A shadowy gloom seemed to be cast over the day, gray clouds barring out most of the sunlight, and the citizens of Oz could not help but think of the horrible Witch darkening the western Winkie Country.
"Every day was wicked, every day the terror rose!" Mothers would tell young children, asking why people kept to themselves and rushed along, never spending too much time outside. "All of Oz is ever on alert!"
"But that's the way with Wicked, spreading fear where e'er she goes!" Fathers kept blinds shut, trying not to light their towns a site where the dreaded Witch could strike. "Seeking out new victims she can hurt!" Even in the Emerald City, under the protection of the Wizard and his new advisor, Glinda the Good Witch, people were panicked, barely daring to move. Foreigners, if they existed, would have been puzzled by this fear of one person, but they wouldn't have understood the power the Wicked Witch held.
"Like some terrible green blizzard, throughout the land, she flies!" An eyewitness of the first appearance of the Witch said to a friend in the Wizard's central park.
"Defaming our poor Wizard, with her calumnies and lies!" He answered, rushing them both along to get out of the park. "She lies!"
The only thought of all Ozians held on late nights echoed in their minds: "Save us from the wicked, shield us so we won't be hexed! Give us warning: where will she strike next?"
"Where will she strike next?" The worry was voiced by the people, addressing their beloved Glinda at a press conference in said Central Park. "Where will she strike next?!"
"Fellow Ozians," Her voice rang out like a crystal bell, calming the crowd. "As terrifying as terror is, let us put aside our panic for this one day," She hung her head reverently. Then, with a sudden burst of perkiness, she raised it again. "And celebrate!" A kind of relief filled on the crowd's face, knowing that Glinda thought there was still reason to celebrate.
"Oh, what a celebration we'll have today!" Glinda said happily, smiling grace and sunshine on the not-quite-lovely day.
"Thank goodness!" Someone from the back shouted, causing everybody to laugh. Of course they should thank goodness, because they're the reason there's still goodness in the world!
"Let's have a celebration the Glinda way!" She giggled in her becoming way, endearing herself even more to the people watching her every move.
"Thank goodness!" the crowd chorused, catching on to the first person's idea.
"Finally a day that's totally wicked-witch free…" Madame Morrible said, keeping the Witch fresh in their minds. Glinda bit the inside of her lip. She wished Madame Morrible wouldn't bring up Elphie as a 'wicked Witch'. Not here, not now. Not ever…
"We couldn't be happier! Thank goodness!" The crowd clamored to the large podium, staring up to Glinda for support in this troubling time.
"And thank goodness for you, Glinda, and your handsome swain, our new Captain of the Guard." Glinda looked to Fiyero beside her, marvelous in his Captain of the Guard's uniform, decorated with gold and siver streaks representing different merits and achievemets. He nodded solemnly to Madame Morrible's praise, the image of a serious devoted guardsman. Everybody loved the strong presence he held, like they could depend on the Gale Force and its great leader to keep evil far away from them.
"Now you've been at the forefront of the hunt for the Wicked Witch, haven't you?" She asked in her famous reporter's tone.
"Well, yes, but I don't like to think of her as a Wicked Wit-" Fiyero began, but was cut off by Madame Morrible.
"Captain!" She said sharply, in a warning voice. "How does it feel?" She returned to her smooth, confident media voice.
"Frustrating," Fiyero walked to the edge of the podium, addressing the crowd in a commanding voice. "But I became captain of the guard to find her, and I will keep searching!"
"No!" Madame Morrible gushed. "Being engaged!" The entire crowd shouted at once:
"Congratulations!" A banner unfolded from a bridge above them. A few bangs from party poppers (a creation of the Wizard) rang out.
"This is an engagement party?!" Fiyero demanded, but Glinda just smiled.
"Surprised?" She asked.
"A little, yes!" Fiyero said angrily. "Could you have maybe as-"
"Good! We hoped you'd be!" Glinda took his arm in hers. "The Wizard and I, that is," Glinda laughed again, and everybody sighed at the pretty picture it was. The Captain of the Guard and Glinda the Good Witch, devoted to eradicating evil and to each other. Astoundingly cute.
"We couldn't be happier. Right, dear?" She looked up at Fiyero. His eyes were dark and downcast, not daring to look at her.
"Couldn't be happier, right here." Glinda tried to reinforce, make him smile the way he would at Shiz, but he had always been so serious since Elphaba left, even more so with each promotion he had received in quick succession. "Look what we've got! A fairy-tale plot! Our very own happy ending! Where we couldn't be happier… True, dear? Couldn't be happier." She unlinked her arm from Fiyero and spread them wide to the crowd.
"And we're happy to share our ending vicariously with all of you!" Glinda looked back to Fiyero again. "He couldn't look handsomer, I couldn't be…" More beautiful. Good. Wonderful…no, none of those are right for now. "…humbler, we couldn't be happier, because happy is what happens when all your dreams come true." Madame Morrible patted Glinda's shoulder affectionately.
