summary: She comes through the window and Glinda grasps her wrists.

*

The last time Elphaba saw Glinda, she put her in the carriage with some bread and oranges and whispered her love. Glinda cried out after her, but Elphaba turned quickly on the cries of “Elphie!” and faded around the emerald street corner.

*

Things were going well for Glinda, and Madame Morrible, that horrible woman. Elphaba kept herself apprised of the news as she went from place to place, desperately seeking Animals.

*

Glinda was humming to herself, primping her curls in the vanity mirror.

“Good to know some things never change. Still worried about your curls, my dear?”

Glinda gasped, stumbled back and tripped over her chair, landing unceremoniously in a heap at Elphaba’s feet.

“Elphie!” She struggled to gain composure. “What are you doing here? HOW did you get here, you shouldn’t be here, they’re looking for you, you know, everyone, the Gale Force, the Wizard –” Glinda’s eyes glistened and her hands dropped at her side, helpless.

“Don’t question my ways, and you shall be safe. It does not concern you how I make it from place to place and avoid capture.”

“But, Elphie –”

“Hush, now. I did not come to argue my safety.”

They stood awkwardly apart. Elphaba yearned to take the three steps and grab Glinda’s golden tanned hands, but something held her back. Why did she come? Why did she risk all her work, all she had left behind for this moment?

“They tell me Nessa has become impossible. Is she really as righteous as they say?”

“You mean you haven’t been to see her?” Glinda’s curls shook with frustration. “Honestly, Elphie, did you just come for a quick gossip session?”

“I know more than you will ever care to know.” Elphaba’s tone was harsh even to her own ears.

“Well, then.” Glinda sniffed. “Nessarose went East and rumors come back that she doesn’t allow anyone to leave. She’s basically Eminent Thropp now, though that really is your rightful claim, something I certainly wouldn’t have turned down for a life in . . .” Glinda struggled for words. “Tattered clothes.”

“You know material things have always meant more to you than me.” Elphaba looked at her ragged figured in the vanity mirror. Her green skin was pale, her eyes dark. She was almost gaunt; her black dress hung loosely from her already thin frame. She fidgeted with the edge of her cape. “Now, where did I put that blasted broom? I can see this was a mistake.”

Glinda rushed across the room and grabbed Elphaba’s wrists. “No, Elphie, please, don’t go. Not as long as you are here. You are safe here, they would never think to look for you here.”

Elphaba laughed. “No, I suppose not. The Wicked Witch of West in the room of Glinda the Good of the North, married to Sir Chauffery, with no shrieks to the Gale Force waiting at the gates.” She glanced around the room. There was her broom, sitting in the corner next to Glinda’s sparkling wand. Elphaba laughed at the irony.

“What’s so funny, Elphie? This isn’t a laughing matter.” Glinda’s voice was tinged with indignation. Her hands dropped away.

“Nothing, dear, really. It’s just – back at Shiz, who ever would have expected?”

Glinda looked at Elphaba hard. “You’re the one with the power, you know. You’re the only one that can read the Grimmerie. I look at it and my head begins to spin. Madame Morrible stopped trying to teach me real spells a year after you left. But look at me. I give them hope. The Wizard and I –”

Elphaba shook violently from the memory. Throwing Dr. Dillamond’s papers at the dancing skeleton in futile hopes of saving grace, of understanding, her dreams of herself at the Wizard’s side, leading Oz into greatness.

“Elphie, I know you don’t approve, but it’s the life I chose. It’s the only life I could choose, really.” Elphaba looked away.

“You could have come with me.”

“You didn’t ask.” Elphaba turned sharply, her face a mix of confused angles.

“You would have given up Shiz, given up everything you had ever dreamed of, to go underground with me? To become the outcast you spent your life trying to avoid at all costs?”

Glinda shrugged and moved across to the room toward the window. “I would have thought about it, at least. Elphie, you have to understand, you were, you were the best thing in my world.”

“What about Shen-Shen and Pfeefee? Boq and, and dare I say his name, Fiyero?”

Glinda laughed, still not facing Elphaba. “Oh, they were fun, weren’t they? And so easy. But you, Elphie, you were different. You didn’t just see my beautiful curls and gracious charms. You challenged me to be something more than what I was fated to become.” She sat on the corner of her bed. “Oh, how I hated you, hated you for your passion and for being so right all the time. There was nothing for me to argue with. They say Nessa’s the righteous one, and she’s turned moral on us all, but you’re righteous too, Elphie, convinced your way is the only way and looking down on everyone who takes a different path. Who thinks differently than you.”

She turned and looked Elphaba straight in the eye. “You know how difficult you make it to love you, don’t you?”

Elphaba gave a strange laugh. “My appearance was never very helpful in that arena.”

“Don’t be facetious, and don’t give me that look, I know big words, too.” Glinda’s indignation caused Elphaba to laugh for real this time, and Glinda smiled with pleasure. She rose and crossed the distance between them. “You never believed you were beautiful, your difference a curse. I thought it magical. You commanded a room in a way I never could, not for all the classical beauty in the world. But the Emerald City was built for you, Elphaba. Your greenness is not your curse.”

“I will destroy that city if it is the last thing I do.”

