Author's Note: This is a parody of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and will stay fairly close to the book, with a few twists. Because I want to stay consistent with the style and plot of the original book, this story will probably take me quite a while to actually finish, so please be patient.
Everything was wet. Wet and grey and cold. A small figure all in black rushed across a faded grey lawn from a beaten up grey Toyota pickup. She held on for dear life to a tattered umbrella that could not hold back the torrential rain. The wind blew fiercely and the puddles that had formed on the asphalt had begun to run together into an impromptu raging river in the street. The figure reached the tiny, single story grey house and barely pulled her poor excuse for an umbrella into the building before slamming the heavy grey door behind her.
The figure shook off, slumped her shoulders, and began shivering. She was grey, too. Actually, Darlene Gray. There was really nothing grey about her, and she stood out sharply from her utterly dove-tinged environment. She cried out "Mama? Jacob?" but no answer came from the rest of the house. She gathered a large and soft heather grey blanket around her shoulders and began searching for her family.
"Oh, hello Pandora!" A petite Siamese cat looked up at Darlene with big blue eyes. The kitten greeted her with a cheerful meow in return, and immediately followed at her heels as Darlene continued her search. All the while, the tempestuous waters had begun to rise around the miniscule wooden home. Darlene collapsed dejectedly upon the queen-sized bed in her mother's room, and it was at this exact moment that the building broke loose from its foundations, causing her to jump up immediately in shock.
"My goodness! Whatever could that be?" Being a smart young woman of twenty years old, Darlene went to the window and quickly realized that her house was now rapidly traveling down the ever-widening river that used to be East 4th Street. "Oh Pandora, what ever will we do?" She lay back down on the bed and began to sob uncontrollably. She was certain that death was on its way and there was nothing she could do to fight the raging flood all on her own. Pandora curled up beside her and began licking her fingers in an attempt to calm the poor girl. As silly as it may sound, the soft purring of the cat and the faint rocking of the bed caused by the furious water beneath them helped Darlene to drift into a peaceful sleep as the little grey house continued to float downstream…