by Geoff Ryman
He also hated the thing itself. His parents’ television stood on four spindly legs. It was as if it could walk, with its one huge unblinking eye. Jonathan had dim memories of seeing a film on that one blind eye, a film in which an alien disguised himself as a television set. Jonathan could imagine, so clearly, the television suddenly lurching toward him, shooting electricity in lightning bolts from its blank screen.
If his parents turned it on and there was a Western or a cartoon, things he was supposed to like, he would scream and run away or howl until it was turned off. His parents, still grateful that he had recently ceased to smear lipstick all over everything, would leap forward to turn it off.
But worst of all, everything on television was in black-and-white. Jonathan loved color. He loved red. He wanted everything in the world to be full of color. So what, the adult Jonathan would often wonder, what had made him change?
In November 1956, Jonathan saw the first broadcast of the film version of The Wizard of Oz. The movie started at 9:00 p.m. and would go on until eleven. Jonathan had never before been allowed to stay up so late. He wore his red-striped pajamas and his red bathrobe. He was covered by his Indian blanket and he leaned against his mother on the gray and itchy sofa. His father passed him a cup of hot chocolate in the brown highwayman mug. Jonathan felt very adult.
His parents were obviously excited themselves. Television was still new. The idea of seeing such a great film for free seemed a wonderful advance. Jonathan understood that the film was something delightful that had happened to his parents when they were young. They talked about it at great length as the commercials unwound. They were a mine of misinformation about it.
They told him that the story was a very old fairy tale that someone had updated and made modern. They told him that the little girl who played Dorothy had only been twelve when she played the part (though that seemed very old to Jonathan).
Then the CBS eye, black and floating against clouds, came up, and a man said in a voice of portent, “CBS presents a Ford Star Jubilee.” There were advertisements for cars. Then the talking continued. “. . .a masterpiece of literature,” said the announcer, “which has fascinated children and adults for years, ranks with the great works of all times.” An old man talked to a little girl about how her mother had starred in the movie. It went on and on. What TV Guide had not said was that the film itself was only 101 minutes long—but the slot was two hours. Even Jonathan’s parents began to shift uneasily.
Jonathan was in a kind of panic. He knew that he would fall asleep soon. Why couldn’t they have all the talking after the movie?
A picture of a record sleeve came up. It showed a girl, and—there they were!—the Scarecrow and the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion? Jonathan squealed and kicked his legs under the blanket.
His parents beamed with pleasure. It was rare to get a reaction from Jonathan that was easily understood. The voice was asking people to write away for a special record album of songs from the film.
“I know a little boy who would like that,” his mother said, smiling. And Jonathan went quiet with longing. He didn’t dare say yes. Years later, he still regretted that they never got the record.
Then suddenly it began. There were more clouds, like the CBS eye, and a chorus of voices rising up like a great wind.
Dorothy came running over a hill. She wasn’t like Dorothy in his pretty little book. She was large and had dark hair, but as soon as she started to speak, there was something in her voice that soothed Jonathan as he worried. He was worried that it was so different from his book.
Her Aunty Em said a lot more things, and the farm was full of people. There was going to be more story. This was a delight to him, but he also felt betrayed. How could so many things have been left out of his book?
Jonathan remembered liking Dorothy swinging back and forth holding on to a huge barnyard wheel. It seemed like something fun to do. He was excited by her visit with Professor Marvel, who was brand-new and nothing to do with the story he knew at all. Then he grew suspicious. What if the movie was completely different and Dorothy didn’t go to Oz at all?
He did not perceive Miss Gulch at all, nor was he badly affected by the threatened death of Toto. Jonathan had never had a pet to love. He had not learned to care for little animals. In fact, to him the eyes of animals seemed cold and alien. They chilled, rather than warmed him. Perhaps also he didn’t understand the line about taking the dog to the Sheriff to have him destroyed.
The major disappointment was the cyclone. Jonathan was looking forward to seeing the cyclone almost as much as Oz itself. A few months before, there had been a cyclone warning, a great rarity for Ontario, and everyone had gone out and picked up loose branches and closed the shutters over windows. Jonathan had had to be dragged sullenly back inside the house. He had wanted to stay outside and see it.
But now the cyclone was lost for him amid the black-and-white blur of the television screen.
“There it is,” his father said, pointing.
“Where?” demanded Jonathan, becoming angry. He had imagined cyclones as great, solid, spinning things that came from nowhere out of a blue sky. He peered narrow-eyed at the television, seeing only swirling clouds. “I can’t see it!” he wailed. He saw Dorothy running, and behind her, beyond the porch of the house, he could just barely make out something moving in the sky. Was that the cyclone?
He forgot his anger when Dorothy woke up inside it. He loved the idea of being warm and safe, cradled in the wind. He loved the chickens flying about inside the storm and the people in a boat, rowing their way through clouds as if through water.
Then there was a lady on a bicycle. It had been a long time since Miss Gulch was on the screen; Jonathan had forgotten all about her. He didn’t recognize her. He did recognize what she turned into.
Suddenly, clothes streaming behind her, there was a huge horrible witch riding a broomstick.
He screamed and hid under the Indian blanket.
“Jonathan!” laughed his mother, always taken aback by his susceptibilities.
“Is it gone?” he demanded.
“Yes, yes,” said his mother. Jonathan stayed under his blanket. He heard Dorothy screaming, and he screwed his eyes shut.
