Abby in Oz

by Sarah Mlynowski

  “Nope!” she says gleefully.

  “Then why?” I ask.

  She lifts her right hand. She’s holding a wand of some sort. “Because it’s gone!” She twirls her hand, and the next thing I know the staircase has disappeared.

  I step back before I fall. “What just happened?”

  “I trapped you!” she exclaims.

  “Why would you do that, Frankie?” Robin asks.

  “Isn’t she your friend?” Dorothy asks.

  A cold realization creeps over my body. “No,” I say. “She’s not. It’s not Frankie.”

  The girl who looks like Frankie snaps her fingers, and suddenly, Gluck is standing at the bottom of the tower.

  “You’re right!” he cackles. “I’m not! Frankie never followed you! I did! And now your other friends are locked inside the Wizard’s castle, and you’re stuck up there … forever! You’ll never be able to help Maryrose from here. And just in case you even think of jumping …” He flicks his wand again, and a massive tiger appears beside him.

  Oh. No.

  “A tiger for Tigertail Tower!” he exclaims, laughing. “Okay,” he says, and checks his watch. “I have to get back to my own world now. There’s a big evil fairy party that I do not want to miss. But I don’t think you’re going anywhere. So bye! Enjoy Oz! Guess you’ll never be freeing Maryrose!”

  He flicks his wand one last time and disappears.

  This is bad.

  Frankie/Gluck is gone, and Robin, Dorothy, and I are stuck at the top of a tower, at least thirty feet off the concrete ground. Way too far to jump without seriously injuring ourselves.

  And also there is a tiger at the bottom. A tiger!

  “I’m never going back to Kansas, am I?” Dorothy asks, her eyes filling with tears.

  I take a deep breath. “We’re getting you home. I promise.”

  I look out the open door that leads to nothing. Now my eyes prick with tears. I need to fix this! But what am I going to do?

  I notice that the tiger below has curled up and is taking a nap. Well, that’s promising. But it’s still way too far for Robin, Dorothy, and me to jump down.

  “Abby, look,” Robin says. “There’s a lion downstairs!”

  “It’s a tiger,” I tell her. “Gluck zapped up a tiger.”

  “I know,” she says. “But now there’s a lion, too.”

  Huh?

  I look down and see that there is indeed a lion. And not just any lion. Our Lion!

  Aww!

  Just then, Penny, Toto, Prince, Scarecrow, Tin Man, Bob, and Frankie sneak in beside Lion. Is Frankie the real Frankie? I peer closely at her. I hope so.

  The tiger starts to stir.

  Oh, no.

  Lion looks like he’s about to turn around and run, but Penny tells him, “You can do this! You’re the king of the forest!”

  Lion nods to himself, throws his shoulders back, and lets out a massive roar.

  The tiger growls back.

  “Roar!”

  “Growl!”

  “Roaaaaar!”

  “Grooooooowl.”

  “Roar!”

  “Growl?”

  Suddenly, they both start laughing.

  “Um, what’s so funny?” Frankie asks.

  Lion smiles. “Turns out the tiger knows my little sister. What a small world, huh?”

  Omg. Lion and the tiger were talking! Well, first they were probably fighting, but then it turned into talking.

  “Don’t worry, she won’t hurt us,” Lion adds.

  Thank goodness. I exhale in relief.

  Prince and Toto start barking at each other. Are they talking, too?

  “Lions and tigers and dogs, oh, my,” Dorothy says.

  I carefully lean over the side. “How did you get out?” I ask everyone standing below.

  “The Gluck fairy locked us inside the Wizard’s castle, but he didn’t know about the underground tunnels,” Penny says.

  “Only I knew about those,” Bob says.

  “So here we are!” Tin Man says.

  I look down at them all and then focus on Frankie. “Wait a sec. How do I know you’re the real Frankie?” I ask. “Gluck pretended to be you before.”

  Her jaw drops. “He did?”

  I nod. “He caught up to me and apologized. Then when I climbed up here he made the stairs disappear!”

  “Oh, no!” she says. “I can’t believe he did that! But I’m really me, I swear.”

  Lion narrows his eyes at her and studies her suspiciously. “How can we tell if it’s really her?”

