4

Another mile or two down the Yellow Brick Road, Justin bouncing with his straw body and Harper were noticing things in Oz from the Yellow Brick Road not seen in the movie like deserted houses, old stone structures covered and taken over by weeds and brush, a crystal clear waterfall that passed under the Yellow Brick Road into a nice lake and the signs of old castles on distant mountaintops in the distance. They were actually walking the miles of the road instead of skipping ahead to scenes. That meant time had to be compressed here. They could spend days here and return home only an hour after they had left. Eventually, the woods around them dwindled to tree farms and Harper noticed apple trees in the distance. She started to rush to take one, but Justin pulled her back.

"Harper, talking trees?"

"What?" She suddenly realized they were in a movie. "I forgot. I've been having so much fun on our date."

"It's not a date." Justin was looking around. "Let's see… there should be a cabin…" He scouted up a bit up the Yellow Brick Road. "Cabin! And the Tin-Man is right…"

"He's right there!!!" Harper saw him first. Off through the trees, they noticed the Tin Man trapped in mid-pose. With Dorothy's basket daintily over her left arm, she dashed over just ahead of Justin bouncing and scampering lightly toward. The two of them came around to look at who it was in the role of the Tin Man and suddenly started laughing. The body was metal, and the face was silver, but those brown eyes belonged to Max Russo. He was never so glad to see them. He couldn't move! Try as he could, his arms and legs wouldn't move. His fingers wouldn't wiggle, his head wouldn't turn, he couldn't even cry out for help. Without helping him, Justin and Harper began laughing and screaming hysterically. Not only was he funny bald and without hair, but he was much shorter than Jack Haley who had defined the role. Max just moaned pitifully and rolled his eyes at them.

"I'm sorry, Max…" Harper apologized and looked around to find the oilcan. She oiled the corners of his mouth, his neck and down around his arms, shoulders and legs, passing the oil to Justin to get the other side. "Wow, there's a lot of oil in this can!"

"Where have you guys been?" Max started groaning and struggling to move. His whole body was creaking and squeaking at his joints and hinges. "I don't recall this scene in Willie Wonka!!"

"We're not in Wonka, Max…" Justin oiled his brother's arms and legs as Harper started forcing Max's arms to move. "Harper picked the movie. We're in The Wizard Of Oz."

"They made a movie about our lives?"

"The Wizard Of Oz." Harper tried to tell him about it. "You know, Dorothy, ruby shoes, wicked witch, flying monkeys?"

"Never heard of it…"

"Wait a second…" Justin rapped at Max's chest as it echoed from the noise. "It's hollow!" He began laughing again.

"That's so cool!" Max rapped at his own chest. "So, I'm kind of a robot?"

"Yeah, whatever you want to think, Max…" Justin humored his brother.

"Oh my god…" Harper began thinking. "This means Alex is going to be the Cowardly Lion. That is going to be the funniest…"

"Justin!!!!" Alex's voice was screaming from somewhere near them.

"I think she caught up with us." Justin realized and started looking round. Harper looked down and round, and Max creaked and squeaked in his tin body as he looked around. Harper turned round and pointed to the roof of the cabin.

"Look!!!"

"Justin!" Standing on the roof, Alex's green face and long flowing black hair topped the costume of the Wicked Witch of the West. "I'm going to kill you!" She leaned a bit far to her left and stumbled, sliding off the roof, into the woodpile and landing in the soft grass. Justin was surprised at first, but then Harper started laughing and Justin and Max started laughing as well. Alex looked positively hideous with green skin and the big nose and chin. Scrambling to her feet, she picked up the witch's tin wand and marched upset to her brothers and best friend laughing and pointing at her. Hunched over disgusted, Alex started swatting Justin, but when she kicked Max in the tin body, she hurt her foot, making them laugh even more.

"Stop laughing!!!" She ordered them. "Stop laughing!!! Justin, I'm turning you into a campfire!!!" She started to wave her wand.

"Who, whoa, whoa, whoa, who…" Justin stopped her from scorching his straw and hay body. "This isn't my movie. It's Harper's!"

"Harper?!" Alex looked to her best friend as Max kept laughing and pounding his metal chest.

"Yeah!" Harper was so happy. "Oh, Alex, I'm so sorry. I thought you were going to be Glinda, The Good Witch… I don't know what happened!" She looked genuinely sorry. Alex was livid. She was still getting the worst of this. She wandered around Max disgustedly trying to think. She was not playing someone who was ugly. It was either Dorothy or Glinda. No one else!

"Justin…" Alex responded upset and blew her long hair out of her face. "Send me home. I am not playing the witch."

"Does it look like I got a wand in this." He gestured over his straw body and looked at her ugly green face. "I'm not controlling this. This is Harper's movie. She's controlling it."

"Harper?" Alex and Max chorused together and looked to her. For the first time, the girl without the powers was controlling everything.

"Me?" Harper started grinning. "Really? Wow! So I should have a wand right…" She started poking through her basket. She had Dorothy's clothes, a leftover sandwich and biscuits for Toto, but there was no wand in the basket. She leaned to Justin. "Justin, I can't find a wand." She whispered.

"No wand?!" Max started clanking around in a circle. Alex rolled her eyes upset. They were stuck! "You mean we're not getting out of this place?" He paused thinking about it. "This is like so cool!!!" He was clanking around proudly in his metal body. "I can't wait to go to school like this!"

"Calm down!!!" Justin took charge. "Look, I got a back-up charm on the spell for this contingency. If we act out the rest of the movie, we automatically get popped out at the end before the credits. We just got to finish the movie." He turned to his sister with the green face, dark stringy hair, pointed chin, big nose, black clothes and pointed hat with the wide brim and snorted ready to start laughing again. "Alex, go to the Witch's Castle, wait for us and don't forget to kidnap Harper when we leave Emerald City. We have to stick to the plot!"

"Fine!" Alex turned snotty. "You better hope I don't accidentally torch you along the way. God, I suddenly hate this movie!" She pounded the yellow brick road with her broom and erupted into churning smoke and flame. Max was stomping the road where she had vanished looking for where she was, but Harper was ready to continue the movie. She took her place ready to continue.

"Guys…" She looked to Justin and Max. "We still have to catch up with the Cowardly Lion."

"Yeah…" Justin took his place at her right side and Max at her left. Max reacted a bit confused as to why they were holding hands.

"What's she doing?" Max asked Justin.

"Just go along with it..." Justin tried to be happy as Harper lived her fantasy.

"We're…" Harper was once again leading the chorus and happily dragging along Justin and Max clanking along with Toto following along with them. "…Off to see the Wizard… The Wonderful Wizard of Oz!!! He really is a wiz of a wiz if ever a wiz there was…." She forced Justin and Max to sing with her until they were all happily singing and dancing along the way with Toto scampering alongside with them.

"We're off to see the wizard... the wonderful Wizard of Oz..........."