AN. This chapter is for PocketSevens and Kestrel135- the only people to mention the blanket in their reviews!
Eighteen
It wasn't until after dusk that they finally reached the Vinkun royal Family's Emerald City apartment. As promised, Elphaba had gone outside to visit the children and introduce them to her friends; and then Kistine had insisted they stay for dinner.
"I'm sorry that we didn't really learn anything," Nessa said to Elphaba as they entered.
She was the first one to raise the topic, the reason they had come to the City in the first place.
Elphaba shrugged lightly. "Honestly, I didn't really expect anything from it. But I figured it was worth a try, right?"
Fiyero tried to make light of the situation. "And at least you got a free blanket out of it, right?"
"Fiyero!" Galinda scolded him, but Elphaba only laughed.
"Right," she agreed, pulling said blanket out of her bag.
Suddenly, Boq frowned. "Hey, can I have a look at that?"
Elphaba thought nothing of it. "Sure," she said, handing it to him.
Boq took it, and after examining it for a few moments, nodded knowingly.
"I thought so."
Elphaba frowned. "You thought what?" she demanded.
Instead of answering, Boq handed the blanket to Nessa. "Feel that."
Puzzled, Nessa took it as all the others waited expectantly, and confusified. Then Nessa gasped slightly, and looked at Boq, who again nodded.
"What is going on?" Elphaba demanded.
Nessa looked over at Elphaba and tried to explain. "Boq and I have seen this wool before."
Elphaba looked at her blankly. "Which helps how?"
Boq jumped in. "You don't understand. This is merino wool. It's specific to Munchkinland."
Elphaba sat up straighter on the couch. "Wait, what? How do you know? That it's merino wool, I mean?"
"Munchkinland is all farmland. It's mostly corn and sheep," Boq said dryly. "Trust me, we know."
"But, what does this mean?" Galinda asked. "I mean, surely m-merino? Merino wool… products are… like- exported out of Munchkinland?"
Nessarose shook her head. "No. Any wool products exported out of the province are made from finer wool, more expensive. It's really only the locals that use merino wool."
Fiyero was paying close attention. "Wait, you're saying Elphaba's a Munchkin?"
"Well, my point was that the blanket was from Munchkinland," Boq said doubtfully. He looked at Elphaba carefully.
"How tall are you?"
Elphaba blinked. "Five feet six."
"Yeah, you're way too tall to be a Munchkin," Boq said immediately.
"Boq," Nessarose scolded him. "You know perfectly well there's some tall Munchkins. I'm five foot four," she reminded him.
"You're also only Munchkinlander by birth," he replied pointedly. "Your parents are Gilikinese."
"I'm five foot three!" Galinda chimed in.
"Five feet ten," Fiyero added.
"Five foot one," Boq muttered dully.
"Is that tall or short for a Munchkin?" Fiyero asked curiously.
"It's above average," Nessa answered him. "Most Munchkins are below five feet."
Galinda was getting bored of this conversation. "So, to get back to the point- are we saying Elphaba is a Munchkin?"
Nessa and Boq exchanged a glance.
"There's other possibilities as to how the blanket may have gotten to another province," Boq replied. "For example, if her parents had been given the blanket from a Munchkin friend; or if they had lived in Munchkinland and moved; or bought it on a visit-"
Nessa cut him off before he could list every possible explanation.
"The point is, there is a chance that you could have been born in Munchkinland, Elphaba," she said gently. "At least… it's a lead, isn't it?"
Elphaba was trying to process everything. Nessa was right, it was a lead; which was more of an idea than she'd had before.
"So, what now? I somehow get to Munchkinland and ask around if anyone had a green baby twenty-one years ago that they gave up?"
"Well, that's kind of a flaw," Boq admitted.
"Especially when you could there and find out nothing," Galinda pointed out practically. "It's a lot of money, and Munchkinland's rather big, isn't it?"
Fiyero turned to Elphaba, taking her hand in his. "My offer to pay still stands. For whatever you need."
Elphaba smiled and squeezed his hand. "Thank you, Yero. But I couldn't ask you to do that."