  Frankie looks up at me. “You have to trust me.”

  “If you want us to trust you, can you tell us why you’ve been so mean all day?” Penny asks her.

  Yeah. Why?

  Frankie looks at all of us. “I wasn’t really planning on talking about this at all, never mind in front of, um, all the Wizard of Oz characters, right in the middle of an attempted tower escape …”

  “The timing isn’t great,” Tin Man agrees.

  “… but you’re right,” Frankie goes on. “I know I’ve been cranky. It’s not about you guys at all. See … my dad has to go to Europe for his job for six months. And I’m really going to miss him. I’m sorry if I’ve been taking my stress out on all of you. When it’s not your fault.”

  “Oh, Frankie,” I say, stepping closer but not too close to the edge. “You should have told us!”

  “I know,” she says, looking up. “I just … It made me sad to talk about.”

  “Frankie, we love you and we’re here for you whenever you want to talk,” Robin says.

  “Yes,” I say. “Exactly.”

  “Can we get back to the rescue here?” Dorothy asks. “And maybe talk this out at a later time?”

  “It’s not all about you, Dorothy!” Penny calls up, and turns to Frankie. “I’m sorry I called you heartless.”

  “I’m sorry I called you a coward,” Frankie says to Penny. “Especially since coming to save Abby was your idea.”

  “It was?” I ask.

  Penny nods. “It totally was.” She beams. “Look at me, all brave!”

  I nod. “Okay,” I say. “So … back to the rescue. You snuck in! Together! Amazing! What’s part two of the plan?”

  We stare down. They stare up.

  “Do you want to jump and we’ll catch you?” Lion asks.

  I look down at the concrete floor. “Not particularly.”

  Robin turns to me. “What if they make a ladder?”

  “Out of wood?” I ask.

  “No,” she says. “Out of them. A human ladder. Or more accurately, a human, animal, scarecrow, and tin ladder? They should be able to reach us and then we won’t have to jump.”

  “We could do that,” Scarecrow says. “Good thinking!”

  “Thank you,” Robin says, flushing with pride.

  “See?” I say. “Smart!”

  She smiles. “Maybe.”

  “I’m scared of heights,” Lion says sheepishly. “But I can definitely be on the bottom!”

  “I’ll be next,” Tin Man says. “Because no weight can crush me.”

  “Growl!” says the tiger.

  “She’ll go on top of Tin Man,” Lion says.

  “I’m not great with heights,” Penny says. “Maybe I can direct?”

  Frankie raises an eyebrow.

  “Fine, I’ll get in there,” she grumbles. “We better not fall.”

  Lion crouches down and Tin Man gets on top of his shoulders. Then the tiger climbs on top and then Bob the Wizard goes next. Then Scarecrow. Then Lion holds out his leg. Penny steps onto it. Tin Man holds out his hand. She continues up the ladder with the help of the others. Then Scarecrow puts out his hand and pulls her right up on his shoulders.

  “I got this,” she says. “I got this!”

  Frankie does the same. And suddenly, Frankie is right under me!

  “Hi,” I say, waving. “Dorothy, you go first, ’kay?”

  Dorothy hesitates, but
then Frankie leads her into her arms.

  “Got you!” Frankie says.

  On the ground, Toto barks happily.

  Dorothy climbs all the way down and scoops her dog up. “I missed you so much, Toto,” she says, burying her face in his fur.

  “Aw, now I miss him,” Penny says.

  “Thanks for taking such good care of him,” Dorothy says to Penny.

  Penny, still on Scarecrow’s shoulders, nods but looks a little sad.

  Robin goes next.

  And then, finally, me!

  “Yes!” I exclaim when I touch the ground. “We did it!”

  We all high-five, and Prince leaps into my arms.

  Tigertail Tower is suddenly pretty crowded. There’s me, Penny, Frankie, Robin, Dorothy, Scarecrow, Lion, Tin Man, Bob the Wizard, Toto, Prince, plus a random tiger. Who is now deep in conversation with Lion about other animals they know in common. Carnivore networking.

  “We really have to go,” I say.

  “But how do we get home?” Frankie asks. “We don’t have the shoes!”

