Watching them leave the fake wizard asks, ‘Have you killed the wicked witch?’ as Scarecrow beams, ‘Yup, brain please,’ to see him smile sinisterly. Ending the old man’s curiosity the tin-man groans, ‘Do your people know you’re a liar?’ as he grins with satisfaction, ‘To them this is just another of the wizard’s faces.’ Staring at him with disgust Dorothy thinks of condemning the man, have the lion tear him to shreds for what he’s done to the city, but biting her lip she knows she should wait until he fulfils their requests.
Looking to his guests who demand so much of him the fake wizard thinks carefully, sure that if he granted the lion courage first he may be mauled, and if he were to give the scarecrow a brain he doesn’t know what could happen. So choosing wisely he decides to help the tin-man first, hoping a heart will calm the metal monster as he points, ‘You, I…I shall give you a heart. You, you must follow me.’ Walking to a curtain the feeble man pulls it open, unveiling an immaculate metal table to give a stern, ‘You must lie here!’ as he reaches into a drawer and the tin-man approaches. Shuffling through his tools the fake wizard takes out what he needs and watches as his patient lies on the bed, putting his axe to the floor, within arm’s reach. The wizard straps the tin-man down, hearing him groan, ‘If something goes wrong, I will kill you,’ and the old man trembles, ‘I, I’m sure you will,’ as he places a velvet pouch on the table. Watching him unravel it Dorothy looks to see a fresh heart beating, and the scarecrow coos as the young girl shouts, ‘Wait, that’s the witch’s heart isn’t it?’ The elderly man shakes his head whilst the tin-man’s eyes stare, ready to pull the liar apart. ‘No, no, no,’ says the fake wizard, looking to the strange friends as he defends himself:
‘Many a wise man, and even Undesirables have requested an audience with the great wizard, and brought amazing gifts to pay tribute and appeal to my kindness. This heart belonged to a nobleman of Ev, and was touched by the great witch Notou so that it could beat forever and save the life of a dying soul. Now please…you must be quiet whilst I work.’
Pulling the curtain around himself and his patient the wizard uses his tools to open the tin-man’s chest plate, staring past the scarred flesh curiously. Tapping at the metal heart’s container he uses a key to open the cover, looking inside at the tubes and mechanism keeping the tin-man alive. Staring him in the eyes the old man says, ‘You will be without a heart for seconds while I fix you. Don’t struggle, I cannot afford to make a mistake and if I take too long you will die. Do you understand?’ The tin-man nods his head whilst Dorothy and the others watch the shadows behind the curtain, waiting patiently as time passes.
After a while the tin-man’s friends grow worried, scared to shout to the wizard in case they cause him to make a mistake, then finally the curtain opens. Looking to the tin-man Dorothy watches him sit up from the table, his heavy body clinking as he stands. Running a gauntlet along his metal chest plate he looks over to his friends, his eyes tearing as his monstrous metal face looks no different. Walking toward them gently he feels his insides warmer than before, remembering how it feels to have a heart. Smiling at him the scarecrow asks, ‘Are you okay?’ and he nods his head, looking at the worried expression on Dorothy’s face, and the fear in the lion’s eye as he groans, ‘This is what it feels like isn’t it?’
‘What?’ the young girl asks, looking up at him as he stretches a hand out to her, watching his friends as kind words creep from his rusted jaw, ‘To feel…hopeful!’
Calling to them the fake wizard yells, ‘Lion, lion come here if you want your courage,’ and the tin-man looks down to him, groaning, ‘You’re safe with us here,’ as the coward slowly walks away from his friends. Approaching the wizard, he watches him fumble through a cupboard and cowers backwards when he spots a needle in his hand. ‘If you want my help you’ll come here,’ the fake wizard proclaims, and the lion trembles, ‘That…that will make me brave, give me courage?’ Nodding his head the wizard assures, ‘Yes it will!’ and the lion closes his eyes, walking toward the needle as his claws cut into the green stone beneath his feet. Feeling the metal in his skin the lion groans, and injecting him quickly the wizard steps back to watch the lion stumble as he stands. ‘What…what have you done to me?’ he roars, and the wizard moves further away, trying to calm the beast with, ‘Once it settles in your bloodstream you will be fine, and you will have your courage.’ Pointing to Dorothy he shouts, ‘You and the tin-man, look after him whilst I fix the scarecrow, come, we must hurry!’ Looking at the odd man Scarecrow smiles, squeezing Dorothy’s hand before he runs to the wizard’s side, whispering, ‘Gonna have a brain!’