“Of course you will.” Glinda smiled gently. “You always do what you say you will.”

Glinda caressed Elphaba’s face, and softly kissed her. “I have missed you.”

Elphaba looked at Glinda hard; Glinda had the strange sense Elphie could peer all the way into her soul. “Why do you think I am here?”

*

Elphaba flew east to peer through windows at her sister, being pushed in her wheelchair, murmuring prayers under her breath. And there was her father, tottering around the house, and her great-grandfather, almost bed-stricken on the second floor.

It was clear who was in charge. Nessarose commanded with authority and righteousness. And there, faithfully following her around was Nanny. Elphaba was sure she had since died, and was surprised by her sight. It was as if nothing had changed, except for Elphaba’s absence. She heard that Nessa had disowned her, threatened to spit in her face if she ever saw her again. Elphie yearned to enter the house as she hovered in the shadows by the windows, but she was due back in the Emerald City. And if rumors were true, the Gale Force would swarm at Nessa’s scream.

*

“What ever happened to Fiyero?” Elphaba asked casually.

“Oh, he married Sarima and went home to be the prince of his lands. Every now and then he comes into the City for business, but I haven’t run into him. Oh, remember the fun we all used to have together?” Glinda sat on the bed.

“Everything changed when you left, Elphie. I can do basic spells, but you – just thinking about things you got them done. And Chisery, how is he? Do you remember Dr. Dillamond?” Glinda laughed forcefully. “I was Galinda then, wasn’t I? So full of myself and my role in the world. Sorcerery was going to take me to the top. The Wizard and I, the Wizard and us. I had such plans, and you were such a part of it. And now I am married, and St. Glinda chapels are hidden around Oz.”

“Poor you.”

“Oh stop it, Elphie.” Glinda ran over and grabbed her wrists. “Just stop it and listen. You left. You left us all, and I understand that you felt you had a greater purpose, that the Wizard was not what you expected – and he was not what I expected either. But you ran away, Elphie, you left us all alone.”

“I did what needed to be done. You were all safe behind the walls of Shiz. I was the one that took things on, that took responsibility.”

“See? You are morally reprehensible. Just because I married and went North, just because Fiyero married and took up his duties as Prince – you had duties too, and you ran from them.”

“I didn’t run from them. I chose not to take them. There are more important things than titles and scarves and curls.”

“Don’t be nasty, Elphie. I am only telling the truth.”

“Yes, truth was always your best quality.”

“Elphie, why do you insist on being so difficult? And why do you come back if I fill you with such distain? Don’t you have things to do in the Emerald City, things to blow up, people’s lives to destroy?”

Elphaba whirled and glared at Glina. “You have no idea what I do, Glinda. No idea at all.”

“And I don’t want to, to be frank. I made my decision. I am happy enough with Sir Chauffery. I am quite content with where I am in the world.”

“You are lonely and isolated. You yearn for good conversation. You have a world filled with material goodness but nothing moral, nothing to love.”

“You keep coming back.” Glinda sat on the bed again. “I have you to love.”

Elphaba laughed harshly. “What a mistake that is. You don’t love me, you simply see me as a representation of what was, the days that used to be, when you were at the top of your game, at the top of your world.”

Glinda shook Elphaba forcefully. “Don’t speak to me like that, Elphie. You know it isn’t true. I could turn you in with one scream. I would be at the top of the Ozian world. Little sorcerer Glinda of the North, capturing the Wicked Witch of the West. If I really was as shallow as you claim, I would have called them the first time you arrived. But I didn’t, Elphie. I let you come back.”

Elphaba sighed. “Yes, you do. But how do I know you are not waiting for the right opportunity to turn me in?”

“Some things must be taken on trust, I suppose. And you trust me, or else you wouldn’t be here.” Elphaba started to speak, but Glinda cut her off. “Don’t try and deny it, Elphie. I know it. I would never do that to you know, and you know it too. You feel safe here, and I am safe to you. I am your one tie to what once was, to the idealistic youth you used to be. To the Elphaba before the Wizard.”

“The Elphaba that was naive and innocent, viewing the world as she wanted to. Believing that there really could be benevolent rule under the Wizard, if only he understood.” Elphaba walked to the window and picked up her broom. “I have grown up, Glinda. My world is more complicated now. Maybe yours is still the same, safe as you are up here. But I live on stale crackers, moving from hiding place to place, ever wary of the Gale Force. My life is in shadows. I don’t exist, not really. I am merely something that the Wizard created to give the people something to hate, to despise, to blame when things went wrong. And the Animals are gone, gone, and all of Oz continues as if nothing has happened.”

Elphaba opened the window. “I must go. Take care of yourself, Glinda.” She went to leave, and then stopped. She ran across the room and kissed Glinda hard. “It isn’t safe anymore. And I would never bring my problems to your door. This is goodbye, dear Glinda, goodbye for good.”

“You’ve said goodbye to me before, Elphie.” She stroked the green skin and clenched her hands. “Be safe, my darling, and come back soon.”

“Perhaps when the wind changes.”

And Elphaba left. Glinda sat on the edge of her bed, swinging her legs, letting the curtains flap in the cold wind.

*

*

. the end .
  . send a flower .
    . pick another.
       . back to the garden gate.