Glinda and Nessa spent the rest of the day together. They laughed, they cried, they shared stories from the last five years. And occasionally, the pair shared stories that stretched even further back, before their days at Shiz. Although Glinda had always considered Nessa to be a friend at school, she didn't realize until today how little she actually knew about her.
"…and that was the first time Elphaba and I liked the same boy," Nessa laughed as she finished the story of the sisters' grade-school crush.
Glinda laughed along, but her eyes couldn't hide what she was really thinking. If only I could laugh about the first time Elphaba and I liked the same boy. Although her hatred for Elphaba and Fiyero had somewhat subsided after her emotional breakthrough, it certainly didn't mean the pain was gone. In fact, without the anger and rage to mask it, the sadness seemed even more ever-present than before.
"It would probably help if you talked about it." Nessa's voice pulled Glinda out of her thoughts, and she realized that the expression on her face must have said it all. And as much as she didn't want to talk about it, as much as she and Nessa had tried to avoid the conversation, she knew it was time to talk about Fiyero and Boq.
"Well there's not really much to say," Glinda sighed, staring off at the dancing flames in the fireplace. "We were engaged to be married, and then Elphaba showed up, and Fiyero decided he'd rather be with her." Glinda finished the sentence quickly, as if rushing through it would make things less painful.
Nessa put a hand on Glinda's shoulder, obviously showing her support, "But it can't be that simple, can it? I mean, one day the two of you were happy and engaged, and the next day he didn't want to stay?"
"Yes!" Glinda quickly responded, a little defensively. "Well, I mean, we had fights sometimes, but every couple has fights." She thought back to their engagement party, how he'd stormed off after the horrible things the citizens said about Elphaba. She remembered the exact look on his face when he said 'If it makes you happy, of course I'll marry you.' She knew it then, but she couldn't admit it to herself until now. "He always loved Elphaba," she finally sighed, letting a tear form in the corner of her eye. "I mean, we cared about each other of course, but I always knew that he wanted to be with Elphaba, not me…" she trailed off the end of her sentence. It felt odd saying it out loud, admitting what she had always known to be the truth. She expected it to be painful, anticipated feeling a sharp pain in her heart. But surprisingly, it felt somewhat calming and relieving, like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She stared at the diamond ring on her finger, and realized it would be a long time before the pain completely diminished. But she knew that this was a good beginning, and that the healing could begin.
Glinda wiped her eyes and turned to Nessa, looking her in the eye. "So what happened with you and Boq?" she asked quietly, hoping that the inquiry would not anger Nessa.
Fortunately, Nessa remained calm as she began her story. "I always knew he loved you," she said, smiling at Glinda, "even back at Shiz I knew it. So when I became governor, I brought him here, to help take care of me. I knew he didn't want to be here, so I even passed laws to limit Munchkin rights," she laughed, knowing how stupid and desperate she had been. Glinda nodded in understanding, now realizing why the citizens of Munchkinland were so angry at Nessa. "Anyway," she continued, "Elphaba showed up one day looking for help, and she was able to make me walk," she said pointing at her ruby-encrusted shoes. "I was so thrilled to show Boq, and he looked so happy," the smile faded from Nessa's face as he continued, "but he thought, since I could take care of myself now, that he could leave to find you." She got quiet, becoming emotional and obviously struggling to continue.
"So what happened?" Glinda asked quietly.
"I tried to stop him," she muttered, "but I couldn't. He left." Nessa was very short with her answer, as if she were leaving something out. But Glinda saw that Nessa was on the brink of another breakdown, and didn't want to push her.
Nessa let out a small laugh, with a bit of a cruel undertone, "It seems that my sister has been destroying relationships wherever she goes."
"She never meant any harm," Glinda sighed. She wanted to be mad at Elphaba too, but she had to be realistic, and didn't want to further the rift between Nessa and Elphaba. However, Glinda knew it would be a long time before she or Nessa healed their relationships with Elphaba.
Glinda stayed silent for a while, weighing her options. She'd been meaning to pull the small item out of her purse for quite a while, but was waiting for the right time. However, Glinda realized that, in a situation like this, there was no such thing as a 'right time'. So Glinda turned around to grab her purse and delicately pulled out the green bottle.
"Nessa, do you recognize this at all?" Glinda asked quietly, handing her the bottle of green liquid.
"Oh sure," Nessa said quickly, studying the bottle, "Elphaba used to carry it around all the time."
"She said it belonged to your mother," Glinda offered.
"Yeah, that's what I had always been told too. Obviously I don't remember anything about her, since she died giving birth to me."
"Oh, yeah," Glinda said, feeling guilty for bringing up that sad fact. "But Elphaba never told you anything about the bottle? Like where your mother got it?"
"Why do you care so much about this bottle?" At first, Glinda thought Nessa was being critical and judgmental, but it turned out she was being genuinely inquisitive.
