Abby in Oz

by Sarah Mlynowski

  She shakes her head.

  “Where is Glinda when we need her?” Penny huffs. She fiddles with her phone. “Can’t we call her?”

  “I don’t know how to do that,” I say.

  “Maybe we can ask the Scarecrow or the Tin Man or the Lion,” Frankie says. “They might know how to find Glinda. Or, even better, show us the way to the witch’s castle.”

  “You’re right!” I say, feeling a flash of hope. “And remember how Dorothy found the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Lion? All we have to do is follow the yellow brick road.”

  Penny, Frankie, and I start walking down the road, with Toto and Prince on our heels.

  “Should we sing that ‘follow the yellow brick road’ song?” Penny says, perking up.

  “I’m not singing,” Frankie snaps.

  “Okay, Cranky Frankie,” Penny mutters. “What’s wrong with you today?”

  Good question.

  “Our friends were just kidnapped by Winged Monkeys,” Frankie says, crossing her arms while she walks. “We shouldn’t be singing!”

  “Well, I want to sing,” Penny says, and clears her throat. “Follow the yellow brick road. Follow the yellow brick road …”

  I jump in. “Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow the yellow brick road!”

  “Are you guys trying to get caught by Winged Monkeys yourselves?” Frankie snaps. “Don’t we want to be quiet?”

  Fair point.

  We walk in silence.

  We follow the yellow brick road, and follow, follow, follow, but we do it very quietly.

  Luckily the moonlight is bright so we can see where we’re going.

  “Look,” Penny says, pointing. “Cornfields!”

  “The Scarecrow should be around here somewhere,” I say, stopping in place.

  We glance around in every direction.

  “Prince, do you see him?” I ask, scratching my dog behind the ears. “Find the Scarecrow!”

  “How would he know what a scarecrow is?” Penny asks.

  “He’s a very smart dog,” I say.

  Prince darts off. Toto stays with us.

  Soon, we hear barking.

  “This way!” I say, and we all run to where Prince is barking.

  “Penny,” I say. “Can you shine your phone’s flashlight over there?”

  Penny pulls her phone out of her pocket and shines it around where Prince is standing. The light illuminates a pair of blue boots. Penny shines it higher up. Blue pants. Blue shirt. Burlap-sack arms sticking out of the sleeves. And the head is a burlap sack stuffed with something. There’s a face painted on — blue eyes and a blue nose and a blue smiling mouth. On top of his head is a pointy blue hat, the kind the Munchkins wear, but this one is old and tattered. Straw pokes out of the burlap arms. And he seems to be stuck on some kind of a pole wedged into the ground.

  I gasp.

  It’s the Scarecrow.

  “Hi, Scarecrow!” I say. “Nice to meet you!”

  I don’t expect him to answer me, but he does. His head turns toward me and his eyes seem to light up a little. It would almost be scary, except I know the Scarecrow is nice.

  “Do I know you?” he asks in a scratchy voice.

  “No. But we know you,” Frankie says.

  “You do?” he asks. “How?”

  “You’re famous,” I say.

  “You’re looking for a brain,” Penny adds.

  “Hey!” Scarecrow says, pursing his lips. “That’s not nice. It’s true, but not nice. Can you help me get a brain?”

  “Yes!” Penny says, just as I say, “No.”

  “Why not?” Penny asks me.

  “Because we need to rescue Robin and Dorothy and then we need to go home,” I say. “We’re not going to meet the Wizard.”

  “Wizard?” Scarecrow asks. “There’s a wizard? What wizard? I want to meet a wizard!”

  “The Wizard of Oz. He can give you a brain,” Penny says.

  “There’s a wizard who can get me a brain?” Scarecrow cheers. “Hurrah! Best wizard ever!”

  “He can’t really give you a brain,” Frankie says. “He’s a fraud.”

  Scarecrow squirms on his pole. “Why don’t you get me down, and then we can discuss this properly?”

  “Yes!” I say. “Sorry. That we can do.”

  We help him down. He’s pretty light, which makes sense since he’s made of straw. The second his feet touch the ground, he takes a step.

  “I can walk!” Scarecrow says. He puts one arm around me and one around Frankie to help him balance. His legs are wobbling, though.

