The Red Brick Road

Chapter 3 Thumbelina and a Glowing Red Road

"Where are you going?"

Cornelius had stepped back into the room. In his hand was a small bag. No bigger than a drawstring bag that we were given as children at sports camps. It looked empty.

"Uh No where. I was just going to check and make sure we were still safe."

I hated lying to him, but I only met him a few hours ago. Well, if this was reality, I met him a few hours ago. I'm still betting I'm dreaming.

"Why is your bag empty?"

"It's not. There's a special magic on this back. A vendor had come through Munchkin Land before everything went crazy, selling magical items. I had earned enough with my baked goods that I decided to check out the vendor. He had this bag sitting on the cart and told me it was a special bag, one that has mysterious powers. I liked the look of the bag, and it was really cheap, so I bought it. Over time, I discovered what this bag could actually do. It holds everything you place in it and remains flat. When you want something specific, you think really hard and pull out the item."

He showed me how the bag looked empty. He even flipped the bag inside out. He started to concentrate, he reached his hand in the bag and pulled out a yellow hand-knit sweater.

"Wow, that's so cool."

"Told you so. So let's get these shelves cleared and filled into this bag. If you wouldn't mind starting with putting the food in the bag, I want to grab a few sentimental items that I couldn't bare to part with."

I just nodded my head and started filling the bag with everything on the shelves. I was almost halfway done. He had walked back and forth into the room and left again. A pile of books, pictures and blankets started to pile up.

I finished adding the last of the food into the bag and the pile was huge from Cornelius. I started to add those items to the bag. I had no other choice at that moment than to believe him. I really am in Munchkin Land and I really am hiding from Dorothy. Or that's at least what my mind wants me to think.

I got everything into the bag and went in search of Cornelius. He was looking at a picture on the wall, one that looked like it was painted on. I looked at the painting, noticing that there were tiny fairies coming out of flowers and a small girl who had no wings at all was being held by a fairy with a prince. There were frogs in funny outfits, and a Mole surrounded by lots of money. A tiny mouse with a large muffin in her hand, and a beetle with other beetles dressed in fancy suits. It was the story of Thumbelina.

"I've looked at this painting every day since I was a child. I watched my mother paint it on. And now I have to leave it behind. There's no way I can take this with me. No way I can bring it, and it will not fall apart. This is the last thing about my mother that I will never get to see again. Never get in touch again. I won't be able to feel the ridges again. A book of fairy tales had appeared in the center of the rings a few years before I did. My mother found the book and learned how to read it. Her favorite story was Thumbelina. It was named for Prince Cornelius. She always thought of my father like him. That one day she would be blessed with a child of her own and then one day I was found in the center, just like her book."

I couldn't say much about what he told me, but I could at least help with the picture part.

"I can't help you with the touching, but I can do this..."

I reached into my duffle bag pocket and pulled out my cell phone. I opened up the camera app and took a few steps back so I could take a picture of the mural. I turned the phone to him and showed him the picture.

"What do you think?"

"Wow, it looks so like life. Like I'm looking at the mural but in a smaller form. What do you call this contraption box?"

"It's called a cell phone. It's a portable device that we use to connect with one another. I guess we should call it the other Realm?"

I shrugged my shoulders as I said that last part. I'm not really sure what to call my homeland at this point.

"Oh you mean Kansas?"

"Well, Kansas is one of the fifty states in a country called America. I'm actually from the state of New Hampshire."

"Well, you could just say New Hampshire? Or back at home?"

"I guess that makes sense."

He took out what looked like a pocket knife and cut out a small part of the mural. It was Prince Cornelius and Thumbelina. He held them in his hand before walking back into the kitchen. Everything except the cookbook I found was packed. He picked up the book and placed the mural inside the thick lining of the book so it didn't crumble in the bag. He reached his hand out toward me and I handed him the bag. He put the book inside and placed the "empty" bag on his back. I turned my phone off to save the battery. I plugged it back into the charging cable and tucked everything away.

"Are you ready?"

"As I'll ever be. Lead the way."

He blew out the candle and handed it to me.

"Place this in the bag please. We may need light on our journey."

I did as he requested. He reached his hand out for me to take. I took it, feeling the warmth of his hand, and we crept out of the door.

We didn't step onto the brick roads. We followed along the edge of the grass. The road looked terrifying at night with how luminescent it is. I looked over my shoulder as we climbed a hill, and there stood the quiet town. It looked more like people were sleeping, not that it was abandoned.

He tugged on my arm, getting my attention. We started walking again. Unsure of where we were going.