"Oh, and Glinda, dear, we are happy for you!" Madame Morrible beamed at her incredibly gifted and most favored sorcery student from Shiz. "As Press Secretary, I have striven to ensure that all of Oz knows the story of your braverism!" She gripped the railing of the podium dramatically.
"I remember it well…" She stared off into the distance as if being returned to the scene. "The day you were first summoned, to an audience with Oz, and although he would not tell you why initially, when you bowed before his throne, he decreed you'd hence be known as Glinda the Good officially!" The crowd clapped and screamed approval for their new figurehead.
"That's not what you described to me!" Fiyero bent down and whispered harshly. Glinda shifted a little bit. The meeting with the Wizard had involved more image consulting than formal decrees, as Madame Morrible liked to put it.
"Well, no, not exactly…" Glinda was about to respond when Madame Morrible silenced the celebrants with a wave of her hands. "…but we'll talk about it later."
"Then with a jealous squeee!" Madame Morrible screeched the 'word' squeee. "The Wicked Witch bust from concealment! Where she had been looking surreptitially!" The crowd started on hearing that on what was probably the happiest day of Glinda's life, after this, the event had been overshadowed by the Witch. They began to talk amongst themselves, repeating tales of the terrors of her evil power. Glinda and Fiyero could only hear the rumors from those closest to the podium.
"I hear she has an extra eye that always remains awake!" One woman said to another. She nodded, aghast, but topped it with her own rumor.
"I hear that she can shed her skin as easily as a snake!" Another woman overheard the first two, and believed she should share her own news.
"I hear that rebel Animals go to her for food and shelter!" The first two fell silent, having used the best of their stories already.
"I hear her soul is so unclean," A man interrupted the gossiping women. "Pure water will melt her!" Fiyero started. Leaning low over the rail, he caught the man by the sleeve.
"What?!" He asked.
"Melt her!" The cluster that had heard the rumor repeated. Fiyero let go, the new development forming in his mind. "Please, somebody go and melt her!" Fiyero turned to Glinda angrily.
"Did you hear that? Water will melt her?" Fiyero started down the stairs. "People are so empty-headed they'll believe anything!"
"Excuse me a clock-tick," Glinda pardoned herself to Madame Morrible, and then followed her troubled fiancée away from the crowd. Fiyero was standing alone, staring moodily out at the rest of the park. He glanced up at Glinda as she came to stand beside him.
"I can't just stand here grinning pretending to go along with all of this! You heard the lies they tell about her!" Fiyero said, not turning to tell this to Glinda, the person who threw her whole heart into the larger-than-life stories and deceptions. It's partly her fault.
"Do you think I like to hear them say those awful things about her?" Glinda tried to catch Fiyero's eye. "I hate it!"
"Then what are we doing here?" Fiyero grabbed her wrist and started off down the park lane. "Let's go, let's get out of here!" Glinda was reminded inescapably of Elphaba in the tower, possessed by a righteous resolve that meant leaving everything she ever knew. Glinda wasn't prepared to make that leap of faith then, she wasn't about to do it now.
"We can't leave now!" Glinda pulled her arm away, and Fiyero stopped. He wondered briefly how she could argue her way out of this one. "Not when people are looking to us to raise their spirits." Fiyero shook his head slowly.
"You can't leave, because you can't resist this." He gestured his arm to the throngs of people, gazing up at Madame Morrible as she provided some thrilling tale as a distraction. "You never could."
"So what if I can't? Is that so wrong?" She looked out to the sea of people, whom she was sure were smiling. "Who could?"
"You know who could, and who has. She could have had all this." This could have been her engagement party. Fiyero's intense eyes met Glinda's. She was scared by these new eyes, full of fire, hating something but she didn't know what. She could never help wondering where the cool Fiyero from Shiz had gone, the Fiyero that loved her truly. The thoughts of this Fiyero she once knew disturbed her, made her wonder if Fiyero still loved her. He had to. She couldn't imagine a life without him. And she was sick of the pair of them retiring to their rooms in the Wizard's palace, Fiyero immediately going and pouring over maps of Oz marked with where Elphaba had been sighted, never speaking to her unless spoken to. She had to make him hers again.
"Fiyero, I miss her too, but we can't just stop living. No one has searched harder for her than you. But don't you see? She doesn't want to be found." She pleaded with him, hoping that he might still see reason and become the relaxed, impervious Fiyero once again. "We have to face it."
Fiyero stopped, finally realizing how pathetic he was acting. He had seen Glinda's expression before, the desperately pleading longing. It was back at Shiz, when Nessa had practically begged for Boq to come back to her.
Boq. Stupid, idiot Fiyero! Valedictorian and he still didn't have the brains to add two and two. Glinda told Boq to go out with Nessa because she didn't love him. Boq had desperately tried to make Glinda notice him, but it didn't work. The whole time at the OzDust, after Glinda left, Fiyero had tried all too hard to impress Elphaba. Did she think of him the same way Glinda had thought of Boq? She didn't want to be found, least of all by him. He had to stop acting like a child pursuing a butterfly and realize he could never catch it without sprouting wings himself.
