Chapter 11: Sleepless in Oz
A/N: I know you all must that I abandoned you, but I haven't. My computer kind of…died. I lost all my work. ;-; So we ordered a new one, and when we got back from our two-week Alaskan vacation, it was here! I wrote like three or four new chapters on vacation, so they'll be up as soon as I type them in…and give them titles. xD Well, enjoy!
Glinda was never able to go back to sleep. She sat on the balcony for the next few hours, mumbling over the Grimmerie, but finding it impossible to concentrate due to the pain in her ankle.
Realizing the time, she stood up and hobbled over to her closet with the Grimmerie in tow. She shoved it away in its spot among Elphaba's other effects.
"Five…four…" She mumbled, counting down while leaning on Elphie's broom for support, "Three…two…one."
As if on cue, a knock came to the door.
"Miss Glinda?" Jacques asked, "May I come in?"
"Yes, you may." Glinda said, leaving the closet and shutting the door.
Jacques entered, clutching a tray with coffee and scones for Glinda.
"Is there anything I can do for you?" He asked, setting the tray down on to end table.
"How about setting up an appointment with Healer Vetra for me?" Glinda asked sweetly, "I hurt my ankle this morning and I need to get it checked out."
"Right away, Miss." Jacques said, bowing his head.
He scurried out of the room like a mouse, another reason for Glinda to suspect he was related to the rodent. His features were mouse-like as well, small nose, big watery eyes. Glinda had compared him to a mouse since the first time she met him.
She sighed and plopped down on the edge of her bed, nibbling at a scone. She wasn't hungry; it was only a futile attempt to get her thoughts off of last night. Only, it wasn't exactly working.
I can't give that book to Morrible, I know I can't. But how am I going to get out of this? It's either the book or Elphie's life. And that is not a bargain I want to make. Where is Elphie when I need her?
She thought of the Elphaba's crystal orb, the one where she had watched Glinda's every move in Oz. Was she watching now? She opened her mouth to say something, just in case Elphie could see her, but the opening of her door silenced her.
"Miss Glinda? Healer Vetra said you could come right down." Jacques said.
"Alright." Glinda said, heaving herself up.
"She also told me to use this." He wheeled forth a wheelchair.
"You've got to be kidding me." Glinda said, looking horrorstruck, "Is she crazificated? It isn't hurt that bad."
Actually, it probably was, but Glinda didn't want anyone to know that just yet.
"Just orders, Miss." Jacques said, pushing the wheelchair up to her, "Get in, I'll wheel you down."
"This is just ridiculified." Glinda muttered, but she lowered herself into the chair anyway.
Jacques pushed her chair down the long corridors to the Medical Wing, which was on the other side of the palace. He kept a steady pace, even while enduring Glinda's annoying mumblings about how she could walk and she didn't need this chair.
The Healer opened the door to her examination room and ushered the Good Witch and her personal assistant inside. Healer Vetra was a tall, elegant woman in her mid-thirties. She looked like she was more suitable for a high-society ballroom than a profession like healing. But nonetheless, she looked extremely professional with her flowing brown-black hair pinned into a bun at the nape of her neck.
"Thank you, Jacques." Healer Vetra said, taking Glinda's wheelchair from him, "You may go now."
He left without a word, but with an unhappy expression on his face.
"So, what did you do this time dear?" Healer Vetra asked, beginning to examine her ankle.
"I tripped." Glinda lied, blushing for believability.
"Ah." The healer said, feeling the bones in Glinda's ankle, "No doubt in that extensive closet of yours."
Glinda laughed and nodded.
"That's odd." Healer Vetra said, speaking to herself and not Glinda.
"What?" Glinda asked, leaning over herself to look down at the healer.
"The bones don't seem to be broken like I expected, they seem to have grown apart." Vetra said, almost like she was in a trace.
Busted. Glinda thought. And what was even worse, she had nothing to say. She just sat, with her mouth agate.
"You must drink this potion." The healer said, tossing a purple bottle into Glinda's lap, "But I warn you, it'll be painful. I still wonder how in Oz this could happen."
Glinda shrugged, and saved herself the burden of speech by stuffing the bottle in her mouth.
"I'll call Jacques to take you back." Healer Vetra said.
She leaned out of the door and called for Jacques, who appeared seconds later. He pushed Glinda's wheelchair out of the room silently while Healer Vetra was muttering 'How can this be?' over and over.
Jacques left Glinda alone in her room, where she stood up and stood at the window. Her ankle felt like it was on fire, but the pain felt numb to the confusion that was wrenched deep inside. She realized, she couldn't do this on her own.
She walked to her closet and pulled Elphie's things out from their hiding place. She dressed in her own black dress and clipped Elphaba's cape around her neck. She stuffed her curly blonde hair under her pointed Witch's hat.
Glinda took Elphie's broom in her hand and looked at it. She had never flown on a broom before, but she couldn't take her bubble. It couldn't be much different than riding a horse, right? Of course, she had only ridden a horse once, but that wasn't the point.
She stepped onto her balcony, the wind whipping around her. The cape fluttering about and the skirt of her dress waving. She narrowed her eyes to keep the sting of the wind out of them. She held up the broom, wondervating how in Oz she would get this thing to fly.
"Fly!" She commanded.
It didn't budge.
"Please fly?" She pleaded.
Nothing.
She pleaded in her mind, focusing on how much she wanted, needed, to fly. She needed to get to Elphie.
And the broom rose.
She boarded it like Elphie, putting a leg on each side. Unsure of how to pilot said broom, she leaned forward. Much to her dismay, it shot off at full speed.