Almost an hour later or at least what felt like an hour, we came to a mix of three different colors. A green brick road, red brick road and a blue brick road swirled together almost like a rotary like we have at home. The green went to the right and the red to the left. A sign sat in the middle of the road with three arrows pointing, one toward the green saying Goblin City, the second pointing forward toward the Red Brick Road, said Ruritania. The third arrow pointed towards the blue and read Republic of Gilead.

"Well, I can tell you one thing. We are not taking the Blue Brick Road. Home is already becoming like the handmaid's tail. I don't actually want to visit it."

"What do you mean?"

It started off as a novel by Margaret Atwood. It's about how babies are not born as much, so men take women who are fertile and have birthed babies and turn them into personal baby-making slaves. The men try to rule the women. When a woman disobeys, she is beaten publicly, or tossed into the wasteland. Sadly, our country took the fictional novel and decided to start making parts come true. Like controlling women's bodies and treating them like walking incubators."

"If it's so terrible, then why do you want to go back?"

"Well, I don't want to stay here where I might get attacked and killed by Battoto's, and my friends are there. I also need to file for divorce from my husband. I caught him cheating on me with my sister. He made me sign a prenup and there was a specific clause that stated if one of us got caught cheating, the cheating party would have to give everything to the one who was cheated on. I'm about to become a very wealthy woman. I plan on burning everything he worked for to the ground. I want to leave him with no hope of ever winning me back."

"Remind me not to get on your bad side."

"Will do."

We chose the Ruritania route. Continuing to follow the red brick road. The name sounded so familiar. Like I've heard it before, but off the top of my head I'm not sure where. And it's not like I could use my phone to look it up.

The sun slowly starts to rise in the distance. And some woods that we'll be getting to soon.

"We should rest for the day hidden in the woods. It's not safe to be out wondering when the sun is up. You can easily be spotted by one of the Battotos, or any other creature that may exist on this red brick road."

I nod my head in agreement. My belly was starting to get hungry, and I was starting to feel exhausted. We made it into the forest before the sun was even a quarter in the sky. We found a large hollowed-out almost red wood-looking tree trunk and grabbed some bark off of a fallen tree big enough to cover the hole so we would be hidden from sight. It was chilly in the tree trunk.

Cornelius pulled out a few pieces of jerky. I'm not sure which animal. Frankly, I'm afraid to ask. He also pulls out a can of pineapples and 2 forks. He pops the top open with the pull tab.

"How do you guys pull tabs here?"

"Well, the same way as I had a storage room filled with cans of veggies and fruits. Sometimes storms destroy your home world and stuff ends up here. One day, a case of something called cling peaches fell from the sky, and they all had this strange top. I had never seen canned food before. I had heard of peaches, so that's how I knew it was edible. I tried pulling the ring and after a few tries on that can, it popped open and inside was the best-tasting fruit I had ever tried. Since then, every time I see any canned food, I have stocked it up. There are some I have yet to figure out how to open, but I'm sure one day I will."

"Let me see your bag?"

He handed me the bag and I thought really hard. I pictured a can opener and reached my hand into the bag and pulled out exactly what I was thinking about. Then I started to try and remember a can that didn't have the pop top. I thought of a can of tuna fish. I reached in and there it was a can of tuna fish.

"Are you ready to learn?"

"How did you know what to look for?"

"Well, because I'm the one who packed the bag with food, so I thought of what couldn't have the pop top and poof. Anyway, watch this."

I attached the can opener and spun the handle opening the can. I pulled out a cup and poured the tuna juice into it, and handed him the open can.

It tastes better with some salt and pepper, Mayonnaise on a sandwich or even in a salad or a casserole. But plain works too. "It's good protein and helps keep you strong."

He tried a bite and made a face.

"Told you."

He reached into his bag and pulled out some salt, pepper and Italian dressing. He started mixing everything up in the container and then took another bite.

"OK yea, that's so much better."

We finished off the can of tuna and decided to settle in for some sleep. I started shaking from the cold. I was leaning against the back of the tree. Cornelius came over and pulled out some sleeping bags and attached them together. Then he pulled out two pillows and placed them inside the bags so we could lay our heads on them.

"Shoes off, and we can conserve warmth. If we hunker down together, it'll keep both of us warm."

I nodded my head. My belly was full and all I wanted was to sleep. I kicked my shoes off and placed them in the bag. I didn't want any visiting creatures to get into my shoes. He did the same with his shoes. I laid down first my head and body facing toward him. He laid down and zipped up the bag. Then rolled towards me. His arm went around my waist and pulled me in close. I hadn't realized I was still shivering and shaking.

My body started warming up, and I fell into a blissful sleep, my mind drifting towards Cornelius.