The Straw King (Dorothy Must Die Novella) (9 page)

“Hi, Glinda,” the Scarecrow said. She was still wearing her ball gown, but outside the grandeur of the throne room it looked slightly ridiculous. Her hair had come out of its elaborate updo, and her habitual smile was rigid rather than genuine.

“We need to talk,” Glinda said, and there was no mistaking the edge in her voice. Away from public scrutiny, she was a different person. A meaner one, he couldn’t help thinking. Suddenly he was tired of the witch and her endless scheming.

“About what? Ozma is in place, just like you wanted. She trusts you, and she’ll listen to anything you tell her to do.”

Glinda didn’t even notice that he hadn’t bothered to include himself as part of her plan to control Ozma.

He knew now that she never had intended to. It should have hurt or made him angry but instead it made him think. Never again would he be tricked. Just like never again would he be tied to a post in a field. He could still almost feel the crows landing,
one, two, three, four. Never, ever, ever . . .

He was only going to get better and smarter. Everything was a lesson. And every lesson was an opportunity. Even this one.

He didn’t see any reason to pretend he hadn’t figured out she was only using him and had no intention of sharing power. Was she surprised he’d been clever enough to see through her act? She didn’t show it. She might be a liar, but Glinda was right about one thing. War meant casualties, and he could no longer be afraid to be ruthless. He’d have to learn fast—and learn on his own. He couldn’t trust anyone other than himself. He’d stay one step ahead of Glinda and anyone else who crossed him. Whatever it took, he’d be ready.

“She doesn’t listen to me as well as she should,” Glinda said tersely. “That business with pardoning Jinjur . . .” She shook her head. “The princess is too used to getting her own way. I think they spoiled her up there in Gillikin Country. She’ll listen to me for now, but this independent streak is troubling.”

“There’s not much you can do about it now,” the Scarecrow pointed out. “You’re the one who made her queen.”

“We could put you back in power,” Glinda mused, tapping her chin with one manicured finger.

“You think I’d be any more willing to take your orders than she would?” He laughed.

“Too much trouble,” she said, ignoring him. “They’re happy to have a new queen, and they wouldn’t stand for another switchup. The situation is too volatile right now. We need a stable ruler, at least for the time being. But there has to be a
long-term solution.”

“I wish Dorothy was here,” the Scarecrow said suddenly. “Even if she didn’t know what to do, she was always so happy. Those were better times.” For a moment, he almost wished he was the old Scarecrow. Maybe he’d been stupid, but he’d also been happy and carefree.

“Well, obviously,” Glinda snapped, and then her eyes widened. “Oh, Scare!” she breathed, really looking at him for the first time. “Of course. It’s so clear; I can’t believe I didn’t think of it.” She grabbed his hands, and despite himself, a thrill ran through him. He was back in the game—and whatever he’d felt a moment ago, he couldn’t resist the excitement. “You’re absolutely
brilliant
.”

“I am?” He cleared his throat. He hated that praise from her could still, for a moment, take him higher than the flying monkeys had. “I am,” he said more confidently. “Brilliant, yes. I can always come up with a good solution.”

“I just have to find a way to bring her here,” Glinda said. “It’ll take time, but I can do it. You’ll have to wait for me—can you manage it? I’ll set you up outside the Emerald City somewhere. You can build yourself a nice little palace of your own and relax for a bit until it’s time for us to act.”

The Scarecrow weighed the plan he’d sparked. Bringing Dorothy back was something he’d wanted since she’d left. And when she got here, the Dorothy he remembered would have no interest in being queen. She’d put the Scarecrow back on the throne where he belonged. Wouldn’t she? He opened his mouth
to agree when they were interrupted. “Glinda? Scarecrow? I’ve been looking all over for you!” It was Ozma. The Scarecrow gave a guilty start, but Glinda didn’t bat an eyelash.

“You’ve nearly ruined your surprise, silly girl,” Glinda chided.

“Surprise?” Ozma asked eagerly. “What surprise?”

“It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you what it was,” Glinda told her. “You’ll have to be very patient. It might take a little while for me to fetch your gift. But when you meet her, I think you’ll be
very
happy.”

“My gift is a person?” Ozma asked. “Do you mean—a friend?”

Glinda smiled a radiant, gentle smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Just you wait, my dear. Just you wait and see.”

The Scarecrow fought a sinking feeling that was overtaking him. Maybe when Dorothy got here, together with the Lion and the Tin Man, they could find a way to take Glinda down.

Or maybe Glinda would convince Dorothy to do whatever she wanted, and he’d have to think of something else.

“Oh, Glinda, you take such good care of me,” Ozma said happily, giving Glinda a hug.

“Of course I do, darling,” Glinda said over Ozma’s shoulder. She met the Scarecrow’s eyes and gave him a sinister wink. “I’ll always take care of you, Ozma. Always. Just like I take care of all my friends.”