"You're right. I'm sorry, you're right." Fiyero looked down at the ground apologetically. "And if it's going to make you happy, of course I'll marry you."
There you go, off following in Boq's footsteps. It's destined for heartbreak from someone. Something in his head told him, scorning the marriage pledge.
There's a chance she might care. I have to do it. He took her hands gently; his eyes empty of the usual fire, but not cool. Glinda could see doused cinders still trying to create a blaze.
That doesn't make sense, marrying someone else because she might love you. The voice of reason said.
Shut up. Fiyero focused on Glinda in front of him, trying to ignore the foolishness of what he was doing.
"But it'll make you happy too, right?" Glinda wasn't sure if a submissive Fiyero was better or worse than the angry one. Too much life or too little was a delicate balance.
"I can't back out now, can I?" Fiyero kissed her hand tenderly. "But don't worry. I'll be happy." She would want us to. He dropped her hands, turned, and ran, not really caring about the multitudes of people who might be watching. He needed…something. Some kind of sign from Elphaba, something to tell she hadn't forgotten about him. She probably has...
"Fiyero!" Glinda called, then noticed the silence behind her. Everybody was looking at her expectantly, wondering why the Captain of the Guard was running off into the distance. She turned back, and, improvising, shouted after him. "Thanks plenty, dearest!" She faced the people again, this time prepared with a Glinda smile.
"He's gone to fetch me a refreshment!" She said happily, hoping the lie would placate the expectant people. "He's so thoughtful that way!" She climbed up onto the podium again, taking her place to talk to the people, and somehow cover for the loss of Fiyero.
"That's why I couldn't be happier. No…I couldn't be happier!" Something still niggled at Glinda's conscience, the idea of someone else deserving of all the attention. The dreams of changing Oz with someone else still haunted dreams the Wizard had granted, leaving a bittersweet edge to the happiness. This wasn't what I wanted glory to be like. She found her voice again, ending the silence before it grew too awkward.
"I couldn't be happier!" She said, hoping it didn't sound too forced and repetitive. Rumors were already starting to blossom in the people's minds as her message seemed to cause her some sort of pain. Was Fiyero seeing another woman? Did he accuse her of seeing another man? Was she pregnant? "Simply couldn't be happier!" No. She thought. This wasn't simple.
"But there's been a kind of a…minor…cost." Glinda forced the word 'minor', ever mindful of Madame Morrible's presence. She had never been minor. "Sometimes the little things get lost…" The crowd was puzzled. Happiness had a price? Of course, the price of hard work, doing things the difficult way, but it seemed like Glinda was suggesting some sort of personal sacrifice had been necessary for her perfect life to have come to pass.
"There are bridges you cross you didn't know you've crossed until you've crossed!" It was all Glinda could do to keep from mentioning Elphaba, how they had been friends, the Wizard was evil, she could have gone and done what was right instead of what was easy. Listing all her luxuries, Glinda weighed them against the freedom of the Monkeys in the Wizard's cage. Galas. Beautiful gowns. Fine food. Public appeal…it wasn't worth it! All of the things she had wanted turned sour as she remembered those that had suffered to make it come true, those who weren't even legal citizens anymore. She surveyed the people again, blissfully unaware of the horrors the Wizard held. She had to be happy. This was what she wanted. Wasn't it?
"But remember, all…" Glinda said again, making sure the crowd still knew she was speaking. "Happy is what happens when your dreams come true!"
The words were met with thunderous applause, prompted behind Glinda's back by Madame Morrible.
"We love you, Glinda, if we may be so frank!" They promised, declaring undying love to Glinda.
"Thank goodness!" She said. She hadn't screwed up. She hadn't betrayed her discussion with Fiyero. She hadn't slipped that she knew Elphaba. Things were perfect. If this wasn't perfect, what was?
"For all this joy we know who we've got to thank! Thank goodness!" The Ozians weren't even really talking to Glinda, just voicing what hey though aloud. "That means the Wizard, Glinda,"
"And…fiancée…" Glinda added, sure she had everything in the world to owe to Fiyero. No, you owe it to Elphie. Glinda fidgeted slightly with her ring finger, and the absence of a ring on it. She still gave Fiyero to you.
"They couldn't be goodlier…" The crowd continued, sure in the trust they were placing in their leaders. "She couldn't be lovelier…We couldn't be luckier!"
"I couldn't be happier!" Glinda announced again, still trying to force the idea in her head. You are happy. This is happiness. You couldn't be happier!
"Thank goodness…today!" The people stared up adoringly at Glinda, Madame Morrible letting the younger lady take the limelight…for now. "Thank goodness for today!"
Warning! Warning! We are now approaching spoiler territory for Wicked the real musical! If you have any real desire to see it on stage without much more being ruined, then stop, go see Wicked, then come back and see me. If you've already had the ending ruined or don't care, then read on...as soon as I can be bothered to update...I usually am. Reviews remind me why I go on out of Oz, so send them and I'll keep reading and writing, and may you do so too! -LostOzian.