Hallway Harry
Harry looked around the hallway. He had been here before and just as before, there was five year old Kelly, looking up at him with solemn eyes. She smiled at him and didn't look so solemn. Harry smiled back.
"Why do we keep coming back to the Hallway, Kelly?"
"I always come back to it when I'm five. That's the age at which I made it."
"Am I always in the Hallway with you?"
"You're new to the Hallway. Before, when I made it, it was just me. I could go visit my friends. Now that you're here, it's not so lonely."
Harry smiled down at her. He went down on one knee and looked at her. "I'll always be in your Hallway, Kelly."
"You didn't used to be. But I don't think I'm going to let you leave it. Ha! You're trapped."
Harry laughed. "I don't mind."
'Otay."
"Where do we go?"
"Anywhere we want. Who do you want to visit?"
"I don't know."
"How about Glinda. And I promise to be on my best behavior."
"Glinda?"
"Yeah, Oz. I tell you three times. Oz, Oz, Oz."
"Okay, Oz it is. How do we get there."
Kelly looked befuddled. "Okay. We have to pick the right door, 'cause if we don't, we might get something bad."
"Oh. Okay. Well, which one is the right door?"
'Uh, I don't know."
"This is bad. Kelly, it's your Hallway, surely you know your way around, don't you?"
"Not really. I've been too scared to chance it. But now that you're here, I'm much braver!"
"Alright, but we've got to find the door to Oz."
"I'll let you pick it."
"Why me?"
"'Cause you're bigger and have more muscles."
Harry gave her look that promised consequences. Kelly just looked innocent, then when she thought he wasn't looking, she gave him a cheeky grin. Harry saw it and glowered at her.
Kelly looked disheartened and then suddenly gave him an more profoundly evil grin. Harry was scared. Kelly took off running down the Hallway and Harry didn't know what to do. Finally, when she was out of view, he took off running after.
"Kelly, come back here! What are you doing?"
"Catch me if you can, Harry. I'm too fast for you!"
"Come back here. I don't want to chase you! This is dangerous!"
Kelly didn't answer back. Harry couldn't see her. He hoped she hadn't gone through any doors.
He got a stitch in his side and was out of breath but he continued running anyway. He didn't understand why the Hallway was curved. He couldn't see her! Where was she?"
He called down the Hallway, "Kelly!" He didn't get a response. He was both angry at her and scared for her. "Damn!"
He was about to go through a door to find when he heard a peculiar noise. It sounded like someone said, "Boo!"
He looked down and saw her grinning at him and he wanted to strangle her.
"Gotcha!"
"I'm gonna kill you!"
"Sorry, couldn't resist."
"Shit. Don't do that again."
"Don't worry, I won't. It'd be boring."
"Don't play pranks on me Kelly. I'll get extremely mad."
"Hehehe…"
"I mean it!"
"Sorry. I have a lot of the devil in me."
"You're still young enough to spank."
"I"d have you charged with child endangerment."
"Do you want me to help you or not?"
"Do you want a feather?"
"That's not fair."
"Life's not fair."
"Tell me about it."
"Do you have time now or later."
"I was making a rhetorical remark."
"I'm not stupid. I knew it. Maybe my remark was rhetorical."
"Maybe we should stop this argument."
"Okay. Let's find Oz."
'Fine."
"Which door do you think it is?"
"I don't know. Maybe it's green."
"Maybe when I touch it, it'll turn green."
"Okay, then you should start touching doors."
"Alright, stand back…"
Harry did and Kelly touched a door. It turned a sickly yellow.
"I don't think we want this one. It's probably bad."
"I think so. I wish we had pen and paper so we could remember which door this was. We don't want to come back to it."
"You're right. But we don't have pen and paper, so we'll just have to make do."
They tried the next door and this time it turned candy striped.
"What the Hell is this?"
"Maybe it's Candyland?"
"I don't want to go there."
"Me either. Let's try again."
She touched another door and this time it did turn green. "This might be Oz."
"Do you want to find out?" Asked Harry.
"Yeah. It's a pretty green. It should be a good place."
They went through and found themselves on rocks. They looked all around and saw a desert that seemed to go on forever.
"Maybe this isn't Oz," said Harry. "I think we got the wrong door."
'No, I think this is Oz. We're in the Deadly Desert. All we have to do is wait for Glinda to give us the red carpet. She probably knows we're here."
Suddenly they saw a red carpet coming at them. Harry was surprised and pleased and Kelly clapped her hands. "This will be fun," she said.