Leading Scarecrow to the same table that he used to examine the tin-man, the fake wizard asks him to lie down and straps his body tightly. Again searching for the right tools he pulls them from a drawer and straps the scarecrow’s head to the table as he mutters under his breath, ‘Hope this works.’ Cutting a line along the burlap cranium with a scalpel the fake wizard pulls away the top of the fabric to hear Scarecrow scream. Quickly looking down at the patient with a panicked expression the wizard stares as the scarecrow smiles, ‘Just kidding, can’t feel a thing.’ Sighing the wizard feels pressure, still sure that with courage the lion would maul him if he killed the scarecrow. Working on the tin-man was easy enough for the fake wizard, as despite how odd it looked, it was just like mending a machine, but fixing the scarecrow is different. Grabbing at the skull-saw, the elderly man presses against the exposed cranium, pushing into it with one hand and turning the handle with his other as the blade cuts jaggedly.
After sawing at the bone, the top of the skull is severed and the wizard looks inside to see nothing but straw. Reaching to a shelf he holds a jar steadily in his hand, looking inside at the brain as he places the container on a table and puts on a pair of thick rubber gloves. The brain was another gift from an Undesirable, given to the wizard in the hope he was satisfied enough not to punish the creature for stealing bread. He said the brain was taken from a great tree in Oz, one that grows organs from its branches and feeds the creatures of the North. Even though the fake wizard has doubts about its origin he places it into the scarecrow’s head, stapling the skull back into place as he sews the open burlap sack back together.
Looking to the scarecrow the fake wizard asks, ‘Do you feel any different?’ and the straw man shakes his head, curiously mouthing, ‘I don’t feel…’ as he unexpectedly shrieks aloud, his entire body jolting. Running to his aid Dorothy tears the curtain open, looking inside to see him screaming, ‘Help!’ His body taut as the old man nervously shouts, ‘It’s settling, just settling.’ Watching him in horror the young girl places a hand over her mouth and the lion walks toward her, observing the scarecrow with a stern face as his skeletal body suddenly turns limp. Mumbling to himself the straw man smiles, his mouth occasionally twitching and his buttons staring at the ceiling as he mutters, ‘Pretty things, need pretty things to open, pull away the skin like paper see what’s inside, like the crows, the crows, their insides were good.’
Scared, Dorothy calls his name, placing a hand against his as her voice touches gently at his burlap head. Looking at her his twitching stops and a confused expression stretches along his grim face as he cries savagely, ‘What’s happening to me, I keep…keep thinking bad things.’ The young girl’s worried and the wizard says, ‘Lie still for a while, try not to think too much just yet,’ as the scarecrow mutters to Dorothy, ‘I, I think I’m scared.’ Watching the wizard move away from her friend Dorothy looks at him as the lion threatens, ‘If you don’t fix him I’ll rip you apart.’
Smiling lightly the old man says, ‘I’m sure you would, but then I wouldn’t be able to send your other friend back home. I see you have your courage now though.’
Growling at him the lion’s proud, happy to feel strong but he doesn’t say it, he knows a lion can’t seem vulnerable to his prey. Meanwhile the tin-man stands quietly, looking down at the scarecrow with a sad expression as Dorothy questions the old man: ‘How did you do t
his, how did you give the scarecrow a brain if you’re just a human, how did you give any of them what they asked for?’
Putting away his tools the old vulture leers: ‘I m a great man, child. And although I am no wizard I have learnt new tricks since I have been in this land.’
