Wonderoz Chapter Twenty-One: The Mad Wizard

The Mad Wizard sat fuming over his desk. Potions were spilled and rotting out the floor, sticking everything to itself and turning flowers into kittens. Books were thrown open and over chandeliers, tossed up like tents on the floor and hanging over the upholstery. A giant cauldron was sitting in the fireplace boiling and foaming over with rainbow gases and horrid smelling bubbles. But the Mad Wizard noticed nothing of the hazardous wasteland he had created around himself. He was so much into his work he didn’t even notice the strange creature crawling towards him and sinking its sharp, newborn teeth into his ankle.

The Mad Wizard screamed at the top of his lungs and fell onto his backside. He kicked his leg into the air and the little critter flew up then landed heavily on his stomach.

“Ha! Bop! Ha! Hee!” Toto screamed breathlessly at him as if saying, “how else do you expect me to get your attention? I can’t talk or anything yet. You didn’t need to go and kick me! How dare you, sir?”

“A baby jabberwocky?” The Mad Wizard plucked up Toto in his hands and stared him. “What the-?”

“Hello?”

The Mad Wizard perked up and stuffed Toto under his arm. “Dorothy?” He stood, making his way towards his hat.

“Baa!” Toto squealed as if saying, “Mommy!”

Dorothy’s hand popped out of the hat, then another hand, she braced them against the sides and pulled herself out. “May I have a hand?” She asked.

The Mad Wizard reached out, reaching into the hat and taking Dorothy under her arms, pulling her out of the hat and then setting her on her feet.

“I was not expecting you,” he said, awed that Dorothy was standing before him, in his study, alone.

Dorothy smiled shyly, and when looked around, seeing the horrid mess, gasped in horror. “What happened here?” She tip-toed cautiously across the floor. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.” He said jumping to his feet. He held his hat in both hands, looking into it and seeing a pinpoint light at the end. “But you? I’m sorry I have not kept closer tabs.” He then looked at Toto, following at Dorothy’s feet. “Where and how did you acquire a baby Jabberwocky?”

Dorothy seemed to be wanting to clean the mess, but decided it was fruitless and stood up, plucking Toto from the floor as she did. “I killed a Jabberwocky.”

The Mad Wizard felt a great many a things in that moment, fear, guilt, awe, etcetera. “You did what?” He blurted.

Dorothy simply nodded. “Just before we left Tulgy Wood.” She then shrugged. “I guess I didn’t technically kill it. I took out it’s eye and it turned into a mass of Borogoves.” She rocked Toto in her arms. “The eye I took out hatched Toto here.”

The creature purred lazily in the cradle of her arms.

The Mad Wizard just stared. “I had no idea you were already out of Tulgey Wood.” He mumbled quietly, unsure of how to go about the conversation of Jabberwocky slayings. There had only been two known accounts in the history books, one had been truly witnessed, the other was supposedly legend. And now here, in his very room, stood a third instance.

He turned to the wall of television screens and clicked them on. The larger screen in the center had a wonderful infinite shot of them.

“The Giant Garden too,” Dorothy added, skipping over top a book crawling over the floor like a hermit crab. “I’ve got a bit of an emergency with Eye and I didn‘t know who else to turn to.”

“That scrawny boy from the corn?” The Mad Wizard sniffed.

“He’s…well its hard to explain.” Dorothy sat Toto back onto the floor. “It’s something with his brain.”

The Mad Wizard sniffed. “I didn’t think he had one.”

Dorothy gave him a scolding look but that quickly evaporated and she looked horribly devastated.. “In a way I think you may be right.”

The Mad Wizard’s eyes got wide. “Really? How so, my dear Dorothy? Did his skull open up?”

“Yes.” She answer simply.

The Mad Wizard sighed and slapped himself on the forehead. “I knew I should have been paying more attention to the screens!”

“It’s like his brain has been replaced with a computer. Back in the other world I was never good with technology or anything, but I’m pretty sure I saw wires and flashing lights.”

The Mad hummed. “But why exactly is it an emergency?” He looked into Dorothy’s eyes and saw an emotion that made his stomach sink and his heart collapse. He licked his lips. “Dorothy?”

She averted her eyes. “He remembers who he was and…and I’m not sure exactly what it all means.”

“But…” He urged, inching closer.

Dorothy took a deep breath, sitting down where she could find a clean space. “Eye is my friend. Perhaps one of the closest friends I’ve ever had anywhere. But…what he told me has sent me for a loop. I don’t know if I can trust him from this point on.”

