A/N: JE owns these characters; I am a friggin nut who likes to play a bit with them. Also credit needs to go the late L. Frank Baum for his characters from The Wizard of Oz. There is a place in Beech, NC called Land of Oz; I have changed it using poetic license to fit it in with this story. .

Thanks to Jenny for her wonderful beta skills.

Follow The Yellow Brick Road 21

The line was moving along quickly to the first attraction we were going to see at The Land of Oz, when I made a startling realization. It was incredible when something gets switched on in your brain, like a light switch turning an electric bulb on. My body stiffened and I pulled my hand out of Carlos' grasp. I needed to use my hands as I related what had happened.

"Babe?"

"Carlos, I've got it!"

"What did you get?"

"I think I know who started the fire and why!"

"Care to explain?"

"Sure. When I was in the back of the bus with Julie and her friends, there was a lot of talk about the boys that were hurt. Have I told you what big gossips these girls are? They give the 'Burg grapevine a run for their money. They could talk for hours."

"And..."

"It seemed that the two boys are cousins. One of them, Peter was an exemplary student until his cousin, Eamon appeared Eamon, appeared. No problems of any kind had occurred before that, because Peter or Petey, as he was called, was a serious and shy boy. Then Eamon recently transferred to school after he had been kicked out his three previous schools. Guess the family thought they could buy Eamon out of trouble. Dade has an excellent reputation as a swanky private school and with his cousin Peter's influence, they thought Eamon could turn his life around. That was easier said than done, and chances were the positive changes wouldn't have lasted very long."

I waited until Carlos nodded, then continued. "For a while, the family thought that their plan had worked. Things were alright for a month of two, and then things took a rapid downhill turn as these two get into trouble, as if it was their job. The school was never the same afterward. Tales of their exploits are legendary, as the two terrors wreaked havoc on the once sedate bastion of learning. They stuffed up toilets with reams of paper as a prank at the school. Too bad the incident was not even remotely funny. It cost the Caspian family a lot of money to repair the plumbing in the school. Security had the goods on the boys instantaneously, and almost prevented the damage for occurring at all."

Carlos nodded again. "They have fairly good security, which is one of the reasons why Julie is attending that school. I handpicked all the Rangeman personnel that work there. I've done my best to make sure no one will ever hurt Julie again.

"Right. So anyway even though the school drips with money because of all the wealthy and elite students attending, these boys are even wealthier than most. There is a certain cachet of power associated with wealth. The family has mucho dinero, being that they're Caspian Shipping. That company makes more money hand over fist than their competitors do. They're the crème de la crème in the shipping field. Their motto is 'if you ship it, ship it by Caspian'. If they dealt with gold rather than cash, they would have more than Midas. This company is tops in its field. They have trade routes that crisscross the Earth, making it international. The girls..."

"Which girls?"

"Remember, the Dade school grapevine is equivalent to the 'Burg's. Seems the boys were flashing a pack of cigarettes as if it was manna from Heaven. These boys liked to smoke and bragged how they did it all the time. No adult even knew about it, or ever would, at least in their opinion. They thought they could get away with doing it at the museum. They felt the chaperons on the trip were wusses, present company excluded. Their initial plan was to do it at the hotel, but thought that was too risky, due to a certain Rangeman, my very own man in black but today blue, on duty. So plans were changed to the museum."

"I wonder, then, why the fire went awry. The burn tracks suggest an accelerator."

"Funny you should ask that…Okay, this is strictly all conjecture, but I think this is what happened. The boys were in the restroom smoking, when they heard someone coming their way. Instead of snuffing the cigarette out, or extinguishing it by tossing it in the toilet, they threw it into the garbage receptacle. Maybe they were afraid of messing up the plumbing."

"Babe."

Gee, how could Carlos' name for me evoke so many different meanings? This time he seemed exasperated. Oh...I should really go back to my explanation...

"Anyway, there was too much stuff in the receptacle. Things such as paper fueled the flames, not allowing the fire to die out. Then there was something else in the trashcan that made the fire's magnitude even bigger, such as an aerosol can of hairspray or something like that. Whatever the contents were, they were extremely combustible. BOOM, the garbage can explodes, then the boys panic, knocking down it over in the process and blocking their only means of escape. That is why they couldn't get out until the Rangeman cavalry arrived."

