The Lizard of Oz: Chapter Nineteen
Review of the Troops
After Mr. Shermin left, Miss Osborne gathered everybody outside the Library. There they stood: the Knights of the Little Green VW — Eugene and Mark and Linda S. and Linda C. and Cindy and Donny and Joey and Timmy and Kevin and Peter and Gaynell and Kathy and Mr. New Man and Miss Shelby.
Eugene, the tallest of the kids, was shorter than Miss Osborne; and Linda C., the smallest, was very little. But together they were supposed to change the world.
Promised One or not, Miss Osborne had no idea what to do next and no one to turn to for help.
Miss Shelby hadn’t heard Mr. Plato. She had only seen the shadow pictures on the walls of the cave.
And Miss Osborne hadn’t understood what Mr. Plato had said well enough to explain it to Miss Shelby or to anyone else.
Mr. Shermin would have been some help. She appreciated him now that he was gone. Even when he was a fish and even when he wasn’t talking, it had always been a comfort knowing somebody was along who knew more than she did.
She had left Mr. Carroll behind, afraid to give in to the temptation to stay with him, knowing now that she had an important, though confusing, mission to carry out.
Even the Redcoats were gone.
Mr. New Man, the only newcomer left, was big; but he was still light-headed, having been empty-headed for so long.
She had a stick, some sunglasses, and a few rough notes on how to fight dragons.
Their only source of strength was flower power — flowers they had picked in the forest by the river and in the El Easy One Fields — Gaynell’s wilted forgetmenots, Mr. New Man’s slightly crushed sunflower, and Kathy’s petalless daisies.
That was it — some arsenal, some army.
She didn’t know Mr. Bacon or Sir Real very well, but she had no one else to turn to. So she asked Mr. Bacon, “Please, sir, could you come along with us and help us? It turns out that the Lizard of Oz is a great fire-breathing dragon, and none of us has experience fighting fire-breathing dragons.”
“Sorry, miss,” he replied. “I can’t leave my Library. There’s no telling what would happen if I were to leave my Library. Barbarians, I tell you, barbarians are everywhere. They’d destroy these books without knowing what they were doing, and the world would starve. No, I can’t go with you.”
So Miss Osborne turned to Sir Real, “Please, sir, could you please help us? It’s all very confusing, and I’m not sure what’s real anymore; but I do know that we must bring back fire to the world.”
“You don’t know what’s real?” said Sir Real. “Why I’m real, and my father was before me, and his father before him. But I don’t think I should be going on dangerous expeditions. You see, I don’t have a son; and if anything should happen to me, no one would be real anymore. It’s my duty to stay behind and protect myself. But maybe you can find some help along the way. You’ll have to cross Redland and the Moors on the way to the Nile.”
Gaynell recited, “Egghead south to the Mouth of the Nile and find the tooth the whole tooth and nothing but the tooth for smiles and smiles till suffer-time.” She was proud that she remembered all of the witch’s poem.
“Redland and the moors?” asked Miss Osborne.
“Yes,” explained Sir Real, “if you get past Redland, the Moors are a wasteland, so bleak that trees won’t grow there. But people live there, pioneers who have worked hard to close the wilderness.”
“Excuse me, sir,” interrupted Miss Shelby. “You must mean open the wilderness.” She told the class, “We all know we should be grateful to the pioneers who opened the wilderness.”
“No, Miss Shelby, all of that changed,” Sir Real explained. “At first, pioneers opened the wilderness, tamed nature, chopped down trees and made the place livable. But then people moved in — hundreds, thousands, millions of people. There were so many people that the place became unlivable again. There wasn’t anything the pioneers could do with that new kind of wilderness. There was no way to chop down the forest of buildings. So they went back and found scraps of land that had been left behind. And they did everything they could to close off those bits of old wilderness. So instead of frontiersmen, now we call them backtiersmen. I don’t know if they’ll do anything to help you. In any case, I’m sure they’ll sympathize.”
“But first you have to get past the Reds,” added Mr.Bacon.
“Indeed,” confirmed Sir Real.
“Who are the Reds?” asked Miss Osborne.
Sir Real explained, “The Reds are exiles. There are all sorts of them: Redcoats, Redskins, and Redheads. They left the world years ago because they couldn’t stand the way things were. And ever since, they’ve been plotting and planning and waiting for the right moment to go back and change the world. But that moment never seems to come.”
Miss Shelby said, “They sound dangerous, Miss Osborne. We’ve been fighting redcoats and redskins and reds for years.”
Miss Osborne replied, “But the redcoats we met were very nice. I’m sure they’d help us if they could.” She turned to Sir Real and asked, “How can we get to Redland from here?”
“It just so happens that a redhead is visiting the Library right now. He stops by often to get a bite to eat. You remember Mr. Marx, don’t you? Karl, could you lead this young lady to Redland?”
“Capital idea, sir. Capital,” replied Marx.
So the kids all piled into the little green VW. Mr. New Man hopped on the top, and Mr. Marx climbed up next to him and showed them the way to Redland.
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Links to other chapters and the story of how this story was written.
