The Lizard of Oz: Chapter Twenty-Six
The Great Dragon of Ome
The water was cold, so everyone scrambled ashore again.
Mr. New Man, Kathy, Kevin, and Eugene started wandering up the hill.
“Hey! Come back here!” Miss Shelby shouted at them. “This place could be dangerous.”
When they didn’t respond, she ran after them to bring them back. But as she ran up the hill, she started forgetting what she was running for, and she just wanted to get to the top.
Soon everyone was running in that direction.
From the top of the hill, across the green fields of Ome, they saw the huge shape of the Great Dragon of Ome, the Lizard of Oz, the Leaping Lizard himself.
Peter and Linda C. ran to the shelter of Miss Osborne’s arms.
Linda S. said, “The zoo’s a really nice place to go to see strange animals. There are bars keeping them in, and it’s really very safe.”
Then Mr. New Man started singing Puff, the Magic Dragon.
Soon everyone was singing that song, and they were all laughing and playing and rolling in the green green grass of Ome.
From the distance, they heard, “Ome, Ome, Ome . . .” repeated over and over again by what sounded like a huge chorus.
Joey asked, “Why do they keep saying Ome, Miss Shelby?”
“It must be a football game or something,” she answered. “They’re probably chanting the name of the home team. But it’s funny — if I shut my eyes, I could think I was in the Far East in a Buddhist monastery.”
“Where’s the Far East?” asked Mark. “Is it in Maine somewhere?”
“No, it’s on the other side of the world. The world is very big. The sun shines here half the time and there in the East the other half. When it’s day here, it’s night there. And when it’s night there, it’s day here. There’s no real difference between their side of the world and ours. But by coincidence, all the major religions started in the East.”
“Miss Shelby, come quick!” shouted Gaynell. “Somebody over here’s in chains.”
“Don’t free me,” said the man. “Please, don’t free me or I’ll run to it. I know it will destroy me, but I’m drawn to it. Please, don’t free me.”
He pulled at the chains, trying to rip himself free. Then he fell back, exhausted, relieved that the chains had held. His arms and legs were scarred and bloodied by such repeated attempts.
Someone else was praying, “Oh radiant being, light of lights, very God of very Gods . . .”
A girl was writhing on the ground, saying, “Stop! It hurts. Please don’t pull me there. Please. I don’t think I can stop myself. It feels too good.”
Miss Osborne said, “Everyone back on the hill. We shouldn’t expose the children to this. I’ll run ahead and get what we came for. If I go fast, I think I can do it.”
She went running down the hill with the stick in her hand. At first she was scared, but soon she started to feel that she didn’t need anyone bigger than herself. Then she realized there was someone bigger. She couldn’t say who it was; but his or her presence gave her even greater confidence.
“Gosh,” said Donny, “look at all the pretty colors.”
Miss Osborne’s clothes had suddenly changed color.
“That’s the strange intense light,” explained Miss Shelby. “It plays tricks on your eyes. It can make a perfectly ordinary dress look like it’s fit for a queen.”
“Fit for an empress,” said Kathy. “That’s moral fiber.”
Miss Shelby laughed, “What a beautiful idea. Children say the sweetest things.”
“Man,” said Mr. New Man, “she can’t fight that dragon all by herself.”
He went running to the rescue.
“Stop!” Miss Shelby shouted. “Come back!”
But he kept running.
The kids wanted to follow him, but Miss Shelby held them back. So they practiced the dragon-fighting strokes that St. George and the other Knights of the Merry-Go-Round Table had taught them; and they cheered for Miss Osborne and Mr. New Man.
When Mr. New Man started out, he was scared. But the closer he got to the dragon, the better he felt. He could feel his muscles getting stronger with every step. It would be child’s play to kick that little dragon for a field goal. The empty corners of his mind filled with new strength and confidence. It was no mystery to him how people turned themselves into fish and fish turned to frogs and frogs to people. He felt the life force surging through him — the force that in an acorn can crack huge boulders, the power to change the world and to change oneself.
All around him, other people rushed forward then crawled back, fighting this force that drew them onwards. Hundreds shouted that they were Caesar or Napoleon. One shouted that he was an atom bomb.
