He barks twice. He’s always been crafty at getting out of, and into, places you wouldn’t expect. The first summer he appeared at the farm, he would somehow escape the house and terrorize the chickens all night long, so Henry built him a crate. The next morning, we found him at the chicken coop barking at the flock.
“Never mind,” I tell him now. “I’m just glad you’re okay. Come on.”
Back inside the house, I plop down into Uncle Henry’s chair in the middle of the kitchen. The worn fabric smells like him, like turned earth and old cigars.
Did he and Aunt Em survive the storm? Are they okay?
The worry gnaws at me.
Sensing my growing anxiety, Toto jumps up on my lap and curls into a ball. His ears twitch as if he’s listening for whatever might lie beyond the house. I can hear only the soft chirping of birds. A discordant sound in this kind of impenetrable darkness.
“I have to get home, Toto.” His tail thumps against the arm of the chair. “Should I take the witch’s advice?” I give him ascratch beneath the chin. “Or maybe I should stay put and hope someone comes to find me?” His tail wags again. “I’m a little worried we’re no longer in Kansas.”
He lifts his head and blinks up at me. Several shoots of dark, coarse hair hang in his eyes so I swipe them back for him, wishing I could hear his thoughts.
His expression has changed. Less antagonistic, more consternation.
The panic threatens to rise again so I close my eyes and sink my fingers into Toto’s fur and breathe.
Aunt Em has always anchored me, but it’s Toto that makes me feel… I don’t know…whole.
I have to get home. I have to get out of this place. And if the only way to do that is to find this so-called wizard, then I guess that’s what I have to do.
I lift Toto from my lap and set him down in the seat of Henry’s chair. He sits back on his hind legs and looks up at me with his all-knowing eyes.
“We need to do something.”
His tail swishes back and forth.
“I’m not going to sit here and hope someone comes to rescue us. I’m going to pack a bag and then we’ll leave for the Emerald City.”
Toto yips.
“Get some rest while you can. I suspect this will be a long walk and your legs are short.”
He growls, then barks.
“What? You know it’s true.”
He wrinkles his nose, his whiskers twitching, and then turns in a circle before curling into a ball.
I survey the wreckage of the house in search of a bag.
The only thing I spot is Aunt Em’s wicker picnic basket. I flip open its wooden lid and start tossing in food. Aunt Em always has salted nuts and dried meat on hand, and I find both exactly where they should be.
Scouring the rest of the house, I spot an apple that’s rolled behind the woodstove, and a baked roll crammed between the wall and umbrella stand. I check Em’s storage cabinet last, where she keeps the onions and potatoes.
But when I open the door, something metallic shines inside.
The silver slippers.
“Slippery little things indeed.” I reach in, plucking them from the shadows, fully expecting them to disappear again.
But they don’t.
When the soft leather is within my grasp, warmth spreads up my arms. “What do you think, Toto? Are they magical?”
He groans, stretching, and then pokes his head around the arm of the chair. He barks once as if to say he approves of them.
