents' accident.

The owl watched the whole scene through the window. After 19 year old Izzy cried herself to sleep that night the owl pecked a hole in the screen of the open window and flew in to be near to Izzy in her grief. Transforming into his human self, Jareth stood inches from the foot of the bed watching the sleeping girl, speaking words of comfort into her dreams. His shoulders sagged with heaviness as he seemed to take her grief upon himself. His face was a masque of sorrow and longing.

Once more a similar scene had repeated in the crystal orb, but Izzy was slightly older, perhaps 20. Finally, the last scene the orb displayed showed Izzy on the last night Jareth had come to her, the week before her final exams three years ago. Speechless, Izzy slowly looked from the darkening crystal orb to Jareth's expressionless face.

"Do you see now?" He spoke softly. "I've loved you from the time you were a small child. At first I felt only a brotherly affection for you, a desire to protect the fiery spirit I saw in you. Over the years my feelings for you have grown into something... deeper."

He stepped closer toward Izzy, his intense eyes never leaving hers. Before Izzy knew it his face was barely an inch from hers. She didn't move. "Isabel, my love," he breathed. I've waited 1300 years to find you, love you, make you my Queen." By now Izzy was could barely breathe. She stared into those fathomless eyes and waited, surrendering herself to him.

He gently kissed her, running his fingers in her tangled hair. She let him kiss her and wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing her full body weight against him. Jareth's hands groped beneath her coat, pulling it off of her. In an instant they were grabbing at each other's clothes in effort to undress each other.

Izzy's breath came in quick sighs as Jareth's kisses moved from her mouth to her delicate throat to her breasts. He let her go long enough to finish undressing himself, taking in Izzy's breathtaking appearance. She stood in her sheer, pale, pink, lace bra and panties trying to catch her breath, apparently in shock. Then she was in his arms and he was carrying her down the hallway to her bedroom.