"Well I'm not human according to you am I? Not human! How could you say that? How would you like it if I said you weren't human?" she said.
"I'm not human!" he yelled as he pointed to himself. He rummaged around the center statue and pulled out a stethoscope. He placed it in her ears and put it on his chest. She heard his heart beat. But she thought she heard something more. Her eyes went wide when he slid it over to the other side of his chest. She heard a second heart. Then she realized that what she had been hearing was not the normal beat of two but a heartbeat of four.
She scurried away from him. "What are you?" she barked.
"You first. I asked first!" he replied. He sounded like a child. He was so old, yet so young. He was like the foolish wise man,
"Okay, I'm Elphaba Throop, now what are you?"
"A name! That's all I get? What's in a name? Who cares about names?" His hands waved unbound in the air.
"By who you are I mean where do you come from? How did you get here? How did you do that? What's your story? He spread his arms out in front of him.
That struck a nerve. She could answer some of the second question, but she couldn't do it without explaining her story. How would she explain how she got into the portal in the first place? It just wouldn't work. The other questions she couldn't dream of answering. She could barely admit to herself. Much less this stranger no matter how wonderful and intimidating this man was. Strike that, he wasn't even a man; he was a strange creature. A very strange strange creature.
Why do you care about me? She said. Her teeth clenched and she leaned into his face. After hearing that, she hoped he would be speechless. She didn't want to resort to this, but she had to scare him away.
Immediately he replied," The same reason you care about me .For discovery, wonder, knowledge. You want to see the universe, and so do I."
Tense silence passed between the two. Anger brewed inside her chest. Why should he be doing this do her? How did she deserve it? Perhaps she did, It seemed only fair that she would have more troubles after she left Oz. Life had a way of always being a struggle. She signed. She decided she would have to admit the heartbreaking truth about Oz.
"It's gone okay! You happy? I can never return!" She said. It felt as if she had just let a wild beast out of a cage.
"Do you even think you know what it's like to lose everything you love? I lost the best and only friend I ever had! I lost the land I gave up everything to protect. I lost what I stood for! And now it's all gone, I'll never see them again for the rest of eternity. I can't go back! For good!" she said. She stared mournfully to the north when she said the words for good.