Chapter Two: The Wish
"Thank you so much, Jeremy!" Tiffany said for the tenth time as her older brother walked her to the front door of his apartment.
"Anytime, Tiff." He shifted Brian so that the boy was on his hip and he could peck his sister on the cheek. "Have a good time tonight, you two!"
"Thanks, hon!" Linda gave him a hug and a kiss on the lips, then gave Brian a tickle. "Okay, Tiffany, if we don't go now, we're going to be late."
"Okay – do you have any questions, Jeremy?" She asked through the doorway as Linda yanked her outside by the wrist. "Linda! It's just a matinée!"
"It'll be fine, Tiff!" Jeremy promised and closed the door behind her. "Alright, little buddy, it's a guy's night in! What are we going to do first?"
Brian's face had already crumpled into the scowl before the storm.
"Uh-oh." Jeremy immediately carried him into the bedroom, where Tiffany had left her bag of baby supplies. "Don't cry, Brian," he cooed in a gentle voice, "it's alright, mommy's going to be right back! Here, you want your rattle?" He held up a brightly colored plastic toy and shook it at the frowning baby.
Then the dam broke and Brian started screaming.
***
Jareth and Sarah were sitting together under their favorite peach tree in the late afternoon, Jareth leaning his back against the tree and Sarah leaning her back against his chest while Jareth wrapped his arms around her. The goblin council had gone from after breakfast up to lunch and the petty court hearings had lasted until well into the afternoon. The Goblin King and Queen had retreated to the castle gardens immediately after.
"Dinner will be soon," Jareth sighed.
"Oh, no more goblins!" Sarah groaned, touching one hand to her forehead.
Jareth raised an eyebrow. "That's new. You usually can't get enough of the goblins."
Sarah sighed. "It's not the goblins. It's the ruling part that's so tiring."
"So tiring that you can't stand to eat dinner with them?" The Goblin King asked his fiancée, whispering softly in her ear.
A pleasant shiver ran down Sarah's spine. "Mmm, oh I guess I can go have dinner. As long as no one brings up that quarrel about who owned that stupid pig, I think I can handle it."
"Oh, I don't think that will be a problem." He stood and helped his queen to stand as well. "Charbroiling the pig with a flash of magic and serving it to the two goblins seemed to settle the matter quite definitively. I didn't know you had it in you." He smiled down at her as they walked hand in hand back to the door into the castle.
Sarah shrugged. "I just can't stand people acting like...like..."
"Like goblins?" the king suggested.
"No, like spoiled children." She retorted with a sharp glare in Jareth's direction. "They were squabbling worse than Toby's playmates do in preschool."
Jareth knew well of Sarah's habit of staring into a crystal he'd given her back when she'd first returned to the labyrinth. She would watch the lives of her family as they unfolded and make phone calls at just the right moment and sometimes even give just the right advice, or be there to listen at just the right time.
He opened the door to the dining hall, where some of the city goblins had already seated themselves and started eating the enchanted food that appeared on enchanted silver plates, and drinking enchanted drinks that filled enchanted goblets. The Goblin King and Queen entered with smiles on their faces and took their place at the head of the long wooden table.
Just when Sarah had begun to sip on her after-dinner goblet of water, all the goblins in the room fell silent, eyes shut, ears up.
"Oh, no." The Goblin King dropped his head into his hands.
Sarah leaned back in her chair and took a very deep breath, knowing that her day was about to get much longer than it already had been.
***
Brian stopped squalling long enough for Jeremy to tell him a story about goblins and how the Goblin King stole a baby and the baby's older sister went to get the baby back, but as soon as he finished Brian frowned and began wailing once again. Jeremy hoisted the boy and tossed him and swung him and cuddled him and bumped him, but nothing worked. He talked, he sang, he tried to tell another story. The baby's diaper was empty and he refused to eat anything.
Finaly, Jeremy laid the screaming child on his bed and mumbled into the blanket, "I with the goblins would come and take you away." Brian let out a particularly loud scream and Jeremy added with a wail of his own, "now, before I completely lost my hearing!"
Outside, a roll of thunder growled across the sky and Jeremy heard the clouds disclose their contents through the open bedroom window. Jeremy hefted himself off the bed and went to shut the window. As soon as it was closed, Jeremy noticed the silence.
"Brian?" He turned around slowly and looked carefully all over the bed, under the blanket, and on the floor. "Brian?" His voice a little louder, his throat a little tight, "Brian!" He left the bedroom and checked the hall, the living room, the kitchenette. "Brian!" The front door was still closed and locked.
Scratching his head, Jeremy came back into the bedroom, only to find that a tall man wearing an outfit out of a renaissance fair was standing by the window. "Who are you?" Jeremy demanded in the darkness.
"You know who I am." The man announced imperiously. "You told the boy a story about me just a moment ago, didn't you?"
"What are you – the goblin story?" Jeremy slapped a hand to his forehead. "I made that up on the spot! There are no goblins, and there is no Goblin King!"
Jareth stepped forward, plucking a crystal out of the air and twirling it in front of Jeremy's face. "I would be careful with your tongue if I were you, Jeremy Smith."
"How do you know my name?" The actor stood rigid. "Where's Brian?"
"You know where he is." The Goblin King chided, pulling the crystal back toward him.
"No, no that's not possible." Jeremy forced his body to move, waving his hands in front of him in a negating gesture. "It was just a story. I made it up myself!"
"Then I suppose," Jareth responded, turning a little away from the other man, "that I am just a figment of your imagination, and therefore have no power to do anything, in which case, I suppose I may as well leave and not waste your time."
"No!" Jeremy put a hand on the Goblin King's shoulder, "I want my nephew back. Give him back to me now!"
Jareth smiled and tossed the crystal straight up in air. "That's more like it."
