Wishful Thinking

Ending and Beginning

After walking for a while, It became sunrise again, and Stephanie came to a passageway framed by two statues that she recognized from her last adventure the labyrinth. "Hello, again," she greeted them.

"Hmm? Do I know you?" the tall and bony statue asked, squinting at her.

"Ah, I do recognize your eyes," the short and squat statue said. "You're that dirty girl who solved our B-flat riddle."

"Dirty girl?" the tall one asked.

"You remember. The one covered in in that smelly slime."

"Oh, that one. Well this new look of yours is certainly an improvement over the last one."

"I wasn't covered in slime because I wanted to be," Stephanie said. "Anyway, what are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be at the acid lake."

"We were, but we closed our eyes for a nap and woke up here," the squat statue said.

"You still have to answer a music riddle if you want to pass," the bony one said.

"Okay, let's have it," Stephanie said.

"What do you get when you drop a piano down a mineshaft?"

Stephanie thought about it and decided there must be a pun involved. "A-flat minor."

"Oh, she did it again!" the short one said.

Jareth was unimpressed. "It's really not that hard."

"Then why don't you answer one if you're so smart?" the tall one asked. "What is the musical part of a snake?"

"The scales," Jareth replied.

"Okay, maybe you are smart," the tall statue said.

Stephanie started walking. "Bye, it was nice seeing you again," she told them.

"You, too," the short one said.

She and Jareth made their way through the twisting and turning walls of the labyrinth. Nothing of much interest happened until they fell down a trapdoor that led to an oubliette. There were no helping hands to soften the fall this time, so it was fortunate that it wasn't a very long fall. It still hurt, though. The lid snapped shut, leaving them in darkness.

Remembering how Hoggle had made a door out of a bench the last time, Stephanie set Jareth down and started feeling around in the dark for something they could use.

"Very good, Stephanie," he said. "A little to your left." He could see better than her in the dark.

Stephanie felt to her left and found a bench. She felt all around it and found that there was a knob on the underside of it. So she stood it up vertically and kept walking until she found the wall. She put the bench up against the wall.

Jareth had followed her over. "Pick me up, and hold me in front of the door."

Stephanie felt around for him and did as he asked. Jareth placed his taloned feet against the door. The humming of his magic grew louder for a moment.

"You can open the door now," he told Stephanie.

She reached out and pulled on the knob. The door swung open on hinges, and she walked forward, right into a broom closet. She should've known. That had happened to Hoggle, too. She was about to step back out, when Jared said,

"What are you doing? Keep going."

"Keep going?" she asked.

"Open the door in front of you."