Chapter Five

For the next few days after receiving the postcards, Red, Wembley, Boober, and Mokey took turns sitting by the Fraggle hole to wait for Gobo or Uncle Matt to arrive. Red took the nighttime shift; she could hardly sleep anyway. No one came during her first three watches, though, and she was beginning to get more and more tired as the days progressed.

On the fourth morning, Red was about to dive into the Fraggle pond when she heard two sets of feet pattering down the tunnel toward the Great Hall. Her heart jumped. Is it Gobo?

Wembley appeared first, and cried, "Everybody, listen! Traveling Matt Fraggle has returned to Fraggle Rock!"

From behind him, Uncle Matt emerged, calling his greetings to the cheering Fraggles. Even Red was happy to see him, a first for her.

"Oh, Traveling Matt, sir, won't you tell us about some of your adventures in Outer Space?" Mokey asked eagerly.

"I'd be delighted to, young Fraggle. You see, Outer Space is a very silly place…"

Red climbed down off the diving rock and went for a walk. She had had enough of his crazy stories to last her a lifetime. Somehow, she never considered that Gobo's stories from Outer Space should have seemed equally crazy. She stayed out of the Great Hall until it was time for her to resume her post.

When she reached the Fraggle hole, she noticed Mokey wasn't sitting there as she was supposed to be. "Honestly!" Red huffed. "Just because Uncle Traveling Matt comes back, it doesn't mean we should forget about Gobo. Gobo's far more important than Uncle Matt, anyway."

She sat down and waited with more patience than it seemed possible for her to have. Despite her best efforts to stay alert and ready, Red's continued lack of sleep caught up with her, and she dozed off.

It was pitch black in Outer Space when Gobo finally reached the workshop. Boy, I am so glad to be back, he thought as he pushed through Sprocket's doggie door and tiptoed across the floor. It's too bad it's the middle of the night. Otherwise, I could see everyone right away.

He admitted to himself, Of course, the person I want to see the most is Red. Now I'll have to wait until morning. That's only a few hours, though, not nearly as bad as three months.

Gobo entered the hole, and almost tripped over something. He looked down and nearly yelled in happy surprise. Red was sound asleep on the floor, looking more peaceful than he had ever seen her awake – except when they said goodbye. She certainly hadn't been energetic then.

Gobo knelt down and whispered very close to her ear, "Wake up, Red." He stood up, waiting to see what she would do.

She whimpered a little bit, and then opened her eyes. For a moment, she stared at him, dumbfounded. He was about to say something else when she sprang up and flung her arms around his neck, hugging him ferociously. Gobo grinned so hard he thought his face would split.

Soon Red's grip threatened to cut off his circulation, and Gobo reluctantly said, "Red, not so tight."

She stepped back, blushing. "Sorry."

He regretted making her self-conscious and said, "Aw, it's all right. You can hug me as hard as you want. I'm so glad to see you."

"I'm glad to see you, too," she answered, but stayed a small distance away from him. She found that she felt shy around him. You're being silly, she told herself. It's Gobo. You've known him forever. Nothing has changed except that he loves you. Of course, that was the problem. She didn't know how to act around him anymore.

Gobo started to feel a little foolish. She wasn't acting how he imagined she would. He figured she would run up and tell him she loved him, and then they'd be happy together as a Fraggle couple. She looked more terrified than love-stricken to him. He asked her, "Did you get all my postcards?"

"Yes," she replied, but didn't elaborate.

"What did you think about them?" Gobo prodded, his confidence beginning to ooze away.

"They were nice," Red answered with false cheerfulness. "I really liked the one where you told us about those things you called waterparks. That sounds like my idea of a good time!" Red knew what he wanted her to say, but she didn't know how to explain her feelings. She hoped he would drop the subject.

He didn't. "So there's nothing important we should talk about that I wrote in those postcards?" he questioned, starting to get a little angry. Did she even read my notes to her? I was pretty clear about how I felt, and she seems like she doesn't even care! I can't believe this.

"Gobo," Red pleaded, "I know what you're talking about, but I just don't know what to say! I like you, but I don't know if I love you. I need more time to think about it."

"More time?!" Gobo shouted. "You had weeks, months, to think about it. I've been out in Outer Space this whole time thinking I'd come back and we'd be a couple. Obviously, I was wrong about you, Red. I don't know why I even bothered to care. Thanks a lot." He began to storm off.

"Hey!" Red said, in a voice so filled with rage that Gobo stopped and looked at her. "You listen to me, Gobo Fraggle. Don't you dare tell me that I didn't think about it. Do you think it was easy being stuck here, wondering if you were okay and if you would ever come back? Do you think it was easy knowing that you loved me and that I was too confused to make up my mind? Every day you were gone, I thought about you. I read every one of your notes to me at least twenty times. Every night when I went to bed, I thought about our goodbye. I thought and I thought and I thought, when what I really needed was for you to be here, so I could spend time with you and be certain of what my heart was telling me."

Gobo's mouth was hanging open from shock. Red continued, "But you weren't here! I waited and worried and tried to be strong because you wanted me to be, and it was horrible! And now you're mad at me, and I don't know what to do anymore!"

The crying she had done in front of Wembley the week before was nothing compared to the deluge of tears that began after her tirade ended. All of the anxieties and fears that she had bottled up came pouring out. Red didn't even care what Gobo thought about her behavior at that moment. She only cared about crying until she had no more tears.

Gobo immediately felt terrible. The last thing I wanted to do was make her cry, he thought, his heart aching at the sight. She was on the ground, curled up in a little ball, gasping for breath as she sobbed loudly. Gobo reached down and put a hand on her shoulder.

Red shrugged it off. "Don't touch me!" she screeched.

Gobo knew her, though, and he knew that she was trying to protect herself from more hurt. She wasn't really that angry with him; she was scared and lonely and confused. He sat down next to her and stroked her beautiful red hair, which had fallen out of its pigtails. "I'm sorry, Red," he said, feeling a tear of his own drip onto his jacket. "I'm so, so sorry. I promise I won't bother you about it anymore."

After he said that, she lifted her head from her knees and gazed intently at him with red-rimmed, teary eyes. Without any warning, she took his face in her hands and kissed him long and tenderly. His mind became a complete blank.

When they parted, he was speechless. So was she. But both were smiling as they finally said in unison, "I love you."

THE END