Just Close Your Eyes and Leap
‘Come on! Jump!’ Elphaba shouted at her.
‘Me? Jump??’ Glinda exclaimed with surprise. Despite her questioning, she quickly surprised both of them as she leapt from the tower into the slowly rising basket of the hot air balloon.
Landing with a soft thud, Elphaba quickly glanced Glinda over, her green hand ghosting over Glinda’s arm before rushing to the center of the basket and grabbing the lever that shot more fire into the balloon.
A guard jumped on the outer wall of the basket, his feet scrambling for purchase as he heaved on leg over. Instinct took over completely as Elphaba swung the book and knocked him square in the face. He fell to the ground with a scream, and Elphaba rushed to the side and saw with relief that the guard was still alive, red in the face as he gesticulated at her with anger.
‘Give me my leg! Give me my leg!’ Glinda’s voice rose with anger, and Elphaba whipped around and saw Glinda punt a guard off the basket, tumbling to the floor. She would have laughed, if not for the total chaos erupting around her. Because of her.
Damn, what have you gotten yourself into this time? Elphaba grimly thought to herself.
They were cutting it close. Too close, as the balloon rose higher and higher, and the roof retracted in, closer and closer.
‘Elphie, we’re not going to make it!’ Glinda cried as her hand grabbed around Elphaba’s arm in desperation.
‘Yes we will, we have to!’ Elphaba looked around, but she could see that Glinda was right. The roof was closing in on the balloon, and more guards were spilling into the room and pulling on the ropes to bring their basket back down.
With little recourse left, Elphaba grabbed Glinda’s hand yelling, ‘Come on, pull!’. Right before the lever expanded fully, Glinda leaped and heaved her entire body weight onto the lever with Elphaba, and a brilliant burst of orange and yellow flame shot into the balloon. The burst propelled the balloon upward like a shot, and the two girls fell in a heap together at the bottom of the basket.
All at once, miraculously so, the balloon burst through the roof. Glinda yelped in surprise as she was braced with an onslaught of rushing wind, her hair whipping violently around her face as she desperately tried to regain her bearings.
‘What do we do now?’ Glinda cried to Elphaba.
Elphaba gingerly pried herself off the ground, before turning to help Glinda to her feet. She took a deep breath and looked at the open expanse around them, a wild look in her eyes.
‘I-I don’t know.’ she said in reply, because she truly did not know what direction the wind would take them.
Apparently, that was not good enough for her companion.
‘Well, you don’t know! That’s just perfect! I hope you’re happy now, now that you have ruined our lives!’
All at once, Elphaba’s helplessness evaporated.
‘We are lucky that we managed to escape! What if the balloon didn’t break through the roof, we’d be trapped in the castle and I would be forced to - to-’ Elphaba’s voice cut off abruptly, as she remembered the horrors of the Emerald City, and how she had hurt Chistery.
Glinda, completely oblivious to Elphaba’s turmoil, steamrolled on.
‘I mean seriously, I didn’t think our visit to The Emerald City,’ she said with emphasis, ‘would make me fear for my life. A girl can only take so much, and oh my god, I am definitely going to break out from this ordeal and I didn’t bring my overnight bag with my cleanser!’ Glinda was rambling now, her breath increasing with every word that spilled out of her lips.
With a sigh, Elphaba pushed down the messiness of her feelings and gently, but firmly grabbed Glinda by the shoulders.
‘Take a deep breath.’ she said slowly. Elpha looked into Glinda’s brown eyes, made fathomless by her welling tears that created a glassy sheen.
Glinda took a deep breath through her nose, closing her eyes. Her eyebrows furrowed, as if she was in deep concentration. Elphaba wanted to take her finger and smooth out the crease.
‘Elphaba, what are we going to do?’ Glinda asked again, once her breathing calmed down. ‘You just flew off the handle, the Wizard is never going to forgive you. Plus with us taking his balloon and destroying his roof!’
Glinda was getting worked up again, but she couldn’t help herself. She barely had time to think in the tower before jumping, she just leaped. What would she have done if she had time to think about if she wanted to stay? Would she have stayed? She did not have time to further ponder what could have been, as Elphaba’s voice pulled her from her train of thought.
‘Maybe we can find Fiyero,’ Elphaba said suddenly.
That caught Glinda off guard.
‘Fiyero? How would he be able to help us?’ Glinda asked.
A stab of jealousy rose in her mind, but she quickly shoved the feeling down, confused as to why she even felt that way in the first place.
‘Well, he’s the prince of Tigelaar. He has resources and influence, maybe we can tell him what the Wizard is doing to the animals in Oz, and we can help them.’ Elphaba’s voice sounded hopeful, and Glinda saw a light smile play at her lips as she spoke of their friend.
‘Well, I guess you are right.’ Glinda sounded unsure, even to herself, but she knew that Elphaba had a point. Fiyero had been acting so strangely over the past couple weeks, ever since Dr. Dillamond was fired. Perhaps, just like Elphaba, they harboured sentiments for the animals of the kingdoms. Glinda couldn’t bring herself to feel much sympathy, but she wanted to see Fiyero just as much as she wanted to be on the ground again. The awful feelings curdling in her stomach warred with one another, but she promptly ignored them, grabbing Elphaba’s hand as the balloon glided towards the western sky.