Part 6
The Green Maiden
Lizzie was out in the rain walking the dog. It had started as a pleasant walk and she had walked a lot further than she had planned to do, right out into the country. Striding out, playing with the dog, she had not noticed the clouds building up behind her; she had only seen the sunshine ahead until the first drops of rain started to fall. She had been soaked in an instant. Of course it had not worried the Labrador at all, it had kept running to and fro, sniffing here and there, always ready and indeed expecting to fetch sticks for Lizzie. A rather wet Lizzie had shrugged her shoulders and with a degree of resignation had begun to trudge homewards, her now heavy and wet jeans sticking to her thighs and flapping around her ankles. Her blouse and bra were soaked and through the wet material you could make out, if you looked closely, her pointy nipples (hard and extra pointing due to her being a bit cold).
Lizzie really was not much worried until she saw a walker coming in the opposite direction. This walker had on a bright yellow waterproof over black trousers. It was probably the colours that unnerved her, after all many people had yellow waterproofs, her father did for one, and it was surely very unlikely to be that man from the bookshop: it may have been very unlikely but it was indeed he.
"He, almost seems to know where I am, be able to read my mind," she thought, "odious. Oh no, I'm going to have to speak to him."
He came up to her and smiled, "Hello Lizzie. Well, fancy meeting you out. It's a bit wet isn't it? His eyes behind his steamed up glasses seemed to be looking at her chest rather than her face. She hurriedly folded her arms across her wet blouse and breasts. The Labrador sniffed at him.
"How was the mushroom?"
Lizzie coloured, there was surely no way he could know about her dreams. No, of course not, he was referring to the supermarket, "They were good, a mushroom risotto."
"Back in Oz tonight?"
"What? I mean, sorry..."
"You were reading the Wizard of Oz, weren't you/"
"No, no I said I had read it. I'm actually reading 'Anna of the Five Towns'.
"Ah, Arnold Bennett. Not such a happy story. I'd stick to Oz!"
Lizzie was keen to make her excuses and head on home. "Well, maybe. Anyway, see you in the bookshop. I must be getting home as I'm rather wet (did she detect a flicker of a smirk, she shouldn't have used that word, blast!), the rain caught me and I'm getting cold and am soaked, 'bye."
She felt he was watching her as she walked off, but she didn't dare turn round as she would then have had to wave and that would only encourage him. Odious. Why did she keep tripping over him?
Asleep again, Lizzie did not dream of poor sad Anna, who should have found so much more happiness, but was once again in the Land of Oz. Her dreams did seem to sway between Wonderland and Oz. Would the Five Towns, Stoke-on-Trent have been more interesting? Certainly it would have been different—probably grim.
Lizzie found her dream had moved on a long way in the book, her journey along the Yellow Brick Road was over and she was now in the Emerald City, a guest of the great and terrible wizard. She was in the palace with her friends, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion. She gazed around her taking it all in, not least being amazed at how very green everything was. It really was very green indeed; she thought to herself, everything seemed to be in one shade of green or another. Even her friends had taken on a green tinge. She stood there wondering what was to happen next when a soldier, dressed in a smart black uniform with a lot of green on it, blew upon a yellow whistle, and at once a young girl, dressed in a pretty green silk gown, entered the room. She had lovely green hair and green eyes, and she bowed low before Lizzie as she said, "Follow me and I will show you your room." Lizzie did not like to disobey, but she was puzzled by the soldier's yellow whistle, which did seem a bit out of keeping with the fundamental basis of the Emerald City.
Lizzie walked after the green maiden, turning back to look at her friends and the soldier, who did seem strangely familiar, and followed the green girl through seven passages and up three flights of stairs until they came to a room at the front of the Palace. It was the sweetest little room in the world, with a soft comfortable bed that had sheets of green silk and a green velvet counterpane. There was a fountain in the middle of the room that shot a spray of green water into the air, to fall back into a beautifully carved green marble bath. Beautiful green flowers stood in the windows, and there was a shelf with a row of little green books. In a wardrobe were many green dresses, made of silk and satin and velvet; and all of them fitted Lizzie exactly.