I was gasping for air by talking without a pause now, as I sputtered out the explanation for the fire. It was a relief to get it all out and have Ranger as a sounding board for my theory. Hopefully, Carlos would think that it made sense, because he actually rescued the boys and been in the restroom.

"That's sounds extremely plausible. Proud of you, Babe. I am going to run it by the authorities as a likely scenario until they get the evidence to back you up. At least, they could have some possible leads. You have the best instincts of anybody I know. Excuse me for a sec while I make the call."

Luckily the line had stalled, so Carlos had time to make his call. I gave him some distance without me listening to every word he said. He came back to the queue, his face blank.

Sheesh! That can't be good, I thought to myself. Carlos' blank face was freaking me out. I was hoping that it wasn't bad news, because any warning bells were conspicuously absent. I trusted my instincts, so maybe I should relax.

Then I noticed that his lips were quirked like he was about to smile, and a sense of calm washed over me. I knew at that moment that it was not bad news at all; that maybe I had solved the mystery.

Hey, I am Nancy Drew…the heroine the books I used to read as a girl.

"Seems that the preliminary testing supports your theory, Babe… but that is not all; I got a call from Flo Knighton-Gale too. The boys have been doing a lot of talking on their own since they have come out of what they feel is a near death experience. The shock has worn off and they're singing like canaries. Their statements to the authorities confirm it as well. I don't know how you do it. You're amazing! You didn't even go into the restroom, but were able to make an educated guess due to the pieces of the puzzle you had. Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it."

His words and support always made me think more of myself because Carlos believed in me. With everybody around, it would have been inappropriate to do anything but hold hands. With our fingers interlaced, we gave each other a slight squeeze. I felt that this unconditional love was better than any wings, and it made my heart soar, as if I really could fly. Maybe I didn't have this ESP thing, but I had more insight.

"I didn't do much…just kept an open mind and listened to what the girls had to say."

Julie was huddled among a group of her friends. Her cheeks had regained their color and her chocolate brown eyes were sparkling. She seemed to be herself again. I never wanted Julie to suffer any unpleasantness ever again, since she been through a lot this past year. Julie definitely has a lot of Manoso blood running through her veins, because most children her age would have had much more difficulty in dealing with things than she did.

"Hey Dad. Steph. The girls think you two are like some sort of superheroes and make a good team. Sort of like Batman and Wonder Woman."

The irony just cracked me up and I was surprised to hear Carlos laughing, too. Carlos does not laugh aloud too often, but when he does, it's a deep, from-the-gut kind of laugh. It was music to my ears.

"Hey, are you two laughing at me? Because I don't get the joke," complained Julie.

When our laughter died down with tears in our eyes, I immediately reassured Julie.

"No, sweetie, we weren't laughing at you. It's just really unbelievable that you should say that. I always call your dad Batman. The Batman theme song is even his ringtone on my cell. My friend, Lula, and I always call him that. When I was a little girl, I wanted to be Wonder Woman. I thought I could fly, so that's why I jumped off our garage roof. All I got for my troubles was a broken arm. That cast really itched horribly. The coincidence struck us funny that you and your friends would call us that, too."

At that, Julie's face transformed from one of dismay to joy. Her happiness increased when we finally got to the beginning of the line and were able to climb on.

We went into rectangular cars painted to resemble beds. The cars were placed in a circle, and atop of the room was a domed ceiling that resembled a planetarium. The cars spun around in a full circle that moved clockwise, then counterclockwise. If that was not enough, the car went up and down, too. The car, or bed, flew around like whirling dervishes against the backdrop of a blue screen that had scenes from The Wizard of Oz, especially those of the tornado spinning out of control. It even had a cow flying by and flying and Miss Gulch pedaling her bicycle on it.

"Steph, this looks great."

"It sure does. C'mon, let's go on."

It was great! Even Carlos had a great time, his beatific countenance lost its hard edge and he looked like a young boy. It was a pity that he could not look like this always. He had an angelic innocence that I never suspected he possessed. His high wattage smile lit up his face. I mean, Ricardo Carlos Manoso is always drop-dead gorgeous, but I had never seen him so far removed from a badass. It showed me a glimpse of a younger Carlos, before real life and the military took its toll on him. I wondered how else I would see him as we went further on the yellow brick road together.