Chapter 9
"It's definitely not one of my better days," Elphaba whispered, sounding strangely angry. "But there is nothing we can do about it now. There are those other people down there waiting. And her parents are coming. I have no time to rest. So I have to try not to think about it, and that's the end of it."
Elphaba hurried to catch up to Glinda, who had just realized her friends had fallen behind. Fiyero caught up as well, still feeling intense worry, and now a bit of anger as well. He wondered if the long, trying day was going to make Elphaba feel even worse by nightfall. In the weeks since Glinda had cast the counterspell, Elphaba had not had a day where the pain affected her greatly. But now, watching her as they walked back downstairs, he could see how slowly and cautiously she moved, as if at any moment she could trip and fall. When she continued to walk slowly even after they had returned to the ground floor, Glinda glanced curiously in Elphaba's direction. Her concern was immediately waved away. "It was a long trip, I'm a little worn out, that's all. The sight of your house sure woke me up, though," she teased. "Interesting color."
Glinda blushed, and laughed a little, but not as heartily as Elphaba had hoped for. The time had come to meet with the dressmakers, the moment Elphaba had been dreading. Just before the two women went into the other room, Fiyero smiled encouragingly at Elphaba. "It probably won't be that bad. Just don't let them talk you into anything you don't like, and don't let them stick you too many times. Easy."
"Sure, for you to say," Elphaba said with a scowl. "You don't have to put up with them all day!"
"Oh yes he does," Glinda said, sounding a bit too happy about it. "He has to be fitted for a tuxedo, you know. Travion does, too. He escaped it last time, so today is his day too."
Elphaba laughed at the crestfallen look on Fiyero's face, and they all walked back to where the seamstresses were waiting. Elphaba frowned upon seeing that there was a team of people there. She counted quickly. Eight.
"This many people, just to decide on clothes? What are they going to do, stitch everything together in one day?" Glinda frowned at seeing her friend so anxious. "No, of course not. It won't move that fast. It's not as bad as it looks, only two of them will be helping you." She pointed toward the right side of the room. "Them," Glinda continued, indicating two women that looked to be not much older than themselves. She gently pushed Elphaba forward. "They won't hurt you. And we'll all be in here with you."
The two people who were supposed to be helping Glinda with her dress rushed over, practically dragging her away. Fiyero had wandered toward two gentlemen that were beckoning him so enthusiastically it was nearly repulsive. Travion was still nowhere to be seen, but Elphaba had little doubt Glinda would go in search of him sooner rather than later. Elphaba herself was left with no choice but to join her two helpers, who looked much more like vultures to her, at least for the moment. As she approached, she quietly gave her name, then pointed to Fiyero where he stood across the room, explaining that he was her fiancee. The two women didn't offer either their names nor any congratulations on the upcoming wedding. Instead, they began asking her gruff questions about what she wanted her dress to look like.
"I haven't got any idea," Elphaba admitted. "I haven't really thought about it. I've never had anything so fancy before, and I don't even know what kinds of choices there are to make."
The two young women looked suddenly older and very cranky as they both rolled their eyes, realizing what a long day they had ahead of them. Elphaba couldn't help seeing their displeasure, and immediately began to apologize for her lack of knowledge and experience. They didn't seem to hear her, instead ordering her to sit on a nearby chair. The woman with a thick shock of red hair pulled back in a coarse bun thrust several large books into Elphaba's hands and bade her to look through them and decide things for herself. The other woman, who had a pinched little face and brown hair that seemed overly curly, laughed at the confused look on Elphaba's face. They turned away and began to talk animatedly to each other as Elphaba began to page through the oversized volumes which, it turned out, contained pictures of just about any wedding gown a bride could dream of. They came in all styles, lengths, and even colors. Having never been to a wedding in her whole life, this was all entirely new to Elphaba. Somehow she had never imagined a wedding could be so colorful, and the choices quickly overwhelmed her.
She continued looking at the pictures for several minutes past the point that she felt completely at sea. But then she set the books aside, listening instead to the idle gossip of her supposed helpers. They were laughing at something, trying with no success to hide their childish giggling. She wondered how they succeeded so utterly in making a normally happy sound seem so mean and revolting.
"Did you see him, the other fiancee?" the red-haired lady was saying behind a cupped hand, though it did nothing to mask the sound. "The Winkie prince, that one is. It's a shame, though, all that money and power coming to him, and he has the intelligence of a tree!" She laughed loudly at her supposed joke, then looked around guiltily , and quieted instantly as she saw Elphaba watching her. The woman's companion took up where she had left off, however.
"Well, then maybe the blonde one is more suited to him," she said brazenly, not caring if anyone overheard. "What she lacks in brains, at least she can make up for in personality. He'd have to watch her, though, she'd probably be tramping herself all over the city as soon as his back was turned!"
They continued in this vein for several minutes, during which time Elphaba rose from her chair and clenched her fists at her sides. She wanted to shout at them, to tell them they didn't know what they were talking about, or at least get them to shut their mouths. But she resolved not to make a scene, not to embarrass anyone on a day like this. But soon, her anger grew to the point that it would not be contained, and she knew she had to get away before something happened that would almost surely give all those present suspicions about her. She made no sound, simply stalked off, and as she neared the door, Elphaba began to actually run away. She did not see the shocked looks on the faces of most of the people in the room. Glinda and Fiyero, however, had some idea what might be wrong, and Fiyero began to follow his bride to be as quickly as he could.