Glinda had already thought it over, and decided that she could confide in Nessa. "Well a bottle like this is really rare, I've never really seen anything like it before."
"Same here, I think it's one-of-a-kind." Nessa agreed.
"Not exactly," Glinda sighed. "I was speaking with the Wizard the other day, and he offered me a drink from the exact same bottle!"
"Wow, what a strange coincidence," Nessa shrugged, shaking the bottle a bit as she continued to study it.
"Is it though?" Glinda asked. "I can't help but wonder if there's more to the story than that."
"What makes you think that?"
"I don't know," Glinda sighed, "just a feeling that I have."
"Well what would be the connection between my mother and the Wizard of Oz?" Nessa asked incredulously.
"I have no idea, I was hoping you'd have some answers," Glinda said quietly, realizing that Nessa had even less information than expected.
"Well, some of my mother's old things are stored in the attic, maybe those would be helpful."
Glinda nodded in agreement, and the women slowly made their way up to the attic, looking for the answers Glinda desperately sought.
Nessa led Glinda out of the parlor and up the marble staircase that curved around the edge of the vast foyer. Glinda rushed up the stairs behind Nessa, listening as their heels clacked against the marble stairs, echoing in the cavernous room. Glinda tried to take in more of the decorum on the second floor, but Nessa was moving quickly, and Glinda had to jog to keep up. The women moved through the mansion's eastern wing for some time, walking to the end of the expansively long hallway. At the end stood a small door that Nessa stopped in front of, grabbing the handle. Glinda noticed that this door stood in stark contrast to the rest of the mansion: while everything else screamed elegance and perfection, the attic door was comprised of knotted, rotting wood. I bet Elphaba spent a lot of her time up here, Glinda thought with a smirk, finally seeing something in the mansion that fit Elphaba's personality.
Nessa pulled on the door's handle, letting the poorly-oiled hinges creak as the door slowly swung open. Glinda peered around Nessa, trying to see what was in front of them, but found very little: she could see three stairs that looked as poorly maintained as the attic door, and the remainder of the stairs were completely enveloped in darkness.
"Umm Nessa," Glinda started with apprehension, "I can't see a damn thing up there, and those stairs look about as strong as Fiyero's and my relationship."
Nessa laughed, and Glinda found herself giggling too. I can't believe I'm already able to make jokes about this, she smiled as she felt herself healing ever-so-slowly, but quickly returned to the subject of the stairs.
"I mean, is this safe?" Glinda asked, looking Nessa in the eye.
"Well in terms of the darkness, I've got a lantern," Nessa smiled, pointing to the object sitting just inside the door. "And as for the stairs…I'm not sure. I obviously couldn't get up these stairs until recently, and I haven't tried yet."
This did nothing to calm Glinda's nerves, but she nodded as Nessa picked up and lit the lantern, moving slowly up the stairs. With the help of the lantern, Glinda could now see a set of steep, rickety stairs that led to the attic. Slowly, the women began to climb the stairs, listening as the wood groaned beneath their feet. Glinda could even feel the wood depress slightly under her, but seemed to carry her weight.
They had almost made it to the top of the stairs when the heel of Nessa's right shoe got caught in a knot of the wood, causing the shoe to slip off her foot. Without the help of the ruby-encrusted shoe, Nessa crumpled to the floor with a loud thud.
"Nessa, are you alright?" Glinda asked in a panic, trying to help Nessa up.
"I think so, I just need my shoe," she stammered, obviously frightened by the mishap.
It wasn't until then that Glinda realized how powerful Elphaba's magic was, and how much Nessa relied on these shoes. Glinda bent down to pick up the shoe, and was surprised that it felt hot in her hands. Glinda could feel the magic emitting from the shoe, reminding her how Elphaba was always the better one at magic. She slipped the shoe back onto Nessa's foot, and the woman immediately regained her footing without help.
"Thanks," Nessa sighed, obviously very embarrassed by her dependency. Glinda wanted to comfort Nessa, tell her that it was okay, but Nessa quickly rushed up the last few stairs, wanting to avoid the topic altogether. So, out of respect, Glinda kept quiet as she climbed the last few stairs, finally noticing the large room full of boxes and dusty furniture.
"Wow, there's a lot of stuff up here," Glinda observed, looking around the large attic.
"Yeah, my father moved a lot of stuff up here after I was born, it reminded him of my-" Nessa tried to finish her sentence, but was reduced to a fit of coughing.
"Are you okay?" Glinda asked, turning to face Nessa.
"Yeah," she was able to respond between coughs, "all the dust..."
Glinda's eyes finally began to adjust to the large room, and she was finally able to make out some details. Ornate furniture was scattered throughout the room, most of it still in pristine condition if you ignored the dust. A large painting leaned against the far wall, and Glinda assumed that it had to be a portrait of Elphaba's and Nessa's mother. The woman looked genuinely happy in the portrait, her twinkling eyes matching her infectious smile. Even Glinda couldn't help but stifle a grin, noticing how much both Nessa and Elphaba resembled their mother.
