Soon every Smurf had gathered around
the speaking mushroom at the sound of Harmony's horn. But they
were surprised to find that it wasn't Papa Smurf making any
announcement. It was Empath and Smurfette. They were curious to
find out what they wanted.
"My fellow Smurfs," Empath began with
a bit of uneasiness, "this smurf and Smurfette have finally
decided that..." His voice trailed off in a long pause.
"You've finally decided what?" one of
the Smurfs asked.
Smurfette elbowed Empath to spur him
on. "Well, after a bit of deliberation and careful consideration,
this smurf and Smurfette have finally decided that we cannot
continue to live like this anymore, so..."
"Oh, no!" another Smurf said. "Don't
tell us you're going to smurf yourselves off a cliff or
something!"
"I hate smurfing myself off a cliff!"
Grouchy said.
"It's not that at all," Empath said
hastily, finding himself even more uncomfortable trying to make
the announcement. "It's that we cannot continue to live apart from
each other anymore, so..."
"So me and Empath are going to be
married," Smurfette finally said.
"You and Empath...married?" Jokey
said, chuckling. "That's a laugh!"
Then the other Smurfs joined Jokey in
laughing, which made Smurfette look at them rather displeased for
daring to laugh.
"You can laugh all you want, my
fellow Smurfs," Empath said, not sounding displeased. "But this
smurf and Smurfette have made our decision, and that decision is
final! We ARE going to get married!"
Then suddenly the laughter stopped,
and the other Smurfs looked at both Empath and Smurfette in shock.
"Empath! Smurfette! How could you?!?"
"Yeah, how could you smurf this to
your fellow Smurfs?"
"I thought that you wouldn't love any
Smurf more than any other!"
"And you, Empath, have the nerve to
smurf her away from every other Smurf!"
"That's real unsmurfy of you both!"
And as the Smurfs continued to raise
their complaints at the announcement, Papa Smurf had just walked
onto the scene. "Please, calm down, my little Smurfs," he said to
them. "What's all this smurfing about?"
"Empath and Smurfette have announced
that they're going to be married!" one of the Smurfs said.
"Married?" Papa Smurf repeated,
sounding a bit surprised.
"Yeah, Papa Smurf," another Smurf
said. "This whole thing isn't fair."
"We love Smurfette, too. We don't
want Empath to smurf her away from us."
And again more complaints were raised
until Papa Smurf silenced them again.
"You Smurfs should be ashamed of
yourselves," he said. "Empath and Smurfette finally want to be
married, and all you Smurfs can do is complain about what's fair?
You should be happy for Smurfette being able to choose the Smurf
she wants to be with for all time, and you should be happy for her
choice no matter how you feel toward Empath. If Smurfette had
chosen any of you, wouldn't you want your fellow Smurfs to be
happy? And wouldn't you want Smurfette to be happy no matter
what?"
That made the other Smurfs stop and
think. "Well, when you smurf it that way..."
"Of course Smurfette deserves to be
happy."
"Why shouldn't she be able to smurf
for herself?"
"I'd love her even if she does marry
someone like Empath."
"Whatever smurfs her boat, is how I
feel."
Eventually Papa Smurf saw that his
little Smurfs were all in agreement over the issue of Empath and
Smurfette's wedding announcement.
"Good," he said. "Now that we've
gotten this smurfed away, I believe that the best way you can
smurf how much you love Smurfette despite her choice is to give
her and her bridegroom the best wedding, because I believe she
would expect nothing less than your best for her regardless of the
situation."
"But when are we going to smurf the
wedding, Papa Smurf?" one of the Smurfs asked.
"First I'm going to need to talk to
Empath and Smurfette privately about their decision," Papa Smurf
said. "A marriage is not exactly something for us to just smurf
into, so we need to make sure that this is what they truly want
before we smurf any other preparations. I'll let you know when you
can start smurfing for the ceremony. But for now, let's honor
Empath and Smurfette's decision. Is that understood?"
"Yes, Papa Smurf!" all the other
Smurfs said in unison.
Papa Smurf took Empath and Smurfette
inside his laboratory for a private little chat. As the village
leader paced around trying to think, Empath could see that Papa
Smurf wasn't used to having most of his face being clean-shaven,
as he now had to stroke his moustache whenever he pondered on
something.
"I'm just a little disappointed that
neither of you thought of smurfing me your decision first before
smurfing it public to your fellow Smurfs," he finally said when he
stopped pacing around.
"We're sorry, Papa Smurf, but we were
so excited that we just couldn't wait," Smurfette said.
"The whole thing was just
spur-of-the-moment thinking, Papa Smurf," Empath said. "Not that
this smurf hasn't thought about what it meant to ask the question,
but..."
