Prank Gone Wrong

“Be careful, it is dangerous right now,” Scarecrow said as he followed her in. This lady knew of nothing that had happened, that much was clear. She may have some idea of his world, but she didn't seem to understand many things.

“Scott? Joe? Tish?” The lady called out. “What's going on, where are you guys?” She was standing in the middle of an open field. “Right here, everyone should be right here. Come out, this isn't funny!”

“It's not a joke,” Scarecrow said as he came to her side. “I am afraid my arrival may have sent them into another dimension. They must have been sent somewhere else.”

“No one has been sent anywhere else,” she said as she walked further, still not heeding his warning. She went to the other side of the cornfield and stepped in “Tish―”

Hearing the change in her tempo, Scarecrow ran fast to her, grabbing her. “Be careful, you must listen!”

“What in the hell?!”

Scarecrow looked down. He'd grabbed her just in time. There was a large swirling pool of nothingness. The last thing he had seen before he had got sucked in. They both scooted backward as they watched the strange pool move even closer.

“What in the hell is that thing?!”

My, she needed some courtesy language lessons. “That is where your friends must have been sucked to. I don't recommend falling in, there's no telling where you will end up.” He pulled on his nose. “Or how you will end up.”

She moved farther away from there, running from the cornfield along with him. “We have to call the police, the authorities, or something!”

“Who? The leaders of the land?” Scarecrow asked. “I once ruled the City of Emeralds, but I don't see how I could help yet. I don't even understand the new land I am in. Or, dimension. Whatever you wish to call it here. Could you help me find Dorothy now?”

“Dorothy is gone.” The lady finally stopped, looking at him in a serious way for the first time. “Are you saying that you are the real Scarecrow? From the book? That is real?”

“Yes, I am as real as you are,” Scarecrow answered her, “now where has Dorothy gone?”

“If the book written was true, she lived in the distant past,” she answered. “Only her great descendants would be alive.”

“Oh. I see. Time has flowed differently.” Scarecrow placed his hand in front of his mouth. How sad. “Dorothy had always been so sweet. The size of the Munchkins but even kinder.” He remembered the first time he had met the young girl. All she had wanted was to get home. An impossible feat, yet she didn't give up. Oh, if only he could do the same thing. The damage had been done though, his home was gone. Now, his only friend he could have had there, was now gone too. “Did she grow up happy?”

“I don't know. I thought she had been just a character.” The lady in front of him mumbled, unsure. “Sorry for your loss.”

“I am in Kansas though, and I was brought to the closest thing resembling my old self.” He looked at his hands, marveling at how different they were now. They had five digits, skin, and were larger versions of Dorothy's body and the Munchkins. Even though he now experienced pain on the back of his body, he felt more stable with no need for additional help from a staff. The pain though, what a sensation! He hoped it went away soon. Emotional and physical, he was hurting in every way. “I wish I could have met my friend one more time.” He looked at the woman in front of him.

Clearly much older than little Dorothy, her eyes were bright like hers. Her hair wasn't similar, but the curves of her face. Could it be? “Did your ancestor work on a farm in Kansas?”

“Well, yeah, but that was lost ages ago,” she said. “Couldn't make it through. Most of the family works for meat plants.”

“Meat plants?” Scarecrow asked not knowing the word. “Carnivorous plants?

“No. You don't need details,” she answered, “just forget it.” She rubbed her shoulders, clearly uncomfortable with the situation of losing her friends to another dimension. “How do I get them back?”

“I've no idea,” Scarecrow answered as he gestured around. “You will need a great wizard or witch, and you would need to be in their new dimension. After seeing the events in the last month of Oz. . .I do not recommend it. Not every dimension is compatible, or survivable.”

“They are lost?” She looked toward the cornfield again. “Forever? I don't believe it, I don't.” She moved toward an odd looking carriage, and pointed something toward it so it made a noise. She opened the door and got inside. “Get in the car.” She opened the other door.

Scarecrow shrugged. “Sitting down is not something I often do.” It was something he never did, he had been a scarecrow.

“Get in this car,” she demanded. “I don't have time to waste, I need to find help.”

Using one foot at a time, and finding that his back arched easily, he sat down in the chair. Oddly, the action was rather relaxing. He grabbed the door and shut it as the lady took off. “I'm sorry, but I still have not received your name. It was not really nine one one, was it?”

“Darlene. Put on your seat belt,” she said right before she swung the vehicle around in a rapid U-turn.

Scarecrow held onto the the board in front of him as he felt several dips and bumps. He reached for the side and stretched the belt to something in the middle of the car. He had seen what she did with her belt, which had made it easier. He was excellent at mimicry. The vehicle should obviously not be going this fast so the belt may be a life saver for him. He was no longer made of straw, and the idea of more pain didn't suit him. The ground soon became a path, much like a yellow brick road, except it was black and not made of brick. It was smoother and the wild driving was easier to handle on it. That easiness however ended as the vehicle roughly stopped. It made a loud screech and there was a smell now being emitted from the car.

In front of them was nothing but a void that was many times bigger than the other had been.

Darlene banged her wheel and she broke down, weeping and yelling at the same time.

Seeing how a road seemed to lead to nowhere except to the void, Scarecrow could guess what had happened. Her entire land that she had lived in had been swallowed whole. The same thing had happened in Munchkinland. It had been the first of them to go. She deserved to grieve for those she knew, but the dimension hole could change direction. “We must leave. Nothing can be done.”

“My family, my whole family. My whole town. My home!” Darlene looked over toward him. “Where am I supposed to go?”

“I do not know your world, but I suppose, somewhere new with safety?” He figured that would be an obvious answer, but she didn't seem inclined to listen to that.