Mr. New Man passed Miss Osborne. He had forgotten that he was running to rescue her and fight the dragon. Now he was running to that source of strength, and all around he heard “Ome, Ome, Ome . . .” He had to fight his way through masses of immobile people chanting over and over “Ome, Ome, Ome . . .”
Meanwhile, Miss Shelby was so busy looking off into the distance, trying to see Mr. New Man and Miss Osborne, that she didn’t notice that Donny had slipped by her. He hadn’t meant to go far; but with every step he took, he saw clearer and brighter and sharper. Soon he was seeing through things with x-ray vision, like Superman. Then he knew what it must be like to be one of those judges in The Oddest Sea who could tell at a glance who was a goodie and who a baddie. He felt he could literally see what was right and wrong.
Kathy, too, edged her way foreward. Her feet wandered of their own accord while she daydreamed about the love potion in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Then she saw a robin with a hurt wing. She bent down and picked the robin up and petted it. She just loved the little robin. It looked like it wanted to fly toward the dragon, and it had probably hurt itself trying so hard. So she ran forward with the robin in her hand; and the bird gained strength with every step she took. When it sang for joy and flew off toward the dragon, Kathy felt good all over.
Next Mark started running toward the dragon; and as he ran, he felt he could answer all the questions he had ever wanted to ask. Then he felt he had answers to questions he had never thought of asking. Then he didn’t even know what the questions could be, but he knew he was finding answers and the answers were important.
Without realizing it, Miss Shelby, too, started moving forward, and the rest of the class with her. She felt she had never known so much in all her life. She felt she didn’t even know how much she knew. Then she nearly tripped.
“I have to tell someone,” said the man she almost tripped over. “I have to put it into words. I went to Ome singing, and I returned from Ome singing, and the light was in my words, and the light shone through my words. My beloved heard the song and came running to see what I had seen. But while I put what I saw into words, she was speechless; and it filled her; and she was spell-bound. Now I can see from her face that she’s happy. But all she sees is that light — that cursed light, that blessed light.”
Then he ran off to tell someone else.
“We have to do something,” said Miss Shelby. “This dragon business is dangerous. I thought so before, but now I know it. And we ought to put it into words; I know we ought to. Our only protection is to put it into words; but I don’t know how.”
Linda S. started singing Joshua at the Battle of Jericho, and everybody joined in. Then they ran back to the little green VW and piled in, and Miss Shelby drove as fast as she could toward the Great Dragon of Ome, the Lizard of Oz.
Everybody kept singing as loud as they could Joshua at the Battle of Jericho.
They picked up Mark and Kathy and Donny along the way. Then they slowed to push their way through the mob. They had to sing loud to hear themselves over the great roaring chant of “Ome, Ome, Ome . . .” But the kids loved to sing and were very good at singing loud.
They picked up Mr. New Man and Miss Osborne near a huge giant who was stretched out at the feet of the dragon. And still they sang loud and clear Joshua at the Battle of Jericho and the walls came tumbling down.
Then the kids piled out of the car and started climbing on the dragon.
Gaynell put wilted forgetmenots between the dragon’s toes. Kathy stuck petalless daisies under its scales. Mr. New Man took out his slightly crushed sunflower and tickled the dragon’s belly with it. And Eugene and Kevin and Joey hit the dragon with upper cuts and back strokes and breast strokes, just like St. George had taught them. The dragon didn’t know what to make of it all.
Then Cindy, who had climbed all the way up the dragon’s back, crawled carefully to the top of its head, and stroked it gently behind the left ear.
That was a stroke of genius.
The dragon purred and lay down and looked incredibly happy. Soon it was sound asleep.
Then Mr. New Man, Eugene, Kevin, Mark, Joey, Donny, Peter, Timmy, Kathy, Gaynell, Linda C., and Linda S. all held the dragon’s mouth open; and Miss Osborne reached with the stick down the dragon’s throat. When her arm came out, the torch was glowing bright and clear, with the fire that doesn’t burn.
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Links to other chapters and the story of how this story was written.