"I know, Empath," Papa Smurf said,
interrupting his son. "I'm sure that you've wanted to smurf that
question to her for a long time. But are you sure that this is
what you really want...to smurf together with each other for all
time?"
"What would that mean for us, Papa
Smurf?" Smurfette asked.
"It means that you and Empath will be
treated differently than you would normally be, Smurfette," Papa
Smurf answered. "Your fellow Smurfs would no longer see you as a
single female Smurf that they can freely smurf anything with. They
will know that you belong solely to one Smurf for all time. And
your freedom to interact with your fellow Smurfs will also be
limited, because you know they will not be able to smurf you
anymore as they used to."
"But I don't see why the Smurfs
should smurf me as any different being married than they do if I
choose not to be married," Smurfette said.
"Marriage is a bond between two
people that is very exclusive, Smurfette," Empath explained. "And
that exclusiveness means that the two people in the marriage are
very protective of each other to the point where anything that
tries to get in the way of that union, whether friendly or
otherwise, can drive either partner to jealousy and even fits of
anger."
"It's a very sacred union,
Smurfette," Papa Smurf said. "There are things that smurf on in
marriages that cannot be smurfed with anyone outside it. That's
why you have to be careful about what you're smurfing into."
"And what about Empath?" Smurfette
asked. "Doesn't he have to be very careful about who he smurfs
with?"
"Fortunately there aren't many female
Smurfs in the village that can smurf Empath's heart away from
yours, Smurfette," Papa Smurf said. "But nevertheless, hearts do
have a tendency to stray, and there are females of other smurfs of
people that can smurf Empath's heart away. So Empath must also be
on guard with himself as well."
"Right now, this smurf is thinking of
where the two of us are going to live," Empath said. "If we're
going to live together, we'll need to make a decision of where
we'll settle down."
"I never thought of that before,
Empath," Smurfette said. "I'm so used to smurfing in my house, I'm
not sure what it would be like smurfing in another Smurf's house."
"Or even having somebody living in
your house, Smurfette?" Empath said.
"Why would I have a Smurf smurfing in
my house, Empath?" Smurfette asked, sounding as if she didn't that
idea one bit.
"It's just a thought, Smurfette,"
Empath said. "In any case, it would be pretty difficult for us to
be alone together if we don't have a single residence for
ourselves."
"Your friend Polaris hasn't smurfed
in his own house for years, Empath," Smurfette said. "Maybe it
would be time to smurf him your house, and...I'll have to have
Handy and a few other Smurfs do some smurf on my house, if that's
where we're going to smurf together."
"And there's something that I was
smurfing of as well," Papa Smurf said. "I know that you consider
your fellow Smurfs as well as myself as your family, but all
things considered, there aren't many female Smurfs besides
Sassette and Nanny to smurf on your behalf for the wedding, so
you're going to have to smurf up a list of female guests you would
want to have as part of the wedding ceremony. You'll need a matron
of honor as well as some bridesmaids."
"Flowerbell the woodnymph," Empath
suggested. "She was there for Woody and Laconia's wedding. She
could serve as the matron of honor."
"What about the Pussywillow Pixies?"
Smurfette said. "I'm sure some of them would be great
bridesmaids."
"Or even Laconia herself," Empath
said. "And then there's Vanity's friend Periwinkle the pixie."
"I was thinking Marina, except that
she's a mermaid and that she cannot smurf for very long outside of
water," Smurfette said.
"Anyway, it does seem like you two
are very sure that you're willing to smurf the risks of being
married," Papa Smurf said.
"We've waited long enough for this
time to come, Papa Smurf," Empath said. "Seeing Smurfette being
happy with her wish finally coming true is worth whatever risks we
may face along the way."
"And I don't want to smurf another
day of Empath smurfing by himself anymore, Papa Smurf," Smurfette
said. "If being married is what it smurfs for him to fully be a
Smurf, then that's what I will give him."
"Then you might as well start
smurfing preparations, my little Smurf and Smurfette," Papa Smurf
said. "I will tell the other Smurfs that the wedding will smurf
place within a week. That should smurf them enough time to make
sure everything is ready for that day."
"Oh, thank you, Papa Smurf!"
Smurfette said, giving the village leader a kiss on the cheek.
"You won't regret this, Papa Smurf,"
Empath said.
"I'm only hoping that neither of you
will, Empath," Papa Smurf said.
Meanwhile, the other Smurfs had their
own little discussion about Empath and Smurfette's wedding
announcement.
"This is the biggest moment in Smurf
history, my fellow Smurfs, and I'm totally at a loss for words!"
Brainy said. "What are we going to smurf about it?"
"What can we smurf about it, Brainy?"
one Smurf said. "This is Empath Smurf whom Smurfette is going to
marry. None of us can smurf a candle to him!"
