Hedwig466: You'll see….
The girl – Dorothy must have been the strangest girl I have ever met.
First she appears out of nowhere, claimed to be from Kansas and was dressed like someone's grandmother from the 1920s. I mean who wears checkered dresses and white blouses any more? And what's with the wicker basket? But then again, maybe she was having a…a costume party. Yes. That made sense; she was having a 1920s themed costume party in her house then the tornado came and picked her and her dog up. But then she asked if this car plays records – records! Was Kansas really that isolated?
But despite her quarks, it was comforting to have a fellow citizen from Earth and not to be alone in this place.
"What kind of music is this?" Dorothy asked in a strangely bewildered tone.
"Alternative"
"But…what kind of instrument is playing this?"
"An instrument called computerized audio effects" I turned to grin jokingly at her but when she looked back at me, her face was serious as if she took the statement literally. Weird.
I sat back and looked straight out the windshield. I still found this place to be a bit imposing. It was beautiful to the extent it seemed almost unnatural. We were in the country side of Munchkin land and on either side of us were lush pastures dotted with trees, brightly coloured flowers and other plants I did not care to identify or that could have been really exotic looking weeds. In the distance were farmhouses with billowing chimneys, windmills, children frolicking out in the fields, merry as a child's play set or in a picture book….or like those advertisements you see on milk cartons.
I turned my attention to the CD playing and found myself humming along. It was nice to have a memento of home.
'Shush girl, shut your lips'
'Do the Helen Keller'
'And talk with your hips!'
'I said – '
"What do they mean by 'talk with your hips'?" asked Dorothy, painfully innocent.
"What do you mean?" Don't tell me she actually doesn't know.
"I mean your hips can't talk! So why do they tell you do so?"
She just looked so innocent. There's no way I could corrupt that little mind of hers…
"Um…well…they don't talk intellectually" I explained lamely and quickly looked down, pretending to be fascinated in the gas metre to avoid further questioning. It was then I noticed that the needle on the gas metre had not moved throughout the entire journey and that according to the device, I still had full tank!
'You said these shoes prevent you from tiring right?"
"Would it work on a vehicle?"
"I…I don't see why not…"
Well that's certainly a huge relief...hey this could solve energy shortages back at Earth! I mean people won't need gasoline to power their car, buildings could use this instead of electricity…
"Becky look!" Dorothy pointed in a rather childish but rather endearing manner. I looked up …and saw there was a fork in the road. A flipping fork in the road!
I pulled over, groaning inwardly then stepped out of the car followed by Dorothy. We were in the middle of a corn field that splayed into two directions with the Yellow Brick Road running along each field.
"Oh dear" I heard Dorothy saying "Now which way do we go?" she turned to me expectantly
"I don't know. I was told to just follow the Road….oh hell Glinda" I muttered.
"Who's Glinda?" asked Dorothy.
"She's the first person I met when I dropped down here. She told me to just follow the Road"
"Oh dear me we are in a pickle"
What the hell is pickle? She sounds like…like my grandmother!
We stood there awkwardly for we didn't know each other well enough to start a discussion. We were at a total loss. I looked in the distance at the slight smudge of green which was the Emerald City. I still couldn't make out which road to take for the Road dipped in out of sight behind hills then reappeared again with a different alignment.
"Excuse me. Perhaps I could be of assistance" said a man's voice.
Dorothy and I jumped and spun around with bewildered expressions on our faces. Who the hell was that? We're the only ones here aren't we? I scanned the cornfield for a hidden farmer or merchant and saw nothing except a scarecrow hanging from a pole, his straw head pointed at me. I stared back at it, curious.
There was something surreal about that scarecrow, the way its eyes were not buttons sewn into the cloth but marbles designed to look like actual eyes with whites, blue iris, and pupils, causing it to sort of pop out from his sack of a face. And its face actually looked like a face – not a featureless bag thrown over some straw as what was to be expected. It had deep set, brooding eyes, high cheekbones (well not really bones) a sharp jaw line and a straight nose like a man's face. Must have took a while to build it.
Dorothy's dog, Toto started barking at it in askance.