  Penny turns to Bob. “Can’t you help us? Do you have any magical powers at all?”

  He shakes his head. “I’m sorry,” he says. “I’m a total fraud.”

  “So we need to get the shoes,” I say. “It’s our only way home.”

  “We got them once,” Penny says. “We can get them again.”

  “But how?” Robin asks.

  “It’s not ideal,” Frankie says. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and it will rain on the witches.”

  “It never rains in Oz,” Scarecrow says.

  “Thank goodness!” Tin Man says, shivering. “Do you know how rusty I would be?”

  “So what else can we do?” I ask.

  “Wait,” Scarecrow says to Bob. “You said you don’t have magical powers, right?”

  “Don’t rub it in!” Bob groans.

  Scarecrow shakes his head. “But do the witches know that? Don’t they think you have magical powers?”

  Bob nods. “They do. Everyone in Oz thinks I do.”

  Scarecrow’s eyes brighten. “So can’t we trick them?”

  I feel a surge of hope. “Scarecrow!” I cry. “You’re brilliant!”

  He blushes. “I am?”

  “Yes!” I say excitedly. “Here’s what we do. We show up at their high-noon assembly and act like we are all-powerful.We tell them we have weather magic and that we’ll rain all over them if they don’t hand over the shoes!” I say in a burst of inspiration.

  “Are we all in, then?” Frankie asks.

  Everyone nods.

  “Let’s do it,” I say.

  All the inhabitants of the Emerald City are waiting in a circle in the town square. There are Winkies and Munchkins here, too. The witches must have brought them over from the other areas of Oz to help run the city.

  I look over at the Munchkins. Is that Orly? It is! I wave to her and she super-subtly waves back. I’m glad she didn’t get in trouble for helping us escape. The Winged Monkeys are here, too, flying overhead, keeping an eye on everyone. Our entire squad — Bob, Tin Man, Lion, Scarecrow, Frankie, Robin, Penny, Dorothy, the two dogs, and I — are in position and trying to oh-so-casually wait for the witches. Our new tiger friend is here, too, just in case we need extra backup.

  We came to the square a bit earlier to set up, carrying bags of the Wizard’s disguises.

  “Are you sure this is going to work?” Robin whispers to me.

  “No,” I say. “But I don’t know what else to try! We need those shoes. And we promised we’d help free Emerald City from the witches!”

  Suddenly, we hear them above.

  Swoop! Swoop! Swoop!

  The two witches zip through the sky on their brooms and land in the town square.

  “Welcome to the Gray City!” the Wicked Witch of the East says with a laugh, throwing back her head. She’s wearing a gray crown with gray stones, and she still has on Penny’s checkered sneakers.

  Her sister laughs, too, her cackle even more high-pitched. She has on the same crown, but she’s wearing the silver slippers. “We are now your new leaders!” she announces.

  I glance up. The Winged Monkeys are flying in circles overhead. Ready to take away anyone who disagrees with the witches, I guess. I don’t see any monkeys that have Gluck’s face, but that doesn’t mean he’s not here.

  “We want the Wizard!” Penny suddenly cries out from the crowd, just as we planned.

  “Who said that?” the Wicked Witch of the West asks, peering into the crowd.

  No one answers.

  “The Wizard is a wimp!” shouts the Wicked Witch of the East. “As soon as we arrived he barricaded himself in his castle. He is hiding from us! He knows his magic is no match for ours!”

  “She’s right,” Bob whispers to me, trembling. “It isn’t! I’m a total fraud!”

  “But they don’t know that!” I remind him. “Ready?”

  “Ready,” he says nervously. Then he clears his throat, stands up as tall as he can, and shouts, “I am not a wimp! I am the great and powerful Wizard of Oz!”

  Except because he is a ventriloquist — he’s able to throw his voice — it sounds like he’s speaking from the other side of the crowd.

  “Let us see you!” the Wicked Witch of the East calls out, spinning around to find him.

  “I am everywhere and everything,” the Wizard booms, his voice now coming from a different direction.

  “Prove it!” the Wicked Witch of the West says.

  From the other side of the crowd, the Wizard’s giant head pops up. The head has no body — it’s just a head. Well, technically, Frankie is holding up the head, but no one else can see that.