“With what? I don't have any money on me, it was at home.” Darlene closed her eyes and banged her head on the wheel. “This has to be a dream. Someone spiked the punch and I fell over or something.” She bit her hand and then pulled it back. Bite impressions were left on it, and she shook her hand repeatedly. She must have realized it was not a dream. “My home.”

He didn't want to warn her again that they should get moving, but they couldn't stay there. He watched the hole though and saw the size decreasing as it whirled. It was almost closed. He was thankful for that. Darlene would need time to come to terms with what had happened.

Scarecrow would also have to come to terms with his new world. No longer straw and old clothes, he was made of skin. He had a real brain like Dorothy, and a real heart too. He had bones, and everything else of the Munchkins. He also could feel physical pain, something he wished he could have denied. Emotional had been enough.

He watched as Darlene hit a button on her belt, got out of the car and walked to the empty ground that the hole had disappeared from. She sat down on the ground, uncaring about what else could happen. She reached out and grabbed some dirt, pouring it through her fingers.

Scarecrow hit a little button on his belt, following her lead, and also left the car.

He stood guard as the young lady sat on the ground dealing with her grief.

***

Walking. With a man who called himself Scarecrow. That's how she spent the night and part of the morning. He seemed okay with the whole thing, and if the walking part of the fairytale held true, Darlene could believe he was used to it. She on the other hand, wasn't. They were in the middle of nowhere. She had no money. This wasn't a fantasy world where they could find food and helpful people along the way. Without money people could die. Darlene only knew one place they could seek safety from, and it was a long trek. Her grandmother owned her country home, but it was in another town.

Darlene had the key, but she didn't want to startle her grandma. It was early morning by the time they arrived. She knocked on her bedroom window, and watched her bedroom light flicker on.

Her grandma opened the door for her. “Grandma!” Darlene hugged her closely. “Something terrible has happened.”

Darlene reiterated everything that had happened, and about Scarecrow too. “I know it sounds crazy, but it's all gone. It will probably be on the news tomorrow. Everyone is gone, and I don't know where they went.”

“I see.” Her grandmother nodded to Scarecrow. “It's an honor to meet you. Dorothy told me much about you.”

Scarecrow grinned. “You knew Dorothy?”

“Yes, she was my great Aunt Dorothy, many years ago. She had told me about her adventures when I was younger. Even though it sounded fantastic and a child's dream, she was a convincing woman.”

“Oh, Dorothy had really been something, a sweet girl,” Scarecrow added. “I never forgot that girl no matter how much time passed in Oz. Oh, Oz.” He looked toward the ground. “This world must have no magic, I cannot be a real scarecrow here.” He pointed at his nose and mouth. “No straw. Pain hurts too. I hate the pain in this dimension. I miss home so badly.”

Darlene's grandmother laid her hand on hers. “I am sure that everyone is fine. A change to another dimension doesn't mean death. It's rare though, so rare. It probably happened as a ripple effect of Scarecrow coming through. His wishes or last thoughts must have led him here, to the last of Dorothy's descendants.”

“You believe they'll be okay?” Darlene asked. “Do you know how we can get them back?”

“I don't, but I also don't find it comforting that Oz is gone. Don't wander off too far from Scarecrow.” Her grandmother tried to stand up again. “At ninety, I need enough help myself, I won't be able to help him as much. He will need to learn to eat, to bathe, and to sleep.”

“Oh.” Darlene looked toward Scarecrow. “We'll start with sleep.” She was so tired from that long walk. She knew where her grandmother's spare bedroom was so she stood up, intent on going.

“He can't wear those ragged clothes around here either. You will need to go shopping,” her grandmother warned her.

“Later. We walked a long way,” Darlene complained. “My car didn't make the trip and our legs barely did. We need rest.”

“I do feel different,” Scarecrow admitted. He was still standing. “I suppose in this new non-scarecrow body, I must learn to sleep and eat.” He sighed. “Time consuming.”

“Another thing, your name,” Darlene's grandmother said before they left. “No one is named Scarecrow. You will have to change your name.”

“Change my name? Absurd!” Scarecrow crossed his arms. “I do not wish to change my name.”

“Later. Sleep,” Darlene almost slurred. “Come on, Scarecrow.”

“Uh uh,” her grandmother interrupted. “Get him to sleep first in the bed. You can sleep with me tonight. I don't want you sharing a bed with him.”

“He was a scarecrow,” Darlene said, whining and only wanting to go to bed. If he watched her sleep, he'd figure it out. “The scarecrow from a fairytale.”

“True, but he's not anymore, is he?” her grandmother winked. “He is a nice looking man. I'd say in his twenties?”

“Is that what I look like?” Scarecrow touched his nose again. “I feel lumpy on the face, that's all I know. I hope I'm pleasant looking.”

“Pleasant looking, sweet, and a nice voice with little experience.” Her grandmother looked back at Darlene. “Separate bedroom, please.”

“Fine, whatever,” Darlene mumbled. She'd have to get him to figure out sleep before she was allowed to sleep herself.

“Tomorrow, you need to visit your cousins, Cheryl and Dominic,” her grandmother added before they left.

Darlene turned around to look at her. “Who?”

“Cheryl and Dominic.”

“I don't have cousins with those names.”

“Cheryl Closin,” her grandmother said. “Although she went by Deeks for a time, she started going by her father’s last name instead. She lives on the outmost skirts of town, and probably missed the dimension hole. It may be time to bring her into the family.”

“Cheryl was my cousin?” Darlene asked in disbelief “Cheryl, the silent woman that comes down but never talks to no one? You never bothered telling me we were related?”

“The family stayed its own separate ways. She didn't bother us, and we did not bother her. Not until now.”

“You said she went by Deeks though before? I thought people took the man’s last name, that doesn’t make sense.”

Her grandmother gestured back to the rooms. “Get some rest. I will tell you more tomorrow.”