  “Scarecrow, do you know where the Wicked Witch of the West’s castle is?” I ask.

  He throws his head back and laughs. “No! Why would I know that? I live in a cornfield!”

  Crumbs.

  “So what do we do now?” I ask Frankie and Penny.

  “We go see this Wizard,” Scarecrow says.

  “We’re not seeing the Wizard,” I say. “We have to find our friends. Who are at the witch’s castle. Which we don’t know the location of. Who else might know?”

  “The Tin Man!” Penny says. “I bet he would know.”

  “She’s right,” Frankie says. “We keep going down the yellow brick road. And hope we find the Tin Man.”

  Do you see the Tin Man?” I ask.

  “No,” Frankie says.

  “Me neither,” Penny says. She is using the flashlight on her phone to light up the yellow brick road.

  Scarecrow is on the lookout, too. His legs are still wobbling, but at least he’s standing on his own two feet.

  We’ve been walking for at least an hour. I’m getting really worried about Dorothy and Robin.

  Please, please, please, let them be okay.

  Prince is leading our pack, and Toto is behind him, still whimpering.

  “What’s wrong, little man?” Scarecrow asks Toto.

  “He doesn’t talk,” I say.

  “Oh!” Scarecrow says, looking surprised. “Interesting!”

  Another whimper.

  “Is he ever going to stop crying?” Penny moans.

  “Probably when we find Dorothy,” Frankie says. “He did just see his best friend get abducted by Winged Monkeys.”

  “Oh, I remember,” Penny says, angling the flashlight into the forest again. Suddenly, the light bounces back to us.

  “What was that?” I ask.

  Prince bolts off the yellow brick road and into the forest.

  “Prince, wait!” I cry, heading after him.

  Ruff! I hear him bark.

  Penny and Frankie follow me into the forest.

  “Scarecrow, stay there with Toto!” I call out.

  It’s so dark I can barely see. I try to avoid running headfirst into a tree or tripping over one of the roots.

  PLUNK!

  I run right into something. Something HARD. I stumble backward and land on my butt.

  “Oi,” a very creaky voice says.

  I jump up. That was a man’s voice!

  I swallow. “Um, who said that?”

  “Oi. Yul,” the voice croaks out.

  Oi. Yul. What is Oi Yul?

  Penny shines her phone flashlight ahead.

  The light shines on what looks like a foot.

  Penny raises the flashlight slowly. The foot leads to a silver leg. A silver body. A silver head, and a frowning face.

  “Tin Man?” I ask. “Is that you?”

  “AHHHHHHH!” Penny screams. “Ahhhhhhhh!”

  “What’s wrong?” I ask.

  “He’s holding an ax!” she says.

  “He’s supposed to be,” Frankie says. “He cuts wood! That’s his job!”

  Penny shines the light over him. He’s frozen in place. “Why isn’t he moving?”

  “Because he’s rusty,” Frankie explains. “He needs his —”

  “Oi … yul,” he repeats.

  “Oil!” Frankie says. “He needs the jug of oil. Everyone look for the jug! Penny, shine your flashlig
ht on the ground!”

  “Witch,” he says slowly. “Cursed. Tin.”

  “Where is the can?” I ask. “I’ll get it for you!”

  “Tree,” he barely manages to say.

  I run over to a nearby tall, thin tree.

  I look behind the tree and find Prince sniffing the oil can. Good dog. The can has a silver spout. I grab it and rush back over to Tin Man.

  “I’ll do that!” Penny says, grabbing the can out of my hand.

  “I got it,” I say, trying to grab it back.

  “I’ll do it,” Frankie snaps, grabbing the can from both our hands.

  “Whatever, Cranky Frankie,” Penny mutters.

  Frankie ignores her and pours the oil from the spout into Tin Man’s mouth and then into the joints of Tin Man’s arms.

  “Ahhh,” he says with relief, bending his elbows. “Yay! So much better. Thank you!”

  Frankie continues oiling his joints until Tin Man can move all his limbs. “Did I get everything?” she asks.

  He puts down the ax and stretches his metal arms above his head. “You did! I feel great now. I haven’t felt this good in years! Thank you for rescuing me!”

  “You’re welcome,” Frankie says.