Mad Wizard rolled his eyes. “Who is he, Dorothy?”

“Jack,” Dorothy murmured. “Jack of Hearts.”

The Mad Wizard’s jaw went slack. “What?” Jabberwocky slayings, missing princes, missing brains, he was beginning to loose track in his own mind. That never happened to the Great Wizard of the Center, he told himself.

Dorothy nodded slowly. “I don’t know if this was all an act his mother set up or if he truly has been my Eye this whole time.” Tears were coming to her eyes.

The Mad Wizard shoved his hands into his pockets. “And you want me to come see if he is false or truth, correct?” His anger was building to a boil now. “You want me to come fix your little problem for you? Right?” He ripped his hat off his head and tossed it as hard as he could on the floor. “Do you not know the work I have been doing here for you already?” He roared.

Dorothy sat there stunned. Her tears sitting on the edge of her eyelids waiting to be pushed over. “Maddox,” her voice cracked, “I was just…I didn’t know who else to turn to but you.”

The Mad Wizard ripped his fingers through his hair. “Well sure! Let me stop everything and put our salvation at hand while we try to help out your little boyfriend!” The Mad Wizard snapped.

His last word made Dorothy gasp. She finally realized it, and she stood.

“SCAAAA!” Toto screamed at the Mad Wizard, spitting bubbles that singed the tips of the hair sitting out across his forehead.

Dorothy then frowned, gathering her courage. “I didn’t ask you to help me.” A few tears were spilling down her cheeks. “You volunteered yourself.” She pressed her finger hard into his chest. “I didn’t ask to be some sort of savior here. I didn’t even volunteer. I just wanted to save my sister! I don’t need you to treat me like that just because you’re jealous!”

“Jealous?” The Mad Wizard laughed, slapping his hands against his chest. “Why would I, the Great and powerful Wizard of the Center, be jealous?”

“Someone just doesn’t change their tune like you did for no reason.” Dorothy waved her arms out wide. “As soon as I mentioned Eye a switch flipped inside you.”

The Mad Wizard scoffed. “Like I give two shakes about that boy.”

Dorothy shook her head. “No.” She almost laughed then. “It isn’t Eye. I care about you Maddox, I really do, but not the same way you care for me.”

The Mad Wizard laughed, throwing his head back, grinning cruelly. “Who said anything about me caring about you?”

Dorothy remained silent, burning holes into his head with her eyes.

The Mad Wizard met her eyes, trying to burn back. But when he couldn’t match her, he swung his arm and knocked off the remaining bottles and books on his desk.  “Fine!” He then grabbed Dorothy by the shoulders. “I’m in love with you! You’re all I can think about. I haven’t done anything in days because I want your little adventure to be over so I can finally stand beside you like Eye does!” His shoulders dropped. “I love you Dorothy and it is driving me mad.” He said softly.

Dorothy stared at him for the longest time. She had nothing to prepare her for this, nothing in her brave soul to tell her how to act or what words to say. Her mind couldn‘t comprehend it. Someone loved her like that, someone like the Mad Wizard. She almost didn‘t believe him, she almost couldn‘t believe that someone like her deserved that much love from him.

“I’m sorry.” She finally said, voice so hushed only she and the Mad Wizard could hear.

Toto crawled up and sat upon her shoulder to hide in her hair.

“I don’t know what to say.” She wanted to look away from his eyes, but she couldn’t. She felt that if she pulled away, if she broke the gaze, he’d crumble.

The Mad Wizard pulled away in her stead. “Don’t say anything.” He muttered, defeated, deflated. “Just…just let me work for a moment.” He turned, walking away from her. “Pretty soon I’ll have what you need done.”

Dorothy knelt down and picked up his hat. She fixed the dent in it looked at him, walking towards his cauldron, shoulders slouched, seeming so much smaller than he appeared to her. She went to him, placing the hat back on his head.

“You don’t have to help me.” She mumbled.

He half smiled. “No. I have to.” He adjusted his hat. “Please take a seat.” He waved his arm out, then recoiled it quickly and set to his work.

Dorothy sat down on an ottoman sitting beside the Mad Wizard’s desk and Toto fell down into her lap to sleep. She watched Toto sleep, watched his shell open and close and he breathed. Beside her she could hear the Mad Wizard hard at work. She heard glass clinking, small bells chiming, wooden spoons clattering, potions sparkling against the surface of the cauldron,

“I have to ask this because its bothering me.” Her voice soft, enough courage screwed up to speak, but not enough to speak loudly.

