Oz: The Great and Powerful Junior Novel Disney Book Group (2 page)

“Rise as your spirit flies back to the mystical temple of love in Baghdad,” Oz continued.

In the front row, a young girl sat in a wheelchair, her eyes wide with amazement.

She had never seen anything so magical in her entire life. But not everyone was so convinced.

Just as Oz was about to do his big finale, a man cried out, “I see a wire!” He was pointing right May.

Oz paused. He looked first at the man and then over at May’s body. The man was right. Light was hitting the stage, illuminating a thin wire. “You are mistaken, sir!” Oz said.

“Am not!” the man shouted. “It’s right there!”

Oz puffed out his chest. “A wire?! What need
I
of wires?” He called out to the wings and Frank threw him a sword. SNAP! Whipping the sword back and forth, he cut one of the wires!

The audience gasped as they waited to watch May fall. But she kept floating! Oz cut another wire. SNAP! She
still
kept floating. The tent filled with more gasps. Then Oz whipped the cloth off altogether. May had vanished!

The room erupted in applause. Looking out over the now believers, Oz smiled and threw the cloth at the disbelieving man. Then he bowed deeply. The show was over. Taking one more bow, Oz began to walk off the stage. He wanted to get back to the safety of his trailer while the crowd was still in awe.

But a little voice stopped him.

“Make me walk,” the voice said. Turning, Oz saw the little girl in the wheelchair. She was looking up at him with big, hopeful eyes. “Make me walk,” she repeated.

Oz didn’t know what to do. This had never happened to him before. He turned and tried to catch Frank’s eye. Maybe he could help get him out of this jam. But his assistant just raised an eyebrow.

Leaning down, Oz whispered, “It’s just a show, kid.”

“But I believe in you,” the little girl replied.

Her father came up and stood behind her, his eyes filled with as much hope as his daughter’s. Reaching into his pocket, the father pulled out a fistful of crumpled dollar bills. “It’s not much,” he said, holding the money out. “But it’s all we have. Whatever you could do…”

The entire tent had gone quiet as people waited to hear what Oz would say. He eyed the money, tempted. But there was no way he could trick himself out of this situation. The girl was in a wheelchair. He could pretend to make May disappear, but he couldn’t really make a little girl walk again. While it pained him to turn down money, he had no choice. “I uh…” He struggled with his words. “I would make you walk, but unfortunately, there is distemper in the ether.”

As he spoke, hope faded from the girl’s eyes. The crowd that had lingered began to boo.

“Beat it, you fake!” one man yelled.

As the boos grew louder, Oz slunk off the stage, struggling to keep his pride.

C
HAPTER
T
WO

S
O
Z STORMED BACK TO HIS TRAILER
,
Frank hurried after him, desperately holding on to several magical apparatuses that threatened to fall out of his arms.

“You should have lowered the curtain!” Oz hissed. “I was dying out there!”

“I didn’t think it was so bad,” Frank said, shrugging. The movement caused the equipment in his arms to shift and he struggled for a moment.

Looking at him out of the corner of his eye, Oz groaned. Of course Frank didn’t think it was too bad. He had the intellect of a bedpan. Reaching the trailer, Oz threw open the door and walked inside. He stormed about the small space, taking off his bow tie and throwing his hat in the corner.

“You know, Professor,” Frank said timidly as he watched his boss, “you really shouldn’t talk so mean to me all the time. After all, I’m the only friend you’ve got.”

Oz stopped what he was doing and turned to Frank. Then he laughed. “Friend?” he repeated. “You’re not my friend, Frank. I don’t
need
a friend. What I
need
is someone who knows how to lower a curtain!”

Frank blinked, stung by Oz’s harsh words. He opened his mouth, ready to finally stand up for himself, when suddenly there was a knock at his door. Sighing, Frank went to answer it. “It’s a woman,” he said.