The Scarecrow watched Glinda with Ozma. He knew that promise, like most of the things she’d said, was a lie. Or the truth presented in a way to get what she wanted.

One of the things that she’d told him turned out to be more true than all the rest. It didn’t matter how much information he crammed into his brain, it was about how well his brain worked. And Glinda’s brain had just outsmarted his by a mile.

If only he could find a way to make his own run faster, smoother better. Smarter . . .

A crow landed on his shoulder just then. His straw did not rattle.

He did not bother to shoo it away.

They didn’t scare him anymore.

He decided to go back to his new quarters and walk the grounds.

He saw her before she saw him. She was wearing a new
uniform in Ozma’s colors, and unlike some of her singing brethren, she wore a stern expression as if she were deep in thought. But when she saw him, she broke into a smile.

Fiona curtsied at him in passing, as if he was still the king.

The gesture struck him in its simplicity and beauty and stalled him in his tracks, like a rainbow after a storm.

“I’m not the king anymore,” he said with a smile in return.

“You always will be to me,” she said with a knowing glance that seemed to relay that she understood more than the average Ozian. She bowed slightly and continued on her way.

Good old Fiona. She, at least, was still loyal. And clever. He watched the little servant make her way back toward the palace. Books weren’t going to work quickly enough. He had to move on to something else. Something more sure. Something like looking into someone
else’s
brain. A sharp, quick, clever Munchkin brain. A brain like Fiona’s.

Fiona still thought he was the king. Maybe she’d be able to help him in a way she never could have imagined. The Scarecrow smiled to himself and started back toward the castle.

He had work to do.

SEE HOW DOROTHY’S RISE TO POWER BEGAN:

They say you can’t go home again. I’m not entirely sure
who
said that, but it’s something they say. I know it because my aunt Em has it embroidered on a throw pillow in the sitting room.

You can’t go home again.
Well, even if they put it on a pillow, whoever said it was wrong. I’m proof alone that it’s not true.

Because, you see, I left home. And I came back. Lickety-split, knock your heels together, and there you are. Oh, it wasn’t quite so simple, of course, but look at me now: I’m still here, same as before, and it’s just as if I was never gone in the first place.

So every time I see that little pillow on Aunt Em’s good sofa, with its pretty pink piping around the edges and colorful bouquets of daisies and wildflowers stitched alongside those cheerful words (but
are
they even cheerful? I sometimes wonder), I’m halfway tempted to laugh. When I consider everything that’s happened! A certain sort of person might say that it’s ironic.

Not that I’m that sort of person. This is Kansas, and we
Kansans don’t put much truck in anything as foolish as
irony
.

Things we do put truck in:

Hard work.

Practicality.

Gumption.

Crop yields and healthy livestock and mild winters. Things you can touch and feel and see with your own two eyes. Things that do you at least two licks of good.

Because this is the prairie, and the prairie is no place for daydreaming. All that matters out here is what gets you through the winter. A Kansas winter will grind a dreamer right up and feed it to the pigs.

As my uncle Henry always says:
You can’t trade a boatload of wishes for a bucket of slop
. (Maybe I should embroider that on a pillow for Aunt Em, too. I wonder if it would make her laugh.)

I don’t know about wishes, but a bucket of slop was exactly what I had in my hand on the afternoon of my sixteenth birthday, a day in September with a chill already in the air, as I made my way across the field, away from the shed and the farmhouse toward the pigpen.

It was feeding time, and the pigs knew it. Even from fifty feet away, I could already hear them—Jeannie and Ezekiel and Bertha—squealing and snorting in anticipation of their next meal.

“Well, really!” I said to myself. “Who in the world could get so excited about a bit of slop!?”

As I said it, my old friend Miss Millicent poked her little red face out from a gap of wire in the chicken coop and squawked in
greeting. “And hello to you, too, Miss Millicent,” I said cheerily. “Don’t you worry. You’ll be getting your own food soon enough.”

But Miss Millicent was looking for companionship, not food, and she squeezed herself out of her coop and began to follow on my heels as I kept on my way. I had been ignoring her lately, and the old red hen was starting to be cross about it, a feeling she expressed today by squawking loudly and shadowing my every step, fluttering her wings and fussing underfoot.

She meant well enough, surely, but when I felt her hard beak nipping at my ankle, I finally snapped at her. “Miss Millie! You get out of here. I have chores to do! We’ll have a nice, long heart-to-heart later, I promise.”

The chicken clucked reproachfully and darted ahead, stopping in her tracks just in the spot where I was about to set my foot down. It was like she wanted me to know that I couldn’t get away from her that easily—that I was going to pay her some mind whether I liked it or not.

Sometimes that chicken could be impossible. And without even really meaning to, I kicked at her. “Shoo!”

Miss Millie jumped aside just before my foot connected, and I felt myself lose my balance as I missed her, stumbling backward with a yelp and landing on my rear end in the grass.