With her hand still holding the scarecrow’s the curious Dorothy pushes, ‘How, why did you convince Oz you were a great wizard?’ and the old man smiles, looking at the young girl confidently as he sits on a stool and distracts the strange travellers:
‘You of all people should know Dorothy, you’ve seen how evil this world can be. Just like you, I didn’t come here of my own free will, but when I landed I made the best of what I had. I was happy back in Omaha, a ventriloquist and an illusionist, but then the cyclone came and changed my life. I was flying in my balloon above the circus when the weather turned. All I could see was clouds until I awoke here, grounded as a race of freaks greeted me. But do you know what the strange thing was? They thought I was a great wizard…’
Slowly the old vulture stands, a sinister smile stretching along his face as he clenches a fist, and his eyes fill with power as he continues:
‘I became a God, and I made the people build me a city. Their kind are stupid ones, and even though they already had a king I ended his reign, and when I showed them my tricks, my illusions and my magic, they feared me. That is how I am known as the great wizard through this world, fear. Though underneath it all, as you know I am just a man, so when I found that real witches ruled this world I could only imagine what they would do to me, either the good or the bad.
So I covered my body in the flesh of the newly dead, convinced my people I could change form, become any creature I wanted, and fear of the great wizard spread. I made my people build my castle atop a hill and surround it with their deceased so my power could be seen all over Oz. I had to convince the world I was a monster so that the witches feared me, and they did. Still, I hid myself away in this castle for years, I was young when I came here, and now look at me. I couldn’t even fly my balloon out of this world in case the witches shot me from the sky.
The truth is Dorothy I feared you at first, I thought you were a witch because you wore the boots, and that’s why I sent you to the west, in hope that either Outika or you would die. But I should have known you were just a girl, you even lost one of the witch’s boots. See, I may just be a man, but I fooled the entire land, even you were convinced with my illusions, my talents, that I was a fearful wizard. All of you believed I was a God, but now I’m nothing, because of you and because of Outika.’
Dorothy looks at the wizard, sickened by his feeble frame as she hisses:
‘You let a city of people live in fear because you were scared, they worshipped you and you abused them and scarred their skin so word of a powerful wizard would spread?’
The fake wizard smiles jaggedly, proud of himself as he looks out to his company:
‘Not quite, as despite how evil you think I am I never harmed a single one of my people. I am a very intelligent man and I didn’t even need to, not to a race as stupid as these. I simply told them that magic held the masks to their skin, and if they remove them their faces would simply peel away. Everything in my city is a trick and you should know that by now, the city isn’t really green and how do you think I could see everything? I am a modern-age man in a primitive world, and I made them think I was a God! For a girl from my own world you almost remind me of one from Oz.’
Dorothy huffs, pulling her hand from the scarecrow’s as Tin-man stands silently, and the lion stares with anger in his eye. Looking at the wizard the young girl feels hatred burn through her chest, she’d never met a human with such a lack of humanity, and screams:
‘I understand now, you let ‘your’ people waste their lives for you, suffer at your command because you’re an egotistical coward. Do you know that the people in this city died screaming your name, calling out for to you to help them!’
The wizard smirks, standing swollen with pride as he places a finger to his wrinkled chin, proudly announcing:
‘That’s truly sad but I couldn’t let them leave. The witches dare not look in at my city, but I know as soon as anyone is outside the walls they will know, and they would have seen my people leave. They’d have known I was weak and they would have attacked. I am feared by the good and the evil, they’d have killed me. Besides, my people died thinking I was a great wizard, and they’d have happily given their lives for my safety, as they have. I have done nothing wrong, only what a king would…’
Interrupted, a servant enters the room, calling to the fake wizard as his placid voice yelps, ‘Master, it’s ready,’ and the wizard nods at him as he looks to Dorothy, clenching his teeth tightly as he presses, ‘Wait with your friend and I’ll get the balloon for you your highness, then I can be rid of you for good.’ Moving through the throne room the wizard walks quickly as Dorothy yells, ‘Where are you going?’, and the scarecrow shouts:
‘You can’t let Dorothy leave can you? You have to leave in the balloon because you know you’re ruined. Whether it’s the witches or the people, someone will make you suffer for what you’ve done, so you have to leave, and with Outika dead you can fly away in your balloon, right?’