Oz immediately brightened. “Finally!” he said. “Some good news!” Walking over, he peeked out the window. He smiled. The first real, genuine smile he had smiled all day. Throwing open the door, he said, “Hello, Annie.”

Standing there was his oldest childhood friend, Annie. She was a beautiful young woman with blond hair and kind eyes. Seeing Oz, she beamed. He pulled her into a hug and for a moment, they just stood there, clearly happy to see one another.

Finally, Oz pulled away and gestured for her to enter. “Don’t tell me you just watched that debacle,” he said when she was inside.

Annie smiled sadly. “I don’t know why you didn’t just tell that poor girl the truth,” she said in answer.

“What truth?” Oz said, shrugging. “That I’m a fake? They would’ve had my head! And worse than
that—
demanded a refund!” He paused and then changed the subject. “Can I get you some tea? It’s been so long, I haven’t seen you since…”

“Since the last time you rolled into town,” Annie finished, taking a seat. “It’s not often enough, Oscar, seeing you once every few months.”

“Well, it is a
traveling
circus,” he replied, trying to keep the tone light. Annie wasn’t like his audiences. He couldn’t trick her as easily. “How’s the farm?” Oz asked as he made a cup of tea. “And your ma? I’ve been meaning to write but…”

Annie cut him off. “I need to tell you something, Oscar,” she said, nervously ringing her hands. Oz stopped pouring the tea and looked over at her. “John Gale asked me to marry him. That’s why I’ve come. I thought you should know.”

The trailer grew quiet. Slowly, Oz put down the teapot and stared at it, avoiding Annie’s gaze. This was not what he had expected to hear. Annie was Annie.
His
Annie. She had always been
his
Annie. Ever since they were kids on the farm. She had been the only bright thing in his bleak world. Annie and magic were the only things he’d ever really cared about. Still, he knew what he had to say. “Well, I think that’s wonderful,” he said. “Congratulations.”

“I said I had to think about it,” Annie said softly.

“Oh, men love that answer,” Oz said, trying to mask his true feelings with some levity. But Annie continued on.

“I wondered…I wondered what
you
thought I should do.”

She looked at Oz, waiting. Her gaze was too much for him, though, and he began to move about the small space, tinkering with a projector and then picking up some glue and rolling the tube in his fingers. He knew what she wanted him to say. He had known for a long time that Annie wanted more than he could give. But it wouldn’t be fair to her. She deserved to be happy all the time. Could he really give her that?

“Well you could do a lot worse than John Gale,” he finally said. “He’s a good man.”

“So are you, Oscar,” Annie replied softly.

Oz chuckled. “I am many things, but a good man is not one of them.”

Sadness swept over Annie’s face. “You could be. If you
wanted
to.”

“Well, that’s just it,” Oz replied, his frustration getting the better of him. “I don’t
want
to! Kansas is full of good men. Men who get married and raise families. Men like my father, who spent his whole life tilling the dirt, only to die facedown in it. I don’t want that, Annie. I don’t want to be a good man. I want to be a
great
man! I want to be Harry Houdini and Thomas Edison all rolled into one.” Turning, he flicked a switch and the projector sprang to life. On the far wall an image of an elephant balancing on a ball began to flicker.

Annie sighed. She wished that Oz could see what she saw, that he could believe in himself as much as she did. But he was stubborn. “That’s all I ever wanted for you,” she finally said. “Greatness.” She stood up, ready to leave.

Oz was just about to say something when there was a panicked knock on the door. Frank ducked his head inside.

“Uh, Professor, you need to look outside,” he said, nodding over his shoulder.

Going over to the window, Oz pulled aside the small curtain. His eyes grew wide. An angry mob of carnival performers were heading his way—carrying identical music boxes. In the lead was Vlad, the circus’s strong man. He was very,
very
angry. Close behind came Vlad’s wife and May, followed by many more women.

“Not again!” Oscar groaned. He turned back to Annie. “That’s my cue, sweetheart. Congrats on the engagement.”

