Sarah had given in completely to temptation. There was no turning back at this point. She could never undo what she had done. Quite frankly, Sarah would never see herself the same way again, and neither would Jareth.
She had the sock puppets of her and of Toby on her hands now. Jareth had the ones of Karen and Sarah's father on his hands. Sarah had become much better at keeping a straight face at this point, and was even taking this exercise seriously.
"Sarah," the Daddy puppet said with an over-the-top deep voice. "Would you please watch Toby for the evening while Mummy and I go out to town?"
"Why can't we go with you?" the Sarah puppet asked. "You two always go off alone and leave me and Toby here by ourselves. It's not-" she caught herself. She knew better than to say those words in front of Jareth. "It's not right."
"Sarah," the Mommy puppet said, "You know how much our time alone means to us, but sometimes it's so hard to get."
Sarah gave a look to the puppet that screamed that she didn't believe them. She took a deep breath and gave a loud sigh, and continued.
"Just once, I would like to be able to spend an evening by myself as well," Sarah said. "Why don't you take Toby with you?"
"And leave you here by yourself, young lady?" said the Daddy puppet. "Out of the question. Who knows what you might do."
"I'm a responsible young adult!" Sarah objected, jumping up from her chair and pulling the puppets down. "As if I would trash the house and throw a wild party and invite boys."
Jareth raised his hands to stop Sarah. He apparently forgot that the puppets were still on his hands, giving Sarah something to still be angry at. With a frustrated growl, she snatched the puppets off his hands and threw them to the floor, and angrily fell back into her chair.
"I think I see the issue, here," Jareth said as Sarah turned her head into the back of the chair.
"Enlighten me," Sarah said, still angry at everything, except the chair.
"You don't think your parents trust you." Silently, Jareth drew a crystal, and began to search his memories of watching Sarah grow up into a young woman. Patiently he waited until he finally found the memory he was looking for.
"Look, Sarah," Jareth beckoned as he handed her the crystal. Reluctantly she took it, without ever turning her head to face him.
The image in the crystal was fuzzy around the edges, but was otherwise clear. It was a picture from about two years ago of her talking with Karen.
"Sarah, would you mind babysitting tonight? Your father will be home late and I've been called to an emergency board meeting. I've left pizza money on the counter, if you like, but keep in mind that there are leftovers in the fridge."
"Yeah, sure, Karen. I understand."
"Thank you, Sarah."
The visuals stopped and the crystal faded away entirely, though it still felt like it was in Sarah's hands. She didn't want to turn around to face Jareth again, and he understood that. Even an immortal remembers what it was like to be a teenager.
"It's not that they don't trust you," he explained. "It's that they want to make sure you're responsible enough to handle things first."