  “Is there anything I can do to return the favor?” he asks.

  “Yes, actually,” I say. “Do you happen to know where the Wicked Witch of the West’s castle is? We need to find it.”

  “I do!” he says. “Do you really want to go there, though? She’s horrible.”

  “We know,” I say. “She kidnapped our friends.”

  “She put a curse on me,” he says, cringing. “That’s why I’m made of tin.”

  “Why would she do that?” Penny asks.

  “I fell in love with a nice young woman and the witch got very jealous,” he explains. “She didn’t want us to be together. And so she stuck me out here, unable to move.”

  “But now you can move,” Penny says. “Are you going to find the nice young woman?”

  He shakes his head sadly. “No point in that,” he says. “I’m made out of tin. I don’t have a heart. I can’t love anyone.”

  “You poor guy,” I say.

  “So does that mean you’ll come with us?” Penny asks. “To save our friends?”

  “He doesn’t have to,” I say quickly. “We can’t offer him a heart in return, like Dorothy did in the movie.”

  “Of course I’ll come,” he says, squaring his metal shoulders. “You just saved me from an eternity of rusting in the forest. And it’s not like I have any other big plans tonight.”

  “Great,” Penny says. “We could use the backup!”

  We lead Tin Man back through the forest and to the yellow brick road, where Scarecrow is waiting patiently with Toto.

  “Tin Man, meet Scarecrow and Toto!” I say. “Toto and Scarecrow, meet Tin Man.”

  Scarecrow extends his hand to Tin Man.

  “Nice to meet you!” Scarecrow says.

  “The pleasure is all mine!” says Tin Man.

  Okay, I have to admit. It’s super fun to meet the characters from the story. Maybe Penny was right.

  “Are you coming along to the witch’s castle?” Tin Man asks Scarecrow.

  “Me?” Scarecrow says. “No! Why would I do that?”

  “They need to save their friends,” Tin Man explains, gesturing to me, Frankie, Penny, and the dogs.

  “In that case, of course,” Scarecrow says.

  These guys are the best.

  “Do we just take the yellow brick road all the way there?” Frankie asks Tin Man.

  “Oh, no,” he says. “The yellow brick road goes to the Emerald City. It doesn’t go to the wicked witch’s castle. We have to go through the Dark Scary Forest to get to the castle.”

  “That’s not really what it’s called, is it?” Penny asks.

  “It totally is,” Tin Man says. “Although Ozonians call it the DSF for short.”

  Great.

  “Let’s go,” Frankie commands, lifting her chin and leading the way. “We want to get there while it’s still night. Easier to hide in the dark.”

  “Yeah,” Penny snorts. “Let’s go walk through the DSF to storm a witch’s castle filled with flying monkeys in the middle of the night. What could go wrong?”

  “Can you stop whining?” Frankie asks.

  “Okay, Cranky Frankie,” Penny says.

  Frankie turns and narrows her eyes at Penny.

  “Maybe we’ll find the Lion,” I say. “Remember the Lion? He’s roaming around the forest somewhere. He can help us take on the witches!”

  “You want us to run into a lion in the middle of the night in the forest?” Scarecrow asks. “Are you sure? Lions eat humans, you know.”

  “This lion won’t eat us,” I say. “He’s kind of a scaredy-cat.”

  “Then how will he help us against the witches?” Tin Man asks.

  “Good point,” Penny says.

  It’s not just the witches, either. It’s the witches plus Gluck.

  I take a deep breath. This is going to be a long night.

  We walk for an hour through the Dark Scary Forest. Unfortunately — or fortunately — we don’t meet the Lion.

  But then —

  “Look!” Frankie exclaims, pointing up ahead. “The witch’s castle!”

  Beyond a cluster of trees, I can make out a looming gray castle. It looks even scarier than the other witch’s castle.

  Our whole crew makes our way toward it. The scenery around us gets grayer as we get closer. The leaves are gray. The grass is gray. Even the flowers are gray. Who even knew gray flowers existed?

  Tin Man creaks as he walks, and Scarecrow’s legs are still a bit jellyish, but we all make it. We stop in front of the stone wall that surrounds the castle.

  “Should we storm it?” Tin Man asks.

