Regret
The Wizard couldn’t help but stare as the girl entered the room. She was small, with a blue and white checked dress on. Not the usual look for a saviour (or murderer, depending which way you look at it). And she had those shoes. Those beautiful, ruby red shoes. Glinda the Good had ‘magicked’ them – her words, not his. Those shoes that could take him anywhere he wanted in the world. Maybe even home.
He missed home. He would never admit it to anyone. Here, they thought he was wonderful and loved him for his ideas and the idea of a Ruler of Oz. Back home, they loved him for who he was. Wonderful was all very well, but it didn’t bring you happiness.
‘I am Oz, the great and terrible.’
He remembered saying those words to the green girl, who had wandered into his life three years before. The look of hope on her face was equal to the expression on the girl’s face in front of him. Elphaba had come to help people. Why had this girl come?
‘Who are you, and why do you seek me?’
The girl was trembling. Elphaba hadn’t seemed scared at first, but she couldn’t speak to him. It came upon Glinda to make Elphaba speak.
‘My name is Dorothy, sir, and this is my dog, Toto.’
‘Elphaba Thropp, your terribleness.’
He turned to the blonde girl beside Elphaba. ‘And you must be?’
‘Glinda. The Ga is silent.’He shook his head, pushing the memory from his mind. He sighed and listened to Dorothy.
‘I want to go home.’
Selfish child. She wanted something for herself. Elphaba had come to report strange happenings throughout Oz. Admittedly, those strange happenings were his fault, but she didn’t know that. Well, she didn’t. She did now. And she had tried the levitation spell. That all went wrong. Why? Why had he called those monkeys spies? He should have known that those words would push her away from him, before she had become close.
‘
I’m here… we’re here to alert you that something bad is happening…She was so honest. She was good. He had lied, he had cheated. He had got where he was through luck, and a wonderful right hand woman. He was nowhere near honest. He could barely be considered good.
‘You want to go home?’ His voice boomed out across the room. Selfish child. Selfish, selfish girl. So different to Elphaba.
‘Yes sir. To Aunt Em, and Uncle Henry.’
‘Well, if I do something for you, you must do something for me.’
‘Of course, you must prove yourself’
‘How?’ Never had someone so green looked so… innocent.
Madame Morrible had entered the room, her head held high. She always had commanded respect.
‘I believe you’re well acquainted with my new Press Secretary.’
The two girls looked shocked. Elphaba managed to stammer ‘P… Press Secretary.’
Morrible smirked. ‘Yes dearies. I’ve risen up in the world. You’ll find the Wizard is a very generous man. If you do something for him, he’ll do much for you.’ Dorothy looked shocked. ‘Me sir? But what can I do? I’m only a girl.’
‘What do you want me to do?’Typical Elphaba, always ready to prove herself. She would try anything to achieve her dreams. And he had failed her. She had been right of course. He did need enemies, and spies, and cages. He needed her. Someone with power. Goodness knew she had power. Power that might be turned against him, so he needed to harness it.
She was gone now. He couldn’t ask her to help him. He’s tried, and failed, twice. He wasn’t one for making the same mistake three times. He had almost persuaded her. He had persuaded her. He had set the monkeys free, desperate to keep this unknown power by his side. And then she saw the quivering sheet, thrown unceremoniously over that Goat.
Elphaba knelt beside the figure, no doubt convinced it was a terrified monkey. She reached out her hand, touching the sheet.
‘No, no. Please!’ She just gave him a queer look and pulled away the cover. She gasped, and stifled a sob. ‘Doctor Dillamond? No! It can’t be. Doctor Dillamond!’
The Wizard closed his eyes. No no no! It was all going wrong, again! He spoke weakly. ‘We couldn’t continue… we couldn’t let him… we couldn’t keep letting him speak out.’ He put his hand on Elphaba’s shoulder and she threw it off, disgusted. She shook the Goat’s shoulder.
‘Doctor Dillamond. Are you alright? It’s me, Elphaba.’ No response. ‘Don’t you remember me?’ She gasped again, struck suddenly by the truth. ‘Can’t you… can’t you speak?’
She glared at the Wizard, tears in her eyes, but angry tears all the same. ‘We have nothing in common! I’m nothing like you. And I never will be!’
‘Guards. Guards!’Two words he had lamented instantly. He could have let her go. Then he would have kept his captain of the guards, and Glinda wouldn’t have been furious with him afterwards. Morrible had, of course, sent a weather spell to Munchkinland, causing that fatal cyclone. Well, fatal for the Wicked Witch of the East. What was her name? Nessarose. That was it.
Dorothy was waiting.
‘You killed the Witch of the East didn’t you? I’m sure there’s something you can do for me.’ He paused, thinking. She was a threat. Fiyero was dead, no doubt about it. She had no one to protect her. Was it really worth it? Perhaps she wouldn’t do anything. She hadn’t done anything yet. Yet. But there was always the risk, always the ‘perhaps’. What if she did attack? She was stronger than him, both physically and magically. But there was no one to take her side. The whole of Oz was terrified of her. No one would help her. Did he really need to do it?
He was scared too. Scared he would be revealed as a fraud, a con man. And for that reason, and that reason only, he spoke those fatal words that he regretted for the rest of his life.
‘Kill the Wicked Witch of the West.’
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Thu Aug 09, 2007 2:14 pm
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