The Mad Wizard didn’t reply, he simply kept working.

Dorothy glanced up at him from the edge of the table. “It feels as if we have only known each other for…for only a few brief moments. So…how…I mean why-?”

He cut her off. “It’s not about caring or time, Dorothy.” His back stiffened. “Its about something much bigger than all those things combined. Its about something I can’t rightly control.” He tossed and juggled bottles as if putting on a show, but it was simply how he worked. Colorful liquids spilled into a large pot, puffs of smoke scented the air one moment with lilac and the next with pickles.

“I have always been defying gravity,” the Mad Wizard continued. “I was smarter, stronger, better in everything I did without so much as knowing what it was. I was meant for bigger things so I knew bigger things were meant for me.” A bolt of red lightening came from his mixing pot. “No woman has ever been big enough for me. Understand? And suddenly I’m thrust into the company of the royal family, the most powerful family in all of Wonderoz. I was told the first princess of Ozma was to be my bride.” He stopped momentarily and looked over at Dorothy, half his face glowing with the light in the cauldron. “I was a brat. Always have been. I didn’t want to be under the thumb of some even brattier princess.”

Dorothy shrugged.

“Then I met you, barely a year old, and the Muchness was knocked right out of me.” He tossed a bottle in its entirety into the pot. “Here you were, a baby and I could sense more power and Muchness from you than I could ever hope to obtain in my entire life. I knew who you were from the moment I laid eyes on you, Dorothy.” He leaned over so he came to the edge of the table. “Dorothy, Dorothy, Dorothy. In your presence I am merely a mouse without its tail.”

“I’m just a girl.” Dorothy chuckled, shaking her head. “I don’t know what you expect from me but I have never seen anything great come from me. I am by far no genius like you. I can carry heavy loads, but I am no Hercules. And as for being a princess I don’t see that as anyway of making me superior.”

The Mad Wizard went back to his cauldron. “And that there is what makes you bigger. You don’t see it do you? You are built for owning power.”

The word caught Dorothy’s imagination. “Built?”

There was a pop and glitter came out of the cauldron like a cloud. “Done!” The Mad Wizard cheered.

Dorothy leaned closer. “What is done exactly?”

The Mad Wizard reached into the cauldron and pulled out a clear key that shone like mother of pearl. “The key.”

Dorothy stood and took the key in her hand. “The key to what?” She asked, examining the thing in the light from the window.

“Like most keys it opens a door,” he said with a wink. “But this one opens up a door inside of you and a door inside of Alice.”

“What kind of door?”

“In order to send you to that dreadfully boring world there were certain things we had to hide in you that would get you into trouble there,” he explained. “Your powers, your magic, your Muchness.”

Dorothy gently touched the key. “So this will let them out?”

The Mad Wizard tapped then end of Dorothy’s nose. “Exactly.”

Dorothy stared the key over and spoke worriedly. “If I use this will I turn into someone else?”

The Mad Wizard put his hand on Dorothy’s back. “I hope not.”

“What do I do with it?”

The Mad Wizard took Dorothy’s hand with the key in it and placed it over her heart. “Hold it here and turn.”

Dorothy took the key, held it to her heart and dropped it into her front pocket.

“What are you doing?” The Mad Wizard snapped.

“Not without Alice. It isn’t fair.” Dorothy scooped Toto back up into her arms and stared the Mad Wizard dead on. “I hate to keep asking favors of you, but will you please help me with Eye?”

He sneered. “You mean Jack?”

“I mean who I mean. He’s my friend and I’m scared. Please?” He turned away and crossed his arms across his chest. “Please?” Dorothy asked in a softer voice. She touched his elbow gently and turned him towards her. The look she gave him hurt.

“Well…” He sighed, defeated. “Fine. Where’s he at?”

“This Way That Way Cabaret.”

He grimaced. “I hope she’s not there.” He grumbled under his breath.

Dorothy stood on tiptoe and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you, Maddox.”

The Mad Wizard dropped his hat onto the floor. He then offered his hand to her, smiling. “Milady.”

Dorothy placed Toto in his arms, then took his hand and stepped into the hat, easing down inside.

The Mad Wizard held Toto up and grimaced. “To kind to even turn away a Jabberwocky, eh?”

Toto then vomited all over the Mad Wizard’s clothes. It were as if Toto were trying to say, “I don’t much care for you either.”

“Wonderful.” The Mad Wizard grimaced. “It burns.”

Toto grinned and hiccup.

“I hate pets.”