Finding My Yellow Brick Road

Chapter Ten - Going Home

MY EYE TWITCHES.

"Ooh, child I'ma slap you! I know you didn't just ditch your ride for me." I tell her.

"Well, kinda, but not completely." My cousin says.

Before she can continue, there is a whimsical sound. I recognize it. It can only be one thing . . . sure enough, Adapearl appears.

"Adapearl!" My little cousin squeals.

"Dorothy Gale, what are you still doin' here?" She asks. I note that she doesn't ask me what I'm still doing. I think she knows what I'm going to do. She's known since the beginning. "You joined the circus?" She points at our motley crew.

"Ay!" I say, offended.

"These are my friends," Dorothy explains.

"I know, I'm just playin' with you." Adapearl says, waving us off. "Well, where's the Wiz?"

"Gone," Dorothy replies, smiling.

"Without you?" Adapearl asks.

"That's what the hell I said!" I say, throwing my hands up.

"You figured it out, didn't you?" Adapearl says, catching me off guard.

"I think so." My cousin responds. "Omaha is where I was born, but where I belong is with Gabrielle and Aunt Em in Kansas. Is that right?"

"Good girl," Adapearl says.

"Bro, what the hell?" I ask, confused.

"Home isn't where you live, it's where you love," my cousin tells me, repeating my words from earlier.

I smile at her, shaking my head.

"I'm so proud of you," Adapearl tells Dorothy seriously.

"Does that mean I could go back home now? Can you take me? Please?"

"Me? Oh, no, no, no. Out of my jurisprudence. But I may know someone who can."

Adapearl waves her wand, and another woman appears with an almost heavenly sound and a shower of glitter. She is wearing a golden dress, and she smiles at us.

"She is beautiful!" My cousin tells Adapearl.

"Did I lie?" Adapearl responds. "Dorothy, Baby," she rushes over to us, "this is my sister, Glinda, the Good Witch of the South."

Glinda reaches her hands out to us, and we each take one of them. "Hello, Dorothy and Baby. Now, it is a pleasure to finally meet you up close and not see you from far away."

"From far away?" Dorothy repeats.

"I've had my eye on you every step of the way." Glinda explains.

"I think I already knew that. I always felt like someone was watchin' over me. Didn't you, Gabrielle?"

"Hell no! That's creepy as hell!" I say, but I'm still smiling.

"Now that's the power of love, sweetheart," Glinda tells Dorothy, "you're never alone. Now your Auntie Em and all the others have been keeping watch over you."

"I'm really tired," my cousin says softly. "Would it be all right if I went home now?"

"Well, you've had the power to go home anytime. Adapearl," Glinda says, looking towards her sister, "why didn't you tell the child?"

"I thought she'd like to meet you first," Adapearl responds, shrugging and smiling sheepishly.

"It's these shoes, right?" My cousin says. "They have the magic to take me home–"