"Now don't be silly Toto" said Dorothy "Scarecrows can't talk"
"I assume you're headed for the City?" said the Scarecrow
I screamed louder than I thought possible and fell backwards, my eyes popping out of their sockets, my mouth hanging open. Dorothy who hadn't noticed the Scarecrow talking looked down at me in concern
"Becky is something – "
"I –It just talked!" I could tell this wasn't a guy in a costume. It or he or whatever had bits of him where the stuffing hadn't been fully packed which left noticeable craters in his torso - the cloth baggy.
"What! The Scarecrow?" She said in a bewildered, unconvinced tone like What - The scarecrow? You're out of your mind.
"Yes!"
The Scarecrow rolled his freakishly real eyes and reached behind him, pulling a sort of lever and dropped lightly to the ground with a practiced air.
"My apologize miss. Didn't mean to frighten you like that" It or he said, smiling what was perhaps meant to be friendly but it just made the whole 'living Scarecrow' effect creepier while the whites of his marble eyes seemed to pop out from his yellowish face, making a scarily bold contrast. Dorothy and I exchanged shocked glances, screamed uncontrollably and ran in a frenzied panic back to my car. I tore at the door, slid it open and flung myself onto my seat. Dorothy was already in the seat beside me.
"Becky GO!"
I didn't need to be told. I slammed on the accelerator, jolting the car into action. We sped down the Yellow Brick Road, our hearts pounding, so we could feel the pulse creep up our throats.
"Is it - he following us?" Dorothy asked.
I looked down at the side view mirror and saw that no – the freaky, walking Scarecrow thing was not coming after us. I also noticed the rate at which the scenery was moving so that figures blended into one another and became an indistinguishable blur…how fast was I going? I glanced at the speed metre.
I was driving at 110 Km per hour.
It suddenly occurred to me that perhaps all this panic wasn't truly necessary. I mean it didn't seem like that Scarecrow had bad intentions – it actually looked like he wanted to help us and he was even polite – quite a gentleman come to think of it…but this was a TALKING SCARECROW what were we suppose to make of that?
I suddenly remembered my driving courses. Always keep your eyes on the road I was taught. I started to sit up -
"BECKY WATCH OUT!" screeched Dorothy and she tugged my shirt so I sat up, the sudden movement sending my head spinning.
"What?"I said. For a moment I was clueless but then I saw it.
There was a person standing in the middle of the Road. She was dressed entirely black; a plain, black top, a black skirt and a black cone shaped hat with a wide brim ducked down slightly as if made to hide her green face.
"AH SHIT!" I cried out in surprised panic and frantically stomped on the brakes, the tires screeching as they skidded along the Road, the car lurching at the sudden change of momentum and slowing down rapidly but not stopping.
She noticed the oncoming vehicle at the last possible second and turned to face it. Her eye that wasn't covered with gauze widened in shock, her arms up were in front of her face instinctively, and her mouth opened in a scream we could not hear through the car's interior as we continued toward her. The car – a minivan to be specific slammed straight into the Witch. I closed my eyes the way a child would during a scary part in a movie, still able to hear and comprehend what was happening but unable to see it.
The Witch's foot was caught under the front wheel, causing the bones in her leg to split and for her to double over against the hood, her head slamming against the windshield with a thud and a sickening cracking noise like splintering wood and she slid off the hood, limp like a rag doll. As the car continued to skid forward, we felt the front rise the way it does when going over a speed bump. Then car suddenly stopped unnaturally abrupt, sending Dorothy and I and our stomachs lurching forward as if we had hit an invisible barrier that kept us from continuing forward and causing further damage.
I opened my eyes. The once clear windshield was now smeared with dark red fluid that had seeped into cracks in the glass, forming a bloody spider web smack in the middle of the windshield. The blood was quite a bit denser than I expected. I had always thought of it to be liquidly but it was more like the texture of thick syrup than anything else. I sat there stunned but at the same time lulled by watching those droplets of dark red dripping slowly down the windshield like little, shiny marbles, leaving a line of blood in its trail the way a snail would.
I suddenly remembered Dorothy and glanced in her direction. She had paled dangerously and was curled up in her seat, clutching her mutt.
This was going to be one hell of a famous hit and run accident.
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