Then, as if their conversation had never happened, he pulled her in for a kiss. It was soft and sweet and for a moment, Oscar wanted to believe he could be the good man Annie wanted. But the angry shouts from outside broke through and he stopped the kiss.

“Oh, Oscar,” Annie cried.

“See you in my dreams,” he said, just as Vlad burst open the door. Before Annie could say another word, the strong man charged at Oz. Wasting no time, Oz threw his magical cloth over himself and yelled, “Zim Zallah Bim!”

Vlad watched, confused, as the sheet descended to the floor. By the time Vlad and the angry mob rushed over and pulled the curtain off, Oz had disappeared.

Oz was in serious trouble. He could talk or trick his way out of one woman’s anger. But a whole mob? And a strong man? That was a different story altogether. Thankfully he had his trusty trapdoor. Ducking under the curtain, he had been able to open the door and jump down underneath the trailer.

Slipping out from between the wagon wheels, he looked nervously around. The mob was all inside, rallying behind Vlad’s angry cries. Seeing his chance, Oz began to run.

Then, a clown spotted him.

“There he is!” the clown cried. Instantly, the group took chase.

Oz ran for his life. He darted between tents and jumped over empty chairs. He turned one corner and around another. And still, the mob kept following. The rest of the carnival workers were busy packing and barely glanced at Oz or Vlad. After all, they were used to seeing strange sights.

As the sky above darkened and the wind began to pick up, Oz ducked around another corner. Pausing to catch his breath, he looked behind him. No one was there! He had lost them. He began to smile, but it faded on his lips as he saw the strong man charge around the corner. Once again he took off, only to run straight into Mr. Baum, the circus owner.

“Oz, where are you going?” Baum asked.

“Mr. Baum, I’ll catch up with you in Milwaukee!” Oz yelled as he continued to run.

There was only one way he was going to escape this sticky situation. With the group in hot pursuit, Oz raced straight toward one of the circus’s hot-air balloons. It was moored on the outskirts of the carnival, the name OZ emblazoned on its side. As the wind grew even stronger, Oz reached the balloon and quickly shinnied up the mooring rope as Baum looked on.

“You can’t keep doing this!” Baum yelled. “That’s the third balloon you’ve stolen from me this year!”

“Take it out of my pay!” Oz quickly replied.

“You don’t have any pay!” Baum smartly answered.

With that, Oz heaved himself into the basket, and just in time, too. Vlad and the clown arrived at the rope below and were ready to take Oz down. The big man began to pull on the rope, trying to bring the balloon back down to earth. Scanning the basket, Oz remembered his contraption-knife. He whipped it open to reveal…a spoon. Trying again and again, Oz finally found the blade, and began sawing at the rope frantically. Back on the ground, Vlad and the clown kept pulling. For a moment, Oz thought that all hope was lost. And then, with a groan, the rope ripped and the balloon broke free. Vlad and the clown fell backward onto the ground.

At that very moment, Frank arrived. “Oz!” he called out. He was carrying Oz’s beloved satchel and hat. “You’re gonna need these!”

He hurled the bag up to Oz and then threw the hat like a discus. The objects sliced through the air until Oz reached out and grabbed both…just as the balloon lifted higher into the air, pushed up by the wind.

Oz let out a loud laugh. He had done it! He had escaped, once again, relatively unscathed. True, he had had to leave behind a few things, but he would find a way to get them back. And in the meantime, he still had his lovely balloon. Looking down, he gave a big grin and waved to the people on the ground below as they grew smaller and smaller. That had actually been quite a bit of fun.…

Only, no one but Frank was waving back. They had all turned and were staring off toward the west. Following their gaze, Oz’s eyes grew wide.

“Jiminy Christmas!” he breathed.

On the horizon was the largest, darkest, scariest looking storm front Oz had ever seen. Angry black clouds churned and a strong wind blew across the flat land, picking up debris and tossing it aside as though it weighed nothing.

And it was coming right at him.…