Chapter 6- Making Good
Elphaba found her way easily. She entered the room at the top of the stairs. Glinda and Fiyero looked at her when she came in. She looked much better wearing one of her own black dresses. Her hair was streaming down her shoulders and she was finally smiling. The room in the attic was tiny but had great view to the Emerald City. A big steaming pot stood in the middle of the room. The desk was loaded with open books. Elphaba went over there first, and immediately started flipping through the pages of the books, murmuring to herself all the while.
Glinda watched her for a moment, and then reached over and took one more book out of a sideway cupboard. She gave it to Elphaba, who took it slowly, looking contemplated. The Grimmerie.
"I hope I'll be able to do it," she whispered and sat down, browsing through it. Fiyero and Glinda left her alone as she went through the unreadable pages and continued her silent murmur. From their days at Shiz, Glinda knew it was Elphaba's way to remain concentrated.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. "Miss Glinda?" Boq. The three exchanged frantic glances, but didn't have a chance to decide what to do, as the door suddenly opened. Boq froze on the threshold when he noticed the scarecrow… and next to Glinda's desk… was it…
"Boq!" Glinda exclaimed, caught off-guard, it seemed. As a matter of fact, she looked almost terrified at his presence. The scarecrow stared at him and so was Elphaba. Was it Elphaba? She was supposed to be dead! He was there, she was destroyed! He stepped slowly into the room. "Please close the door," asked Glinda. He did as she asked and turned to look at them.
"What in Oz name is going on here?" he asked furiously, looking directly into Glinda's eyes.
"Boq… let me explain-"
"You better explain!" he shouted. He had never felt so betrayed.
"Shhh! No-one is supposed to know that they are here!"
"Including me?"
"Especially you! Look, Boq, I didn't want to hurt you because I knew how much you…" she started, but didn't know how to finish. She looked at Elphaba helplessly, as if hoping for her help.
Boq's gaze wandered towards Elphaba too. She looked back at him sorrowfully. "But you're supposed to be-"
"… Dead? Well, I'm not. And I guess that now would be a good time to apologize. I really didn't mean to cause you any harm, Boq, I was only trying to fix Nessa's-"
"Oh, how convenient! Blame it on your dead sister!" he cut her off abruptly.
Glinda let out a gasp. "Boq!" She was appalled at his nasty remark, and the tone he used against Elphaba. How could he speak to her that way? Couldn't he see that she meant her apology? Couldn't he see how sorry she was?
Elphaba didn't seem to care. She was used to all that by now. "No, let him. He has a right to be hurt and frustrated, I understand," she said calmly. She looked seriously at Boq. "Boq, I would never do this to you on purpose. I only tried to fix Nessa's mistake. She misread one of the spells in my book and… it was the best I could do to save your life. I don't expect you to forgive me or even like me again, but please… just understand… I didn't have a choice," she ended quietly.
Boq turned to look at the scarecrow. He hadn't seen him since the day the Wizard took off. "And what are you doing here?"
"There's another thing…" said Glinda. "He is…"
"Fiyero," completed Elphaba.
Boq stared at both of them, completely shocked. "Fiyero?" he repeated, unwilling to believe it. Elphaba nodded sadly. The questions whirled through Boq's mind. Was it possible? He had never said anything back there on the Yellow Brick Road… but he did try to convince them to back on their tracks at some point of the journey, when they headed Kiamo Ko, it suddenly dawned on him. Sweet Oz, could it really be Fiyero?
"I hope you'll believe me now," Elphaba's soft voice invaded his thoughts. He blinked, a bit disoriented. She was looking straight at him. He couldn't look away. "I have never had any intention to do that… for either of you… that was the only way to…" her voice trailed off as she turned away from them, as if she didn't want them to see her cry. Fiyero approached her and put his stuffed hands on her shoulders while she cried silently.
"I… don't know what to say," said Boq finally. Now he felt really bad for making her cry.
"You can start with 'I'm sorry'," remarked Glinda.
Boq sighed. "Elphaba… I'm not sure I can understand, not at this point. Do you have any idea what it's like to be like that? To be different?" He regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth.
She looked back at him, her expression heart-wrenching, and then nodded. "Yes," she said sadly, "Yes, I think I do."
His expression was one of pure regret. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"
"Look, just forget it," she cut him off, "I'm here to help you become yourself again and we are wasting our time on childish arguments. Now if you'll excuse me…" her voice trailed off as she returned her attention to the books on the desk. Boq sighed and shrugged, but left her alone. More than anything, he wanted her to transform him to his old self again.
The room was washed with the orange color of the setting sun. Elphaba was alone in the attic for several hours now; Glinda decided to leave her alone and took Boq and Fiyero downstairs, to discuss their next move.
