The Lizard of Oz: Chapter Eleven
The Underworld
When they reached the opposite bank, they saw a huge dog with three heads.
Linda C. and Peter hid in Miss Osborne’s lap; and everybody else, even Miss Shelby and Mr. New Man, scurried to the far end of the raft, nearly tipping it over. Everybody, that is, except Timmy, who walked right up to the dog and held out his hand and let the dog lick it with all three tongues.
Then all the kids ran ashore and crowded close so they too could to pet the dog.
Kathy started giggling and whispered to Gaynell; and Gaynell started giggling and whispered to Kathy.
Finally, Kathy asked a sparsely clothed man sitting on the dock, “Mister, why are you in your underwear?”
Both Kathy and Gaynell blushed and giggled some more.
The man in underwear answered, “Of course I’m in underwear. What else would you wear in the Underworld?”
Kathy was puzzled, “That doesn’t sound right.”
“But of course it’s right,” he answered. “Everybody here writes. Perhaps you’ve heard of me. I’m Lewis Carroll.”
Gaynell said, “Yes. I remember that story you wrote about your friend Alice and how she fell through a rabbithole.”
“That’s right. I wrote that one. And over there is Bill Shakespeare. And the man fishing on the riverbank is Mark Twain. And the ones playing with flash cards are Bert and Ernie.”
“Miss Shelby,” asked Mr. New Man, “what’s this all about? Who are these guys?”
“It’s all very confusing,” she admitted. “These people seem to be writers who have been dead for many years. I don’t understand how they got here; or how we got here. But I’m sure talking to them could be very educational.”
Eugene walked up to the ones with the flash cards and said, “You don’t look like Bert and Ernie.”
“Well I most certainly am Bert — Flo Bert. Mr. Bert, if you will.”
“Is that your dog?”
“His name is Mo Just, or, if you will, just Mo.”
“What’s with the flash cards?”
The cards, with a word written on each of them, were lined up in a circle.
“Let me demonstrate.” Mr. Bert pointed to one card after another with his pen, like a conductor waving his baton. And each word that he pointed to counted to ten, slowly and clearly.
“Since when do words count?” asked Donny.
“Of course they count. Every word must count. I’m determined to teach every one of them to count. And my friend Ernie Hemingway is even more earnest than I am.”
Meanwhile, Timmy walked up to Mark Twain and asked, “What’s that you’re eating?”
“Huckleberries, of course,” he answered. “Here, try some. Come cool your feet in the water. Don’t be afraid. It’s a friendly river. When you get to know it, you’ll feel like you’ve always lived near it, like you were here even before you were born.”
Kathy walked up to Shakespeare and asked him, “Mr. Shakespeare, could you please tell me where I can get that love potion you mention in that summertime play of yours?”
“Look to the power in a flower,” he replied.
“But what flower?”
“The flower of youth.”
“I never heard of that flower. Is it anything like a rose or a forgetmenot? Is it like the sunflower Mr.New Man wears in his buttonhole? Is it an iris, like the Little Blue Wallflower?”
“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
“As sweet as what, Mr. Shakespeare? Where can I find it? Where can I buy it?”
“What can be bought can be sold; and what sold, can stolen be. True magic is not so easily found nor lost. Gently it grows within you without you being aware. Then it shows itself in unexpected ways. You may not know you’ve blossomed, until you find you’re the flower of someone’s eye, just like the iris.”
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Links to other chapters and the story of how this story was written.
