Madame Morrible had given me an extra task after the meeting the Wizard.
The idea was to record my confrontation with the Witch with both audio and video. I had a wireless microphone clipped to my shirt with a clear earpiece that seemed imbedded in my ear and a tiny camera sewn to replace the top button on my jacket. When I asked why spying on the Witch was necessary, I got another bullshit answer.
'This will be the greatest moment in Ozian History!' said Morrible.
'Taking the Witch's broom?"
'Not just that dearie! To expose the Witch's true identity! To be rid of rumours and to see the Witch for what she really is!"
'C'mon, I ran her over. Anyone would be pissed."
Morrible's face seemed to freeze, her smile suddenly stiff and her eyes flashing.
It was extremely disconcerting. Perhaps I should be more careful.
"I told you the Wizard is a tyrant." said Scarecrow who had been grumbling about the meeting ever since we started driving.
"How dare you!" countered Tinman for the millionth time. "The Wizard has done so much for Oz! He united the nations –"
"Yeah, so did that Chinese Emperor who organized the Great Wall." I replied. The Wizard really was an asshole although I'd never say it out loud. Oz would rip me to shreds. "He killed everyone who'd think to disagree with him."
"But everyone must have disagreed with that!" exclaimed Dorothy.
"Well no, only the idiots were left." Scarecrow snorted with laughter and Tinman glared at him. We were driving through an ill kept Vinkus forest on the equally ill kept Yellow Brick Road, the car rocking and bumping along branches, dents in the road and numerous ditches as if the bricks had been pried up by Quadling protesters. The road was rather narrow, surrounded by dead looking trees with smooth, purplish bark. The leaves had withered into the ground by now; it was that time of the year. I imagined taking a photograph of the scene – a dishevelled brick road, dark, naked trees under a black sky, dotted with floating bits of gray leaves…converted to monochrome on Photoshop, maybe a bit of colour popping…..
"For Lord's sake Becky, look at the road!" snapped Dorothy, uncharacteristically serious for a twelve year old.
"Right, sorry." I said. It was silent for a while, a tense silence as Scarecrow, Tinman and Lion refused to look at one another. I wanted to ask Scarecrow about everything but I couldn't with Tinman in the car, he was a patriot…like the rest of Oz. No, I couldn't ask about the Wizard or Madame Morrible or Glinda, it was far too controversial. So instead of that….
"What were you in your former life Scarecrow?" I asked. I saw him twitch slightly and he stuttered.
"Well uh…why – why would you want to know that?"
I shrugged. "Just asking."
He was silent for a moment and everyone else waited anxiously for his answer as he stared at the floor, glaring into space.
"There was blood." he said finally, not looking up. Everyone froze, stunned.
"Blood?" I said uneasily.
"There was blood everywhere, mostly dried, even on the ceiling." he shuddered."It was like someone had been freaking butchered or something. I was lying on a cot, someone had carried me there. I was able to walk out, down some steps, there were boot prints all over it and…the next day, the Gale Force was already boarding the place up. They painted VERRÄTER over the door."
There was a stunned, uneasy silence as everyone stared at Scarecrow.
I decided to ask him more questions. "So like…..were you some kind of –"
"You were one of them bloody rebels!" roared Tinman, making everyone flinch. "You deserve to be hanged for treason!"
"The Wizard is a fascist tyrant." replied Scarecrow plainly, his voice dangerously low. "You Munchkins wouldn't know, living in that fairytale farm life of yours but I do."
"The Unnamed God does not abide –"
"Oh shut hell up!"
"Say that to the Lion."
They lapsed into silence and I reached to double check that the microphone was turned off. Oz seemed to be unfolding before me, farther and farther the longer I stayed and I wasn't sure I liked it. Well of course I didn't like it, unintentionally screwing up the Witch's life and being a public figure for it but for a while, I had to marvel at the exoticness of Oz, the thrilling unfamiliarity of its culture and people and such. But now there was a lingering uneasiness as Oz seemed more real with dumbfuck politicians, an asshole dictator and Munchkin conservatives, evoking god's will to justify themselves. And then there was the Witch. That poor, broke Witch. What were we going to do about her?
I'm sure some kind of compromise could be made – I pay off her medical bill and in return, she lets me take her broom. It should work, the broom's probably useless anyway – I mean if you fall off it, you're dead so you can't fly high or fast. She might even own a car. Who knows? What kind of a car would a Witch have? Could she even get a license?
"There're lights up ahead." piped up Lion who had been silent this whole time. We were approaching a town, a little cobblestone town with extremely narrow roads and tight corners. Damn.
"Hey how far is the Witch's place?" I asked, stopping the car and setting it to P.
"A couple of miles." replied Tinman, still sounding ticked off. "Why?"
"Uh well I was thinking we could like walk."
"Why would you want to walk?" he demanded testily.
"Because I honestly can't drive through this place – the roads are like…..miniature."
"Well I'd love to walk!" exclaimed Lion and he climbed out, slamming the door behind him before any of us could respond. Tinman sighed and crossed his arms and Scarecrow glared at him angrily.
"What is wrong with you two?" spat Dorothy which I found to be entirely unexpected as did Tinman and Scarecrow.
"It's nothing you should concern yourself with, Dorothy." replied Scarecrow gently, his voice low and…dark. I watched in disdain as he followed Lion out the door, jogging up to him. I backed up the car out from the corridor of a road, near the entrance to a park before heading out with Dorothy and Tinman and Toto who seemed to be managing without a leash.
"Do you think the Wizard's a tyrant?" asked Tinman, looking down at me, his eyes narrowed and hard.
I said nothing and instead reached inside my jacket to turn on the device with a faint click. I adjusted the ear piece as I heard crackling on the line.
"Um hello?" I said.
"Hello Miss Becky" replied Morrible.
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