CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Timmy looked at A.J., a little uncertain, and a little nervous.
"Uh," said Timmy, "my goldfish?"
"Timmy," said A.J. slightly bemused, "I know they're not goldfish."
"Uh," he said, "You think they're trout or minnows?"
A.J. chuckled and then said,
"I know they're your Fairy Godparents."
Timmy looked a little more nervous and said,
"You've been around Crocker too much."
"Timmy, buddy," said A.J., "you can cut the act and stop worrying. I remember the darkness incident."
Timmy looked more than a little shocked and said,
"How? Jorgen wiped everyone's memory."
"He thought he wiped everyone's memory. Mine is still completely intact."
Timmy looked a little more nervous and said,
"Well, you may want to keep a low profile on that, because if Jorgen finds out, he'll try to wipe your memory with something stronger."
"Well, I'll be careful, but I don't have anything to worry about."
"What do you mean?"
"I made myself immune to the memory wipe. Jorgen could shoot that memory ray at me all day, and it would have no effect."
"How did you fool Jorgen like that?"
A.J. smiled a little and then said,
"Buddy I want you to think about my brain and Jorgen's brain and ask that question again."
Timmy nodded. "I guess the better question is "how could you NOT fool Jorgen?"
"Right," said A.J. "And back to my original question, "Where are Cosmo, Wanda, and, oh yes, Poof?"
"Well," said Timmy, "I guess since you know about Fairy World, I can tell you. Remy tricked them into going back." He paused. " That's why he was after me. He blames me for his losing Juandissimo as his Fairy Godfather."
"I thought it was something like that."
Timmy was silent for a second, and then spoke up.
"Why did you decide to make yourself immune from the memory wipe; I mean it's still a risk."
A.J. looked at Timmy thoughtfully.
"For two reasons, buddy," said A.J. "One, I NEVER want to forget want you were willing to do for all of us. I mean you were willing to give your life for us. The fact that you were willing to sacrifice yourself to help your friends, families and even your enemies made me admire you even more than I already did."
"You admire me?" said Timmy.
"Yeah," said A.J., "Timmy you have got to be one of the bravest people I know." He paused. "And when I thought we'd lost you. " He paused again, and swallowed. "Let's just say, it felt like losing a member of my family."
Timmy looked up at A.J. Even though he still hurt physically, his friend's words did help to encourage him on the inside. Then Timmy spoke up again.
"You said there were two reasons. What's the second."
"Well," said A.J., "this one is the more practical one. As you know, I was in charge of keeping the record summary on your computer in the "Timmy Cave".
"Yeah," said Timmy.
"Well," continued A.J., "I, of course, had to look over the first time the darkness came and that's when I saw it." Timmy's friend paused again, this time looking a bit peeved. "I saw how that muscle bound idiot, Jorgen wiped everyone's memory of you and then just dumped you on Earth to fend for yourself. " A.J. clenched his teeth. "He almost got you killed Timmy because of that. And then he put Cosmo, Wanda, and Poof in a gumball machine." A.J. shook his head. "That was the most assinine plan I have EVER seen."
"Well," said Timmy, "he meant well."
"Perhaps," said A.J. "but it was still idiotic. And it put you in a terrible position, because then I saw something that really upset me." A.J. paused again trying to control his anger. "I saw you come into Crocker's class and you came up to me and Chester. And we didn't know you." A.J. paused. "You were completely alone and I saw the look in your eyes when Chester and I didn't seem to know you. Not only were you confused, brother, but you were really hurt. And don't try to pretend you weren't because I know you too well. And that's when I decided to try to prevent something like that from ever happening again."
Timmy was silent for a second and then he spoke up,
"Thank you."
"You don't need to thank me, Timmy, that's what friends do for each other."
Timmy looked thoughtfully and then his eyebrows raised a bit.
"You know", said the brown haired boy, "you're actually luckier than I am."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean you're going to remember Cosmo and Wanda, but I won't after my eighteenth birthday."
A.J. smiled and then said,
"You know buddy, like the Cave Prophecy this story has a second part. I made you immune to the memory wipe as well."
"WHAT?", said Timmy shocked.
"Timmy," said A.J., "please try to stay calm. You're hurt, I don't want you getting upset too."
"But it's against the rules A.J.," said Timmy, "And if Jorgen finds out....,,"
"I'm not worried about that imbecile, Timmy. I don't care about the rules. Some things are much more important that just legalisms."
"Still," said Timmy, "Jorgen's a pretty powerful fairy, if he does find out he may try something to erase our memories."
"Trust me," said A.J. "that bonehead is NOT going to find out and even if he does and tries something, well, let's just say that it'll cost him far more than he wants to even imagine."
Timmy stared at A.J. with a lot of respect mixed with a little fear.
"A.J.", he said,"What did you do?"
"It's better you don't know," said A.J., "that way if Jorgen does find out you can honestly say you had nothing to do with what I did even after the fact, and you won't risk losing your fairies."
"Come on, A.J.," said Timmy, "I'm your friend and what you did for me could not have been easy to do and it might get you into trouble. What did did you do?"
"What did I do," said A.J. very thoughtfully. "Okay, I'll tell you what I did. I watched as my best friend, someone who is for all intents and purposes my brother, get up on top of a dangerous skateboard ramp. And I know he was scared to death, but he did it for us anyway, because we were counting on him to beat Vicky so we could keep the skatepark." A.J. paused, "And I was there when he tried to impress a girl he liked by pretending to be popular, but when it looked like he was going to lose the people who meant so much to him, he had the guts to admit the truth and say that his friends were much more important to him then being popular or even having the girl." A.J. paused. It was clear that he had been wanting to tell Timmy this for a very long time. "I was with him at the Academic Brain-A-Thon when he admitted his wrongdoing and apologized to me and was more than willing to take the consequences of his actions. And I saw him stand by another friend to try to make him a better baseball player, even though everyone said it was a lost cause; there was no hope" A.J. stopped again. "And Chester did got better indeed great, (and I know why he got better too) and started acting cocky. When he lost that ability, I saw you still stand by Chester's side even though he didn't deserve it, because that's what you do. And I watched when you entered the Dimmsdale Film festival and made a movie with us to try once again to impress Trixie, and when you had a choice between making a highly professional film that would have impressed her, or showing his friend's own cruddy version, you chose the cruddy version, because you didn't want to hurt us. "
A.J. stopped to take a breath.
"A.J", said Timmy...,,"You...
"No," said his friend, "let me finish. I've also watched you beaten by Francis, ignored by your parents and treated unfairly by a nutty teacher who can't let go of his own past. I, also, downloaded some of fairy history and then found out what a true hero you are and how many times you have saved the world and the universe. And I heard that dimwitted Arnold Schrwartzneggar type fairy tell you after the darkness incident was over, that he was going to erase everyone's memory and you would go back to being the buck toothed puny not chosen one loser boy after everything you'd gone through. When he told you that Timmy, it made my blood boil. But the worst thing I saw is when you turned 18, you would lose three people who mean the world to you, and even worse you would lose all memory of them. And I said NO, NO. My friends deserves better than that. If any godchild deserves to remember his fairies, it's my friend Timmy Turner. He has been too brave, been hurt too many times to lose the memories of the best times of his life." A.J screwed up his face with conviction "There're rules and there're what's right and wrong. And it's only right that the best godchild Cosmo and Wanda ever had retains his memories." A.J. stopped. "And that's what I did."