"This just isn't fair," another Smurf
said. "It's like the whole deck of cards is smurfed against us."
"Yeah," a third Smurf said. "We're
just a bunch of normal Smurfs who love Smurfette, and Empath is
like greater than any of us. Of course, Smurfette's going to
choose him over us!"
"Well, I just have to say that I'm
glad for the lucky lad," Duncan McSmurf said. "Smurfette's a fine
young lass, and I'm sure Empath will smurf her life with
happiness."
"And I would gladly smurf up my own
happiness if it would make Smurfette happy," Tapper said.
"Let's face it, Smurfs," Poet said.
"We can't smurf anything to get Empath or Smurfette to change
their minds, so the only thing we can do to smurf our love for
Smurfette is to do what Papa Smurf says and smurf her the best
wedding. And if I'm going to smurf the best wedding poem for this
wedding to smurf how much I love Smurfette, then that's what I'm
going to smurf!"
"Les bonnes paroles, mon ami,"
Painter said. "And I will smurf her my greatest masteurpiesa."
"And I will smurf her my beautiful
scents and flower arrangements," Vanity said.
"And I will smurf for her my greatest
composition yet," Harmony said, briefly playing his horn.
Then more Smurfs made their voices
known, stating that they will do their best to give Smurfette a
happy wedding to show their love for her.
"It smurfs like we're going to need
some organization if we're going to smurf with Empath and
Smurfette on how to smurf together the perfect wedding," Brainy
said. "So therefore, I, Brainy Smurf, designate myself as the head
coordinator of all wedding preparations, unless any of you have
any objections!"
"Oh, fine, Brainy Smurf, the job is
yours!" Hefty said, sounding like he didn't want to be there at
this particular meeting in the first place.
"Well, at least I have one Smurf
who's willing to support my nomination for this role," Brainy
said. "Any others?"
No other Smurfs said anything
positive or negative.
"In that case, given the current
response, it seems that the coordinator job is mine," Brainy said.
"I will smurf with my brother Empath and with Smurfette, and I
will let you know what exactly we'll need to do in order to
properly prepare for this wedding. Until then, you are all
dismissed."
As the other Smurfs went off in their
own directions, Duncan McSmurf noticed Hefty's attitude. "What's
wrong, laddie?" he asked. "You look like someone's smurfed out
your innards and smurfed haggis with them!"
Hefty sighed. "It's nothing you
really need to know about, Gutsy!"
"Fine, then, smurf it your way,"
Duncan said. "I just hope you'll be helping us with smurfing the
heavy stuff before the ceremony smurfs. You'll be smurfing
Smurfette how much you care for the lass!"
"Yeah, right, how much I care," Hefty
growled.
Meanwhile, Nanny had just gotten up from her nap, stretching as she stood outside the guest house she was staying in during her visit to the Smurf Village when Sassette came running to her. "Nanny, Nanny, you've got to hear the latest news!" the little Smurfling cried out.
"Oh, for smurf's sake, Sassy, what's gotten you all so excited?" Nanny asked.
"It's Empath and Smurfette, Nanny," Sassette answered. "They just announced that they were going to be married."
"Married? So soon?" Nanny asked, sounding a bit bewildered at the news.
"It's been ten years since they met each other, Nanny," Sassette explained.
"Well, I'll be smurfed," Nanny said. "I didn't think that they would ever smurf it in themselves to even ask that they would smurf each other's hand together in marriage."
"But aren't you happy for them, Nanny?" Sassette asked.
"Happy? It's the best news that I have smurfed in years about them, Sassy," Nanny answered. "It just makes me wish that it could have been my marriage to Grandpa Smurf all those years ago."
"But you two are happy with each other now on Smurfling Island, aren't you?" Sassette asked.
"I couldn't have asked for a better companion to smurf my final years together with," Nanny replied. "All I can wonder now is who you're going to marry someday when you smurf to be Smurfette's age...well, as big as Smurfette is, if you know what I mean."
"I was wondering that myself, Nanny," Sassette said. "I just hope it's not with Snappy. He's the last Smurf that I want to think of marrying."
"I'm sure that he probably smurfs the same feelings for you as well, but times will change as you and the little Smurflings become adult Smurfs, and things will smurf much differently among the four of you when you do," Nanny said.
"I still wouldn't want it to be Snappy, Nanny," Sassette said rather insistently.
"You don't need to worry about it now, my little grandsmurf," Nanny said comfortingly. "You just enjoy what Smurflinghood you have left with your friends and let Father Time and Mother Nature smurf it from there. Me and Grandpa Smurf will still be thinking about you, okay?"
"Okay, Nanny," Sassette said, giving Nanny a hug.