His pace quickening the old man yells, ‘I knew I should have given you a diseased brain,’ as he runs to a wall and the lion bounds after him. Roaring fiercely the creature chases, but the frail wizard opens a secret hatch, slipping through a gap between the stones. Waiting for it to open fully the lion squeezes through and claws at the hole, as Dorothy follows behind him and Tin-man frees the scarecrow.
Running along a rooftop the wizard moves quickly around the back of the castle, looking down at the graveyard hill to see the Carnivorous at the top as he looks ahead to the air balloon. Waiting for him, he smiles at the hope of leaving Oz, an escape plan he’d devised years ago as the lion roars behind him. Turning his head quickly the fake wizard sees the animal and speeds to the basket below the balloon, pushing his servants out of the way as he cuts the ropes and dives inside. Running behind him Dorothy watches the balloon slowly float into the air as her hopes of Kansas slip further away, but the lion runs at the wizard without fear.
As the balloon drifts from the castle the fake wizard condemns, ‘Girl, you can be the queen of my dead!’ so close to leaving Oz as the lion runs toward him, leaping fearlessly from the castle as his claws sink into the basket. Yelling at the animal the old man tries to force him off as the balloon starts to float over the city. Ready to punch at the lion’s face the old man screams as a claw cuts through his arm and tears a hole in the basket. Nursing the bloody limb he watches the lion struggle to hold on, sinking his claws into the wicker and gouging holes in the vessel as he suddenly loses his grip. Falling through the air the lion’s silent, crashing to the roof of a building as tiles crack underneath him, imbedding into his skin as he jumps to his feet. Roaring up at the wizard the lion watches him struggle to stay in the basket as it sways, the vessel torn apart as he holds on for his life. Looking at the balloon Dorothy stands on the rooftop, watching the wounded wizard drift away as he screams:
‘Do you know what it’s like Dorothy, to have ultimate power? I would have reigned their king until the day I died if I hadn’t had let you into my throne room, but now you can take my place in Oz.’
Slowly smiling the young girl watches him float away into the night as she stares at the broken basket holding him, sure to fall to pieces when the wind changes. Waving her hand she feels comforted at the lion’s courage, letting the great ruler of Oz drift into the clouds, sure that he’ll fall from the sky, dying just as the wicked wizard deserves.
35
Sitting alone in the throne room Scarecrow rests as his friends clamber along the rooftops. Hearing winged monkeys cry and the sigh of young Dorothy, he watches his friends walk back into the room as he sits in the wizard’s throne. With an empty expression on her face Dorothy feels the tin-man’s hand on her shoulder a
s he groans, ‘We’ll find another way to send you home, we have to.’
The lion walks proudly beside them, with his head held high as he thanks Adam and the other winged monkeys that follow behind him, if they hadn’t have lifted him from the distant rooftop the Carnivorous would have soon found him. Proud of his actions, it makes him confident that when Dorothy’s home safely he’ll find Mr Jack and punish him. Watching the scarecrow as she approaches him Dorothy’s eyebrows raise as she looks at his crossed legs, and a hand poised under his chin whilst a menacing expression’s cuts into his face. ‘What are you doing?’ she asks with the tin-man standing close by, trying to comfort her with his cold metal touch as the scarecrow looks down at his friends:
‘Just thinking, thin…king. Some thoughts that I suppose I should not say, some thoughts that are mine alone. Do you ever feel that there are so many thoughts in your head you could just burn, burn…no, no, don’t like fire can’t burn. I shouldn’t think of that but I just can’t stop thinking…thin…king, thin…king. How clever I like that, that could be me!’
Concerned, Dorothy looks to the scarecrow as he seems more ghoulish than ever before. His eyes no longer glare innocently and his expression isn’t as curious as it used to be. Instead a thin grim smile stretches along his face, contemplating as his skinny hands twitch. ‘What’s wrong with you? what do you mean?’ Dorothy asks gently, and the scarecrow shrieks eerily, ‘I can rebuild the city, I can be its thin…king!’, ‘But that black, it’s taken over,’ The tin-man groans, ‘This city is dead, so are most of its people.’
Dorothy: The Darker Side of OZ v5 Page 24
