Chapter 2: Searchin'

On the night after the funeral, Elphaba had a dream of the time she last saw her mother ever since Nessarose claim the woman she saw in the funeral is her mother. In that dream, she was a little child and could see her mother standing in the front door. She could see Elphaba through door but someone took her away which made Elphaba woke up in the middle of the night. While Elphaba is sleeping, Lily is putting an ad for a room to rent at her home since she needed money after Daniel's death.

The next morning, Elphaba is going to meet her mother with Nessarose, but she was stopped by Lily before leaving. "Elphaba, do you have you glasses?" Lily asked.

"They're in my pockets."

"Well does your pocket have eyes?" Lily remarked which made Elphaba wear the glasses. "Now don't go talking to strangers."

"It's only Quadling Country, Lily. All of them are nice." Elphaba told her. When Lily went back to the house, Elphaba took off her glasses and walked with Nessarose.

"I know where she lives, your mother. Do you still want to see her?" Nessarose asked.

"Yeah, but-"

"We don't have to go."

"No. No. I still want to go." Elphaba said, "So what bus are we taking?"

"We don't. She lives here." Nessarose lead Elphaba to a field behind Lily's home and walked towards the first house on the left. When Nessarose is approaching the door, Elphaba stopped halfway because she feels scared. "Well, are you coming or what?" Nessarose asked, but Elphaba didn't respond.

Nessarose knocked on the door and the red haired woman answered the door. When she opened the door, she was shock to see Elphaba and Elphaba was shock to see her too. The woman is on the verge of tears and she proceeded to hug Elphaba. She invited both Elphaba and Nessarose inside and the two sat on the table with two other girls in the living room.

"Quadling Country's loss, our gain. But we love Quadling Country, don't we girls? Fun, fun, fun." Elphaba's mother told the two little girls. "I knew that you're coming. How did I know? Because I baked you cupcakes!" she said as she feed Elphaba with cupcakes. "One for you, Nessarose."

"Thank you, Aunt Melena." Nessarose said as Melena gave her a cupcake.

"And one for you, Cecilia. And one for you, Melanie." Melena said as she gave the two other girls cupcakes. While the girls are playing around and Nessarose tuning a piano, Elphaba remained seated with her mother and she gave Melena her harmonica. "An Orhaven? Boo! Down with the Rorks!" Melena joked, "Good on music though."

"But bad at wars." Elphaba remarked.

"Could I have a go at it? It's alright. You have my genes anyway." Melena played the harmonica and found it really good. "Wow. Good on the lungs." she said.

"Uncle Daniel gave it to me before he died."

"He was a good man and he took care of you pretty well."

"Thank you."

"Now I'm sure that he doesn't want you slump around and not having fun. Come on, we're going to Quadling Country."

Elphaba went to the Quadling Country fair at the docks with her mother and Nessarose and her stepsisters. They played games at the booth and Melena is enjoying her time in the docks with Elphaba and Elphaba is really happy to see her birth mother happy. When they were done at the docks, they went to a diner and Melena is really enjoying the music playing. Elphaba and Melena went to the jukebox to see who it was and Melena is dancing along with the music.

One, two, three o'clock, four o'clock rock
Five, six, seven o'clock, eight o'clock rock
Nine, ten, eleven o'clock, twelve o'clock rock
We're gonna rock around the clock tonight

"Do you know what this is?" Melena asked Elphaba, but she shook her head. "It's Rock and Roll. It's the music the kids your age enjoy."

Melena took Elphaba and Nessarose and her two youngest daughters went to a record store to buy the record they heard on the radio. When they got it, they went back to Melena's home and played it on the record player. Elphaba danced with her mother as they sing along to the music on the radio.

Put your glad rags on, join me, Hon
We'll have some fun when the clock strikes one
We're gonna rock around the clock tonight
We're gonna rock, rock, rock, 'til broad daylight
We're gonna rock, gonna rock around the clock tonight

While they were still enjoying the music, a man entered the room and Melena recognized him, but Elphaba didn't recognized him. Since he's the only man in the house, Elphaba thinks he's her father, even though Elphaba doesn't remember how her father looked like.

"Oh Nick, you're home. You haven't Elphaba, my eldest daughter who's living at my sister, Lily." Melena said.

"How are you doing, Elphaba?" Nick said as he shake hands with Elphaba.

"Fine, sir." Elphaba replied.

Nick recognized the music and went to the record player to see who it was. "You know, we found Bill Haley playing with his band at Vinkus."

"And how was he?" Elphaba asked.

"Nessarose bought him over. We went to Quadling Country to spend the fair's final day." Melena interrupted.

"Cecilia and Melanie should be in bed." Nick said.

"But Elphaba's here."

"And I'm here. Come on girls, time for bed." Nick said and took them upstairs.

"Come on, Elphaba it's getting dark." Nessarose said.

Before Elphaba and Nessarose could leave, Melena stopped them to talk to Elphaba. "Next time, I'll make my special strawberry cake." she told Elphaba.

"Oh, I love strawberries." Elphaba said.

"Promise me you don't tell Lily okay. This is our secret. Now go on home and get some rest." Melena said and Elphaba and Nessarose left the home.

"It was nice spending the day with you." Elphaba shouted from afar.

"Don't worry, the next will be great I promise." Melena said.

Elphaba arrived home at around 11 at night with Lily still sitting in the living room wide awake. Even though Elphaba told her that she's at Quadling Country the whole day, Lily knows that she's with her mother since she tried to ask her where her mother is.