DeeGee lived a lonely life in the flat, prairie mid-West on a farm with her aunty Em and Uncle Henry since her parents had died in a car crash. Aunty Em was like a mother to her, and her one, faithful companion was her little dog Tatoo. The only other people on the farm were three bumbling farmhands.
On her uneventful eighteenth birthday DeeGee felt lonely and confused about her life, partly due to her not having any close friends because the farm was located quite a few miles outside the small Oklahoma town of Storm, and the only time she saw what few friends she had was in high school. However, even that was different now since she graduated, and most of her friends were Towners whom she saw occasionally while working in a hamburger joint.
DeeGee was often so depressed she often thought about running away from home to see the world, knowing that she and Tatoo would then be free and safe from the mean clutches of the old biddy Elvira Gulch who lived alone on a neighboring farm. DeeGee thought Elvira had the face of a witch. Now, Elvira Gulch in keeping with her mean streak had gone so far as to threaten DeeGee, Aunty Em, and Uncle Henry with a lawsuit that would allow her to take Tatoo away and get rid of him for good.
On the very day of her birthday after the non-exciting party was over, DeeGee went outside and was leaning against the wheel of a wagon loaded with hay when she heard the chirping and twittering of small birds and saw a lovely rainbow against a dark, foreboding sky that threatened a storm. Seeing the colorful rainbow painted as if on a canvas of a dark-clouded sky, DeeGee was filled with longing to be anywhere but on the farm in ho-hum Oklahoma. As she listened to the birds singing, her heart overflowed with longing so much that she remembered the words of a song she liked so very much.
So inspired was she, DeeGee started singing an old, Irish song her mother used to sing to her while rocking her on her lap,
"Toor-a-loor-a-loora. Toor-a-loor-a-lye. Toor-a-loor-a-loora. Hush, now don't you cry. Toor-a-loor-a-loora. Toor-a-loor-a-lye. Toor-a-loor-a-loora. That's an Irish lullaby."
As DeeGee sang the lullaby, a powerful wind began to blow with uncontrollable fury, and off in the distance she saw a huge, black twister coming her way. That was the last thing she remembered until she found herself lying on the ground in a far away place.
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Nothing seemed to be going right for DeeGee ever since her house in Oklahoma had been torn off its very foundation and sucked up into the powerful twister that are so common in Oklahoma in what is known as Tornado Alley and landed with a sudden thud on top of the sister of the Wicked Bitch of the West in the Land of Tir na Nog located nine waves beyond the west, the place of eternal youth where no one ever grows old and where all your wishes come true. However, DeeGee had landed outside the peaceful realm of Tir na' Nog in the area known as the O. Z., the Outer Zone.
The Wicked Bitch's younger sister had died instantly, of course, despite the fact that she wore a silver chain on which there was a rainbow around her right ankle that contained magical powers, the very silver ankle chain the Wicked Bitch wanted so very badly when she had suddenly appeared upon the scene. However, Galinda, a good and powerful Sorceress of the North, had come to the aid of DeeGee at the bequest of the youthful people of Tir na' Nog.
With the wave of her hand Galinda removed the magic silver chain from the ankle of the Bitch's dead sister and put it onto DeeGee's right ankle, telling her never to take it off because of its magical power.
Galinda's magical hocus-pocus that transferred the silver chain onto Dorothy's right ankle made the Wicked Bitch very, very angry, turning her face green with envy as she screamed at DeeGee, "Just you wait! I'll get you, my Pretty, and your little dog, too!"
However, Galinda quaffed in an almost whimsical way at the Bitch's threat, and with the wave of her hand she cautioned the Bitch to be careful so that a house didn't fall on top of her as one had on her sister.
The Wicked Bitch looked into the sky with visible fear, and her face glowered with a scowl of anger at the innocent DeeGee who stood so innocently with the silver chain on her ankle.
No one knew for sure why the Wicked Bitch's skin had turned green—maybe from envy—but there were none in and around the O. Z. who had green skin except for elves, so it remained a mystery.
It was also known that the Bitch had an unusual aversion to water, and for that reason she kept herself covered with a black, pointed, wide-circular-brim hat; a long, full black cape with a high collar that went to her ankles; and a black, spinster-looking dress that, too, was long, touching the instep of her laced, black, pointed toe shoes. She was the consummate image of what people thought a witch should look like.
In addition to that the Bitch possessed power within herself to come and go as she pleased.
Thus, heeding Galinda's ominous warning and not wanting to have the same fate befall her, the Wicked Bitch scurried away in a smoldering huff, and twirling on the balls of her pointed, black shoes that caused her long, black cape to swish around her body, she suddenly disappeared in a rising plume of black smoke.
From that initial confrontation between the Wicked Bitch and DeeGee she hounded her all the way from the outskirts of the City of Eternal Youth, C.O.E.Y., where Galinda told her she might get help from the wise and powerful Mystic Man. This possibility held true for her even with the help of three most unusual characters: Strawman; Tin Man, a former lawman; and the fearful lion Roar. DeeGee had met each of them one by one along the way on the ancient brick road that had its beginning in the realm of the little people.
Through her magic looking glass the Bitch was able to follow their every move, setting up obstacles along the way to hinder their progress to see the Mystic Man.
However, as before, Galinda out of her inner goodness came to their aid to thwart the power of the Bitch, allowing them to reach to portal of the City of Eternal Youth.
When they were finally given admittance to see the Mystic Man, he at first castigated them for their audacity to come to him with such requests: a trusting memory for Strawman, a loving heart for Tin Man who had lost the ability to love from all his years of having to deal with criminals, courage for fearful Roar, and a way home for DeeGee, but eventually he told them he would grant them their wishes with one condition. They had to prove their worthiness by getting the emerald ring of the Wicked Bitch as proof that they, indeed, had made it to her castle-keep.
Thus, with fear and trepidation, realizing they had no choice but to do Mystic Man's bidding if they were to have him grant them their wishes, they agreed to get the Wicked Bitch's emerald ring and bring it to him.
Of course, the Wicked Bitch's army of flying monkeys that she made by attaching the wings of large, predatory birds onto the backs of the monkeys, connecting the muscle tissue of one to the other, kept her well informed of the groups every move.