  “I am the great and powerful Wizard of Oz!” the head says. “And I do not like being challenged!”

  I can see the Wizard’s mouth moving beside me — even though the voice sounds like it’s coming from the head. The Wizard is really good at this voice-throwing thing.

  The townspeople gasp.

  The head disappears.

  A massive ball of fire pops up on the other side of the circle. It’s actually Tin Man holding up a huge cotton ball soaked in oil and set aflame. The Wizard’s voice booms again: “I am ordering the Wicked Witch of the West and the Wicked Witch of the East to leave the Emerald City!”

  The fire disappears, and then Lion, who is wearing a beast costume, rears up on his hind legs. He has the head of a rhinoceros with five eyes on its face, as well as five arms and five legs, and it is covered in fur. People in the crowd start screaming in fear.

  “Leave now and I will let you live!” the Wizard roars, making it seem like the scary beast is speaking.

  The witches both laugh. “You don’t scare us!” the Wicked Witch of the West declares.

  “I should,” the Wizard says, his voice now coming from above somehow. “I am very magical! So magical! And I am not asking for much. I am asking for you to just leave us alone!”

  “And the shoes,” I whisper to him. “We need the shoes!”

  “And the shoes,” he adds. “We need the shoes!”

  “Both pairs!” Penny cries out.

  “No,” the Wicked Witch of the West says.

  “Definitively not,” her sister adds.

  The Wizard looks at me. “What now?” he whispers.

  “Tell them you’ll drop a house on them if they don’t do what you say,” I whisper.

  “But I can’t actually do that,” he says.

  “I know! But you have to scare them.”

  The Wizard nods, and shouts, “If you two don’t listen to me, I will drop a house on you!”

  The Wicked Witch of the West laughs again. “Two people already tried that yesterday, and it didn’t work. What else do you got?”

  “You’ll make it rain,” I whisper to the Wizard.

  “I’ll make it rain!” he says.

  “Yeah?” the Wicked Witch of the East taunts. “Go ahead! Let’s see you do that!”


  Everyone waits.

  The Wizard looks at me.

  No raindrops fall from the gray sky.

  “See?” the witch says. “You can’t! You can’t stop us! I bet you don’t even have any magic at all!”

  The crowd gasps.

  The Wicked Witch of the West scans the crowd, and her gaze lands on me. I freeze.

  “Ah, I see that the girl who tried to squash my sister is here!” the witch snarls. “She came to rescue you all, did she? Are her friends here, too? Monkeys, get me the girl and her friends!”

  Oh, no!

  Before we can run, the Winged Monkeys have us all by the collars! Eeeee! And up, up, up we go, high into the sky. My stomach drops and I look around at my friends in panic. Frankie, Penny, Robin, and Dorothy are all being carried up by the flying monkeys, too. I glance down at the crowd and search frantically for Prince, but I can’t see him.

  “Toto!” Dorothy cries, but she clearly can’t see him from way up here, either.

  Finally, the monkeys set us down right in front of the wicked witches. My friends and I huddle together as the witches glare at us.

  “You five are revolting,” the Wicked Witch of the East says. “We will lock you in my dungeon again, and this time you will rot there until the end of time.”

  The end of time sounds long.

  And we definitely won’t be back in Smithville for dinner.

  Gluck did end up trapping us here, just like he wanted.

  What can we do? How can we ever get out of this?

  “I’m scared,” Dorothy says, trembling.

  “It’ll be okay,” Penny tells her.

  “Does anyone have a pail of water?” Frankie calls out. “We could really use a pail of water about now! A bottle of water would be fine, too! A Dixie cup?”

  No answer. Crumbs.

  “Monkeys, take them away!” the Wicked Witch of the West cackles.

  The monkeys are swooping down to pick us up again when Prince runs into the center of the circle.

  “Prince, be careful!” I cry.

  Grrr-rowl! he barks, running straight for the Wicked Witch of the East.

  Gr-rowl! Toto barks in agreement, running right for the Wicked Witch of the West.

  “Get away from us, you disgusting animals!” the Wicked Witch of the East snaps.

  But before either witch can do anything, Prince starts licking the Wicked Witch of the East’s ankle.