Abducted to Oz | Page 4

and admired his masterpiece.
"Wow!" said Simon. "This will get a lot of attention!" But he still had
to make the Wicked Witch. This was a harder prospect, as Simon did
not like to create anything that was ugly. To be sure, there are very few
people or things that are uglier than the Wicked Witch of the West.
[Illustration]
After some time and not less than three failed attempts to construct a
figure of the old Witch, Sir Simon sighed. It was hard to make her look
right. Because of his kind and gentle nature, Simon's images always
wound up looking too friendly. This was not the right image for the
Wicked Witch at all. She had to look mean and hateful. She had to look
like the kind of person who would happily have the Tin Woodman and
the Scarecrow destroyed, or take an innocent little girl as her slave
without remorse. At last, he decided he had to do it with his eyes closed.
This way, he would not be as repulsed by the Witch's cruelty. Shutting
his rodentine eyes, Sir Simon painted the most horrible face he could.
After he opened his eyes to look at his handiwork, he found himself
feeling quite queasy. He had to turn away to avoid being sick.
"Perfect," he muttered. "It looks just like her."
[Illustration]
He then set up the float and hinged the arms of the Dorothy figure in
such a way that she could dump a bucket over the Witch's head. Giving
three cheers for creativity, he had constructed the Witch out of balloons
and covered them with brown sugar. He had then pushed a pin into the
figure to produce a hollow sugar figure that would dissolve instantly
when touched by the water. This would be the highlight of the whole

parade! Simon was very proud of himself. He pushed his magnificent
float into a large storage locker behind the palace. The room was dusty
and cobwebby enough to assure him that it was not used very often and
that his surprise would not be discovered before the day of the parade.
"Now I'll need to find a bucket and fill it with water," he said. Looking
around the room, he noticed an oak bucket that was already full and
which was just the right size for his sculpture. He quickly secured it in
place in the papier maché Dorothy's hands. "If this doesn't get a lot of
loud cheers from the crowd, nothing will!" He rubbed his paws with
glee.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER FOUR
:
AN UNFORTUNATE OUTCOME
The day of the big parade came swiftly. Sir Simon and Kabumpo were
vastly proud of the surprise they were about to spring on the people of
the Emerald City. Indeed, it was a delightful parade. The Fuzzy Yellow
Wogglebugs had put together a choral group that sang a bouncing tune
as they marched at the head of the parade. Mr. Tinker followed them
with an electronic float that tossed candy canes out of its windows to
the people below. Princess Saari came next, riding atop a magnificent
float that seemed to radiate all the colors of the rainbow. She was
followed by Pegina the Pegasus, who flew just above the heads of two
mighty dragons. Button-Bright, Trot, and Betsy Bobbin had put
together a kazoo band and played "Ease on Down the Road" as they
marched along behind the dragons. The Elves of Elfland followed,
having constructed a float that resembled Egor's fantastic Funhouse out
of hundreds of carnations. A gray spotlight shot out of the windows at
certain intervals to circle around the Funhouse and resemble a cyclone.
No one knew how the Elves had managed to make the light do this
trick, but it was an Elven secret, so no one asked.

Many other quaint and delightful spectacles were there to be seen and
enjoyed. But it was the marvelous Dorothy and Wicked Witch
sculpture that caught the attention of everyone. It reminded all of the
reason for the annual celebration, and all were happy to recall the way
they had been freed from the heartless whims of the cruel-hearted old
woman.
At the end of the parade, all eyes were fixed on the image, and Simon
signaled to Kabumpo to let go of the spring. The Dorothy statue
splashed the sugary Witch right on her head. Unfortunately, the bucket
had not been filled with water, as Simon had assumed. It was actually
filled with some fermented sucopinesz juice that a family of wombats
had hidden there for consumption after the parade. The Witch image
began to shrink and fall away. The crowd roared and laughed at the
sight. But, of course, we all know that sucopinesz juice and sugar do
not mix well. A series of