I looked down at myself in horror and saw my dress covered in pig slop. My knee was scraped, I had dirt all over my hands, and my slop bucket was upturned at my side.

“Millie!” I screeched. “See what you’ve done? You’ve ruined
everything!” I swatted at her again, this time even more angrily than when I’d kicked her, but she just stepped nimbly aside and stood there, looking at me like she just didn’t know what to do with me anymore.

“Oh dear,” I said, sighing. “I didn’t mean to yell at you. Come here, you silly hen.”

Millie bobbled her head up and down like she was considering the proposition before she hopped right into my lap, where she burrowed in and clucked softly as I ruffled her feathers. This was all she had wanted in the first place. To be my friend.

It used to be that it was all I wanted, too. It used to be that Miss Millicent and even Jeannie the pig were some of my favorite people in the world. Back then, I didn’t care a bit that a pig and a chicken hardly qualified as people at all.

They were there for me when I was sad, or when something was funny, or when I just needed company, and that was what mattered. Even though Millie couldn’t talk, it always felt like she understood everything I said. Sometimes it even almost seemed like she
was
talking to me, giving me her sensible, no-nonsense advice in a raspy cackle. “Don’t you worry, dearie,” she’d say. “There’s no problem in this whole world that can’t be fixed with a little spit and elbow grease.”

But lately, things hadn’t been quite the same between me and my chicken. Lately, I had found myself becoming more impatient with her infuriating cackling, with the way she was always pecking and worrying after me.

“I’m sorry, Miss Millicent,” I said. “I know I haven’t been
myself lately. I promise I’ll be back to normal soon.”

She fluffed her wings and puffed her chest out, and I looked around: at the dusty, gray-green fields merging on the horizon with the almost-matching gray-blue sky, and all of it stretching out so far into nothing that it seemed like it would be possible to travel and travel and travel—just set off in a straight line heading east or west, north or south, it didn’t matter—and never get anywhere at all.

“Sometimes I wonder if this is what the rest of life’s going to be like,” I said. “Gray fields and gray skies and buckets of slop. The world’s a big place, Miss Millicent—just look at that sky. So why does it feel so small from where we’re sitting? I’ll tell you one thing. If I ever get the chance to go somewhere else again, I’m going to stay there.”

I felt a bit ashamed of myself. I knew how I sounded.

“Get yourself together and stop moping, Little Miss Fancy,” I responded to myself, now in my raspy, stern, Miss Millicent voice, imagining that the words were coming out of her mouth instead of my own. “A prairie girl doesn’t worry her pretty little head about places she’ll never go and things she’ll never see. A prairie girl worries about the here and now.”

This is what a place like this does to you. It makes you put words in the beaks of chickens.

I sighed and shrugged anyway. Miss Millie didn’t know there was anything else out there. She just knew her coop, her feed, and
me
.

These days, I envied her for that. Because I was a girl, not a
chicken, and I knew what was out there.

Past the prairie, where I sat with my old chicken in my lap, there were oceans and more oceans. Beyond those were deserts and pyramids and jungles and mountains and glittering palaces. I had heard about all those places and all those things from newsreels and newspapers.

And even if I was the only one who knew it, I’d seen with my own eyes that there were more directions to move in than just north and south and east and west, places more incredible than Paris and Los Angeles, more exotic than Kathmandu and Shanghai, even. There were whole worlds out there that weren’t on any map, and things that you would never believe.

I didn’t need to believe. I
knew
. I just sometimes wished I didn’t.

I thought of Jeannie and Ezekiel and Bertha, all of them in their pen beside themselves in excitement for the same slop they’d had yesterday and would have again tomorrow. The slop I’d have to refill into the bucket and haul back out to them.

“It must be nice not to know any better,” I said to Miss Millicent.

In the end, a chicken is a good thing to hold in your lap for a few minutes. It’s a good thing to pretend to talk to when there’s no one else around. But in the end, if you want the honest-to-goodness truth, it’s possible that a chicken doesn’t make the greatest friend.

Setting Miss Millicent aside, I dusted myself off and headed back toward the farmhouse to clean myself up, change my dress,
and get myself ready for my big party. Bertha and Jeannie and Ezekiel would have to wait until tomorrow for their slop.

It wasn’t like me to let them go hungry. At least, it wasn’t like the
old
me.

But the old me was getting older by the second. It had been two years since the tornado. Two years since I’d gone away. Since I had met Glinda the Good Witch, and the Lion, the Tin Woodman, and the Scarecrow. Since I had traveled the Road of Yellow Brick and defeated the Wicked Witch of the West. In Oz, I had been a hero. I could have stayed. But I hadn’t. Aunt Em and Uncle Henry were in Kansas. Home was in Kansas. It had been my decision and mine alone.

Well, I had made my choice, and like any good Kansas girl, I would live with it. I would pick up my chin, put on a smile, and be on my way.

The animals could just go hungry for now. It was my birthday, after all.