Elphaba stared at the Grimmerie. Humanization Spell, said its curly ancient letters. She got up and took several steps towards the steaming pot, her thoughts whirling. For once, just for once, she wanted to be able to do the right think for those she loved so much. She started stirring the hot liquid in the pot while murmuring the unfamiliar words, closing her eyes in concentration. Lakum samare lakum daya saver… lakum samare lakum daya saver… She opened one eye and looked at the liquid in the pot. It changed its color. It was black when Glinda first started making the potion but now it was almost… was that green? She stopped at once while the liquid was pure emerald colored. She hesitated. Praying to all the gods she knew, she slowly poured the emerald liquid into two small bottles.
"What time is it?" asked Fiyero and moved away from the window.
"Ten minutes later than the last time you asked," smiled Glinda. She was tired. Even though she hadn't actually done anything so far, waiting for Elphaba to come back was stressful.
"How long will she stay there, anyway?" asked Boq.
"As long as it takes," Glinda replied. She was still mad at him, for treating Elphaba the way he did. He started feeling guilty himself about some of the things he had told her. Listening to Fiyero and Glinda raise forgotten memories and talk about her in such admiration made him feel even worse. "Boq… Boq, are you alight?" asked Glinda. He realized he didn't hear what she asked him a minute ago.
"Yes, I'm sorry, I was… thinking," he answered quietly. "I was pretty awful earlier… I didn't mean to… I was so angry, I didn't think…"
"She knows," said Fiyero and smiled to his old friend. "You have to understand her too, Boq. Doing this to you… to me, too… It haunted her for years. She always felt so guilty about it… tormented…"
"I just wish she could reverse this," said Boq honestly.
Fiyero nodded. "I know. Because if she will… I mean, when she will, I'm going to marry her," he said quietly. He considered shielding his ears from the expected outburst.
Of course, Glinda didn't fail him. "You are what?" she exclaimed.
He frowned. "I won't say it again, Glinda. I know you heard me perfectly fine on the first time," he replied dryly.
Glinda laughed. "Can't blame me for trying… Congratulations!" she squealed, then sighed dramatically. "Oh, this is so tragically romantic…"
"Yeah, you deserve each other," added Boq with a faint smile. "It's a good thing I have a heart again, I'm so excited for you," he said.
They heard a noise from the secret door and held their breath when Elphaba stepped into the room.
"Elphie! Finally! Fiyero just told us the news, we're so happy for both of you!" called Glinda and hugged her friend. Elphaba was clearly embarrassed but hugged her back.
"Elphaba…" started Boq, "I want to… apologize… for what I said before. It was really-"
"…Wicked?" suggested Elphaba. Boq shrugged, then nodded. He knew she wasn't mad. He noticed a spark of mischief in her eyes. Then she became serious again. "Look, Boq… I can never express how sorry I am that it ever happened, but I think I can finally fix it," she said, taking the two bottles out of her frock's pocket.
"How does it work?" asked Glinda.
"Well, according to the book, you must drink it at midnight. It will put you to sleep and you'll wake up in the morning… as if nothing happened."
"Do you think it will work?" asked Fiyero.
Elphaba gave him one bottle. "There is one way to find that out, right?" she managed a faint smile. She was exhausted. "One more thing. We can't stay here with you."
"Why not?" asked Glinda. She didn't like the idea of leaving them alone there. Anything could happen.
"The only person that has to be present in the room during the transformation is the one which is transformed. I don't want having tragic mistakes this time," said Elphaba firmly. "They'll be fine, Glinda. As long as you drink it on time." She looked at the darkening sky outside the window. "We don't have much time. Let's go to your room, Glinda."
Glinda looked as if she was about to protest again about leaving Fiyero and Boq alone, but eventually said nothing.
Elphaba moved closer to Fiyero and hugged him. He held her as close to him as he could, breathing her in, as if it was the last time he'd see her. "Good luck," she whispered, "I love you."
"I love you too," he whispered back.
Slowly pulling away from their embrace, Elphaba reached out her hand to touch Boq's arm. Their eyes locked. They finally understood each other. Glinda tried not to be over-sentimental; everything would be fine tomorrow morning, after all. She held Fiyero's hand and kissed Boq goodbye. It was harder than she expected. All of a sudden, she was so worried. They finally left the room. Fiyero and Boq looked at each other, then at the bottles in their hands.
Down the street, in the center of the Emerald City, an enormous clock stroke 12. Midnight.
"Good luck," Fiyero said quietly. Boq nodded. They opened up the bottles and drank the sweet syrupy emerald liquid. Moment of truth.
All that was left to do was to wait.