Glinda finally removed her attention from the portrait, and studied the rest of the room. Boxes of miscellaneous shapes and sizes filled up any empty space in the attic, probably totaling over two hundred in all. Fortunately, the contents of each box seemed to be neatly labeled, which made searching for a certain item much less tedious. Unfortunately, Glinda had no idea what she was looking for, and let out a sigh of frustration.
"Glinda," Nessa said hoarsely, "going downstairs…too much dust…" Nessa's dust allergy was obviously too much to handle, and she quickly shuffled over to the stairs, trying to stifle her coughs. Before she left the attic, Nessa turned and pointed to a small group of boxes and managed to emit the words, "start…with…those" before running down the stairs.
Glinda moved towards the group of three boxes Nessa had pointed to, and read the labels. One box was titled Letters, the second contained Pictures, and the third box held Melena's Books.
"Well, I guess it's as good of a place to start as any," Glinda sighed, dusting off a nearby chair so she could sit down.
Opening up the box of letter first, Glinda was surprised to see a disorganized mass of papers sitting in the box, both old and new. First, she found a love letter, obviously something that Frex had written Melena while they were dating. It read:
My Dearest Melena,
I am sorry my responsibilities as the future governor of Munchkinland have kept us apart so much. But please know that you're in here in my heart while I'm out of your sight. I love you so much, and I know things will get easier once I'm the governor, and we can finally be together. You can't deny it Melena, we're perfect together.
Glinda stopped reading, stuck on those last three words. We're perfect together. Glinda remembered when Fiyero used to say that to her, that they were perfect together. Back when we thought we were perfect, she sighed. Now much older and wiser, Glinda had realized that she and Fiyero were very flawed individuals. Beautifully flawed in her opinion, but flawed nevertheless. Part of her wanted to cry again, but Glinda knew she needed to fight those urges, needed to move on. So Glinda put down the love note, moving to the next note in the box. This was a birthday card, one that said "Happy Birthday Sister!" in bold letters across the front. Opening the card, Glinda smiled to see that it was give to Elphaba from Nessa when they were both very young. The note had been scribbled in green crayon, barely legible, but Glinda could make out "Hapy Birtday Elphaba!" Glinda laughed at Nessa's misspellings and poor handwriting, but it made her realize how close Elphaba and Nessa must have been as young girls.
Setting the birthday card aside, Glinda picked up a third letter, one written on a piece of cream-colored parchment with meticulously neat handwriting. It only took Glinda a moment to realize that Elphaba had written the letter, and quickly started reading:
My Dear Father,
There's been some confusion over rooming here at Shiz. But of course I'll care for Nessa for I know that's how you'd want me to respond. Yes, there's been some confusion for you see my roommate is…blonde. I completely loath her father! Everything about her, especially that high-pitched voice of hers! She thinks she's perfect and that she's better than everyone else, and I…
Glinda stopped reading. She was able to pinpoint exactly when this letter was written, for she had written a similar letter to her parents when she and Elphaba first became roommates. Her letter had been oddly similar, writing home to complain about Elphaba's horrible taste in clothing, her face, and her indescribable distaste for her roommate. Glinda wanted to be insulted by Elphaba's cruel words, but she realized that most of those things were probably true…at least they used to be.
Glinda continued sifting through the box of letters, unable to find anything of particular interest. She moved on to the box of pictures, which was full of family photo albums. However, the albums seemed a bit of a joke. There were dozens of pictures of Melena and Frex as they were dating, engaged, and married, and hundreds of pictures of a pregnant Melena. But then suddenly, the pictures stopped, nothing new to be added until there were only pictures of Frex and Nessa. They avoided taking any pictures of Elphaba, Glinda thought sadly, actually taking a moment to pity her. However, Glinda couldn't help but laugh out loud as she stared at one picture of Frex and Nessa, most of which was covered up by a green thumb trying to hold the camera.
Unfortunately, nothing worth noting was in the box of pictures, so Glinda skeptically moved on to the box labeled Melena's Books. Most were of no real relevance; she had a small collection of fictional books, along with some history books and biographies. However, as Glinda found herself sifting through a book entitled The Rise of the Wizard, something fell from between the pages. Glinda looked down at the floor and found that a picture had been pushed between two pages. Picking it up, Glinda gasped at what she saw.
Two figures stood in the picture, standing closely and holding hands. The first person in the picture was Melena, looking more happy than ever. Based on her physical appearance and style of clothing, it looked to be after Melena had been married, but before the birth of the girls. The second figure was a man, probably in his thirties at the time, looking as happy as Melena as they stood and posed for the picture. He was quite younger then, with a slightly more muscular build, and a full, dark head of hair, but Glinda couldn't help but recognize him. This was a picture of Melena with the Wizard of Oz. Grasping the photo tightly, Glinda ran downstairs to show Nessa her findings.