By the time Fiyero found her, Elphaba had made her way all the way down to the basement, which was as yet nothing but concrete and bare light bulbs. This part of the house clearly went unused, and Fiyero had little doubt that was what had drawn Elphaba here. They had not even been shown this basement during the tour, but still Elphaba had found her way. He supposed it was the power of her emotions that had led him to exactly where she was. As he stepped off the last wooden stair, one of the bulbs popped over his head, the light flashing out and tiny shards of glass scattering in the same instant. One of these hit him on his left cheek, but cut him so superficially that he hardly took notice of it. He rushed forward, grasping Elphaba rather roughly by her shoulders. He shook her slightly once, and she looked up at him. He had not seen her eyes filled with such anger in a very long time, not even when she had discovered the wizard had been admitted into her home.
Another of the light bulbs popped, more loudly this time. "Elphaba, you have to stop!" he cried. "Do you want to risk someone figuring out who you are? People still hate you here!" At the word hate, the several remaining bulbs all winked threateningly at the same time. Fiyero shook Elphaba more harshly, feeling ready to slap her face if he had to, for the first time since he had met her.
""Elphaba... Ivy, this is not a game. You have to stop this. Someone might see! You have to stop." He implored once more, and at last, she seemed to hear him. The fury seeped away from her, and her shoulders sagged. Without suggestion from Fiyero, she walked tiredly to the staircase and sank down onto it. Now, he came and sat beside her, taking one of her hands in his.
"I'm sorry I shook you like that," he said earnestly. "But you weren't listening, and it's dangerous for..."
"I know," she interrupted. "We shouldn't have come here, Fiyero. We could have done this another way." She looked into his face and saw the small trickle of blood on his cheek. "The glass must have cut you," she said, sounding like she wanted to cry. Fiyero pulled a handkerchief from a pocket of his trousers and absently wiped the blood away. "It's okay, I know you weren't trying to hurt me," he reassured her. After a moment or two more, Fiyero asked Elphaba what had brought on her fit of anger.
"Those stupid women up there!" she cried spitefully. "The things they said..."
Elphaba felt the rage growing inside her again, and forced herself to fall silent. "What did they say?" Fiyero prodded gently.
After she had calmed herself enough to reply, Elphaba told him what he wanted to know. "They said how stupid you are, and that maybe you and Glinda should be getting married because she's no smarter than you are, but that you'd have to keep your eye on her all the time so she wouldn't cheat on you. So much they know! If they're getting paid, why should they even care who we are? And what gives them the right to say things like that??"
"Nothing," Fiyero said as soothingly as he could. "Nothing at all. They don't really know us... They're just talking, saying mean things because they have nothing better to do. I can't blame you for being furious, but you're just going to have to do your best to endure them until this is over. I'm sorry, too... I wanted this day to be fun, not upsetting. Are you feeling better yet?" He squeezed her hand reassuringly.
"More under control, you mean," Elphaba corrected. "I am better, but I think it would be best to stay here a few more minutes." She abruptly changed the subject, as if not even wanting to think about how enraged she had been moments before. "Those two up there weren't even any help at all... I have no idea what I'm doing, and all they did was push these huge books at me, with what must be thousands of pictures, and tell me to make up my own mind! How am I supposed to know what to choose? I thought that was their job, to help me figure things out."
"It is," Fiyero said, seeming angrier about this than about the cruel gossip. "When we go back up there, someone is going to help you sort this out. If Glinda isn't all pins by now, she'd help you too. Just ask her, she won't mind." He seemed to know this was just the encouragement Elphaba needed. At last spent of her heightened emotion, she sighed and leaned against Fiyero's shoulder. "My head aches," she said, sounding very tired and sad. "I wish I could go to sleep right now. But they can't find out... Especially not Glinda. Not yet."
"They won't. If I have to, I'll cover for you. Come on, let's go get this over with. We can see if Glinda has dragged Travion out of his hiding place yet, and I'm sure those two guys that are just dying to find me the perfect tuxedo are convinced I'm never coming back. Maybe they think we decided to elope!" He laughed, and was relieved to hear genuine laughter escape Elphaba's lips as well. They returned quickly upstairs to the room Elphaba thought of as a circus, to find everyone milling about, wondering where half of the wedding party had gone. Travion had emerged from hiding and was attempting to reassure Glinda, who looked more worried than either Elphaba or Fiyero had ever seen her.
"Something is wrong," Glinda was saying. "Very wrong. I couldn't see Elphaba from where I was, but I saw Fiyero. The way he raced out of here, he must have been following her. That has to be it..." she trailed off, trying not to burst into tears, and Elphaba and Fiyero could take it no longer. They walked over to where Glinda and Travion stood, then waited quietly to be noticed.
"Oh, you came back!" Glinda cried, managing to hug them both at once. "What happened, where did you go?"
"We'll tell you later, when there are less prying ears around," Fiyero said, so softly only the four of them, gathered in a tight knot, could hear his words. Then he fell silent, and glanced at Elphaba. She knew what he was waiting for her to say, and she did so.
"Glinda... Those two over there were all put out that I don't know how I'm supposed to start making all these decisions. Can you help me... Please?"
Elphaba looked everywhere but at Glinda as she awaited the reply. It was clear Elphaba was highly embarrassed by being so unsure of what to do. Glinda, however, seemed to take this as completely expected, and threw a cross look in the direction of the two workers Elphaba had been with earlier. She saw they were now engrossed in reading a copy of one of the many scandal sheets printed in the city, the red-haired woman reading from over the curly haired one's shoulder. Glinda decided it didn't matter now, and led Elphaba to another pair of women, the ones that had spirited Glinda away earlier.
"These two know what they're doing, they are in charge," Glinda said confidently. "Between them and me, you will get everything sorted out."
Glinda properly introduced Elphaba to her new helpers, then Fiyero winked at her before returning to his own fitting session. Travion reluctantly did the same, muttering something about straitjackets. Still, his eyes held a smile, and Elphaba knew he was going to make a very happy groom.