"You're not asking, I'm offering."
"Well, I couldn't accept," Elphaba reiterated firmly.
Fiyero hadn't really expected her to accept, but wanted her to know the offer still stood.
Then Nessa had an idea.
"Wait! Elphaba, what are you doing this summer?"
Elphaba wasn't sure. She couldn't stay at Shiz, she knew, and Identity would be closed until mid-August, so she'd have no work.
"I figured I'd have to go back to the orphanage for the summer," she admitted.
None of her friends liked that idea, as nice as Kistine was.
"Why don't you come to Munchkinland with Boq and I?" Nessa asked. "You can stay with one of us, and we'll help you look. See if we can find anything out."
Elphaba was surprised. "Are you sure? I don't want to put either of you out, and I'm sure you have other things you could be doing this summer," she protested.
"It's no trouble," Boq assured her. "You can stay with my family! My parents won't mind, and we have more room than Nessa does. If you can put up with my three younger sisters, we'd be happy to have you, I'm sure."
"And nothing we'd be doing is more important than helping you possibly find your birth parents," Nessa added.
Elphaba hesitated for just a moment. "If it's okay with your parents, Boq, I'd love to. Thank you," she said to them both.
Galinda was pouting slightly. "I don't want to miss out!" she protested, and Elphaba knew her best friend was still imagining the big, magic reunion between parents and child.
"Then come!" Boq suggested hastily, and Nessa and Elphaba rolled their eyes in unison.
"Subtle, Boq," Fiyero muttered, but Galinda didn't notice.
"I'd love to, but I can't," she sighed. "I have so many engagements already this summer."
"Me too," Fiyero added glumly. "Stupid royal court," he sighed and Elphaba squeezed his hand comfortingly.
"I'll keep you both posted," she assured them.
"And if anything big happens, you could always come out for a little visit, couldn't you?" Nessarose asked.
"Absolutely," Fiyero agreed immediately.
"Of course," Galinda nodded.
Nessa smiled at Elphaba. "See? And even if we don't find anything, we'll still have a lovely summer!"
Elphaba returned the smile. "I hope so."
On the Sunday morning, before they left to return to Shiz, Elphaba showed them some of her favourite sights around the city.
And when they returned to school, she tried her best to focus on their looming final exams. There were four weeks left of semester, and Elphaba desperately wanted to do well on her exams to prove that she deserved the scholarship they'd awarded her.
She couldn't afford to be distracted by what they might or might not discover that summer; but her friends were not so easily focused. Boq wrote to his parents pretty much as soon as they got back to Shiz, and when he mentioned it, Elphaba was wary.
"What exactly did you say?" she asked tentatively.
Boq understood her worry, and quickly reassured her.
"Don't worry, I told them the bare minimum of the truth. You're an orphan, we're friends, you have nowhere to go for the summer, and we have more room than Nessa and her mother do."
"I guess that's all true," Elphaba conceded, although it sounded so strange when summarised like that.
Then she had a thought. "Did you tell them I'm green?"
"Does that matter?" Fiyero scolded her gently.
"To me? A little. To other people? A lot," Elphaba replied matter-of-factly.
"I told them," Boq assured her. "I also asked them not to spread it around. Because if you're parents are in Munchkinland somewhere, I didn't think it was a good idea they find out about you from my mother or the grape vine."
"Good idea," Elphaba said gratefully.
Boq's parents replied within a few days, that they would be happy to host Elphaba for the summer. They made no mention of the fact that she was green, which Boq took as a sign of their agreement to not make a big deal of it.
The last night of the semester, as Elphaba and Galinda both were finishing their packing, Galinda turned to Elphaba and sighed.
"I wish I could come with you this summer, Elphie. To help."
Elphaba smiled. "Thanks, Glin. But I may not find out anything. This could be it," she said, trying to face facts.
Galinda shrugged. "Maybe."
Then she beamed. "But I feel really good about this summer for you, Elphie. I think something good's going to happen."
Elphaba smiled back and hugged her friend tightly. She wished she could be half as confident.
AN. Merino wool is a real type of wool, but everything about it in this chapter is made up.