  “No,” I say. “We should figure out where everyone is.”

  “Like the flying monkeys. I do not need to see them ever again,” Penny says.

  She glances up at the sky, swallows, and moves behind Tin Man.

  “I’ve been turned into tin by this witch,” Tin Man says. “But I’m not afraid of her or her minions!”

  “That makes one of us,” Penny says. Then she yelps. “Did anyone else see that?”

  We look to where she’s pointing. On the other side of the wall, something yellow just ran by in a blur.

  “That was a Winkie,” Frankie says. “And look, there are more.”

  About twenty little people in yellow clothes march by.

  “Who are they?” Scarecrow asks.

  “Winkies,” Frankie repeats. “They had their own area of Oz, but then the Wicked Witch of the West enslaved them like the Wicked Witch of the East enslaved the Munchkins.”

  Tin Man nods. “It’s so sad. The Winkies were nice till the witch got ahold of them. Now they’re guards.”

  “So how are we getting past them?” Penny asks.

  I think about that. “I can try to slip past them on my own,” I say. “I’m used to this kind of stuff.”

  “Scarecrow and I will come along to help save your friends,” Tin Man says, standing up tall.

  That sure is nice of him, for someone who doesn’t have a heart. But Tin Man is still too creaky and Scarecrow still isn’t walking perfectly.

  “You guys are kind of hard to miss,” I point out. “I think I should go on my own. Or with one other person. Maybe since Frankie knows the story, she stays here with you guys and the dogs, and Penny comes with me? That might be useful if Penny and I get caught.”

  Penny’s eyes widen. “You want me to go with you?”

  “Yeah?” I say.

  “To where the flying monkeys are?”

  “Yes?”

  “Um, hard pass,” she says. “Sorry. I can’t. I just can’t.”

  “Penny!” I cry. “We have to save Robin and Dorothy!”

  “I get it but … no. Let Frankie do it!” She shudders.

  “I’ll go
with you,” Frankie says. “That’s fine with me. Penny can babysit the dogs and characters.”

  “We’re not just characters,” Tin Man says. “We’re people, too.”

  “I’m not really a person,” Scarecrow says. “I’m made of straw. But I appreciate the support.”

  I turn to Frankie. “Do you think we should go around the side to avoid the Winkies? Maybe there’s a door or a window we can sneak into?”

  Toto cries again. Prince barks at him.

  “Shush!” Penny says. “You’re going to get them caught!”

  Toto starts crying even louder.

  “Maybe pick him up?” I suggest.

  “Gross,” she says, making a face. But she picks him up. “Stop crying! They’re going to get Dorothy back for you.”

  Toto seems to understand that, and quiets.

  “You guys stay hidden behind this wall,” I say. The wall is about a hundred feet from the castle.

  They nod. I kiss Prince good-bye-for-now, then grab Frankie’s hand, and we go darting behind the trees to the edge of the castle. I peer around a tall gray tree. There’s a small oval door and it’s not guarded. Two Winkies with pointy yellow shoes and yellow hats are sitting on a nearby bench. They’re chatting while they share a small pepperoni pizza.

  Mmm. I’m hungry.

  If we can just slip behind them, we can try the door to see if it’s unlocked.

  “On my count of three, let’s tiptoe over to the door,” I say.

  Frankie nods. “We got this. Penny may be a coward, but I’m not!”

  Kind of mean, but I do need her to be brave.

  “One, two, threeeeee!” I whisper-yell, then grab her hand and go running for the entrance to the castle.

  We made it! We’re at the door. Now we just have to very quietly turn the handle. I put my hand on it. I turn it …

  My nose is starting to itch. Oh, no. Now is not the time to sneeze. Not the time to sneeze …

  Achoo! I sneeze.

  “Bless you,” says a Winkie. “I mean, curse you.” Then he adds, “And just what do you think you’re doing here?”

  Oh, no! My sneeze gave us away. I’m out of ideas so I’m going to try honesty.

  “The Wicked Witch of the West had her Winged Monkeys kidnap our friends!” I say, turning around. “They’re just kids! Can you help us find them?” I ask.

  The Winkie tilts his head. “Does one have brown hair in two braids and a blue-and-white dress?”