There was a line in Jonathan’s shortened book: “The cyclone set the house down very gently for a cyclone.” He had liked that. He knew what it meant. There would be quite a big bump, but not so big that Dorothy would be hurt. He wanted to see the house land so he forced himself to watch. He looked out from under his blanket in time to see the room and the house come to a stop with a tremendous bump. Oh, said Dorothy. Perfect! They had done it perfectly!
Dorothy was in Oz. Jonathan wanted to see the Munchkins and he wanted to see the Good Witch. Most of all he wanted to see her give Dorothy the magic kiss that meant no harm could come to her. Jonathan loved the idea that no harm would come.
Dorothy went toward the door. Jonathan was so excited, he almost had to pee.
“Look,” said his father. “This is the part that turns into color. She steps out and everything is in color.”
The commentary was an unwarranted distraction. Jonathan knew perfectly well that the television couldn’t show color. He was gripped by both joy and edgy suspense. Dorothy peered out through the door. Then she stepped out onto the porch, but he still couldn’t see Oz.
“There, that’s when it turns into color!” exclaimed his father.
Oz was black-and-white. It didn’t matter. Dorothy’s eyes were wide and round, and she wandered through a strange gray place full of television mist and giant leaves. Jonathan went breathless and still. And then, there was a floating, silvery globe.
“That’s like Space Cat!” cried Jonathan, overjoyed.
The bubble turned into Glinda, the Witch of the North. The magic kiss was to come.
Glinda aske
d, so very politely, if Dorothy were a good witch or a bad witch. Jonathan loved the idea of good witches. He loved the way Oz people spoke, very polite and slightly addled. When Glinda asked if Toto was the Witch, Jonathan shrieked with laughter and kicked his feet.
“Sssh, Jonathan,” said his mother, worried about the way he could get overexcited.
Jonathan loved it that Dorothy had killed the Wicked Witch. It was good that she had not meant to do it, and it was so strange to see the Witch’s striped-stocking feet sticking out from under the house, strange in the way that being tickled is strange, slightly fearful and gigglesome at the same time.
“She’ll be all squashed and flat,” said Jonathan gleefully.
The Good Witch was beautiful, and the Munchkins laughed in high-pitched voices, and Dorothy was a National Heroine because she had saved them. Out came the Munchkins to celebrate. In Jonathan’s book they all wore what looked like witch hats, only cockeyed and crumpled and amusing, and they all wore blue and played fiddles. These Munchkins looked different from that—but oh! they were all happy and sang aloud and Jonathan could not tell if they were adults or children. They looked like both. It was a new world, in which adults stayed children and children could be adults.
And they sang. They sang that the Witch was dead, and that they were free of her. No more bad witches, only good and smiling ones, like Glinda.
Then, when everything seemed nicest and happiest, and everyone was singing, there was a boom and a bash and everything was ruined. The Witch was back. The Munchkins ran.
Jonathan emitted a piercing shriek and hid under the blanket again. He screwed his eyes shut and plugged his ears.
This had not been his pretty little book. Glinda explained: this was the sister of the witch who was dead. This was the Witch of the West. Were all witches, even Glinda, sisters?
“Who killed my sister?” the Witch demanded. Jonathan didn’t want to hear; he couldn’t bear it. “Was it you?” the Witch roared at Dorothy, terrible with hatred, and Jonathan, under his blanket, wailed again. It was wrong to kill, even if it wasn’t your fault. How would Dorothy explain?
“No, no, it was an accident, I didn’t mean to kill anybody!” said Dorothy.
Why had they put the Witch there? He felt his mother’s hand on his shoulder. He peeked out over the edge of the blanket again, and she was still there, swirling with hatred. He screamed again and hid again.
“Jonathan,” said his mother, “if you keep this up, I’ll have to turn it off.”
Jonathan forced himself to come out. He watched, wincing.
The Witch promised death. She promised she would get Dorothy and her dog.
She screamed and cackled and then there was a great booming sound. The Witch exploded and went away, in front of horrified eyes. Jonathan did not learn until years later that in that flash of fire the actress who played the Witch was severely burned.
He stared numbly, bestilled by horror, taking comfort from Glinda’s motherly voice. Quietly and gently, she was telling Dorothy about the great and wonderful Wizard of Oz. And then, and then, she kissed Dorothy on the forehead.
He waited for the kiss to stay there, glowing on her forehead. But nothing happened. Gradually Jonathan realized that in the movie, the kiss was not a spell. The kiss would not protect Dorothy. She could be hurt.
It was television, frightening him again.
“It’s all right,” said Jonathan’s mother. “Look, she’s off to see the Wizard.” But her voice was solemn. Jonathan looked around and his mother’s face was pinched and hurt.
Things began to get hazy. Jonathan wasn’t rocking himself, but watching Oz was rather like being rocked. When he rocked himself to sleep, Jonathan saw things like Oz, wonderful things, colors and magic.
Half-asleep, he met the Scarecrow. Jonathan loved the Scarecrow the best, like he loved Indians. Nothing would shake his loyalty. He loved the floppiness, the weak ankles, the loud cries, the gentleness. In comparison, the Tin Man looked greasy to him and nasty, and besides he was a machine and machines had no magic for Jonathan. He almost disliked the Tin Man, even though he kept crying out of kindness.
The Witch came back, skulking in a corner, appearing on a roof. Terror jerked Jonathan awake.
She called to the Scarecrow like she wanted to play a game. Then, most dreadful of all, the Witch threw a ball of fire at the Scarecrow, fire to burn him alive. Jonathan’s shriek was the most piercing yet. Someone, somewhere, had decided to terrify him. That was what frightened Jonathan most: that it was deliberate. They could have made a movie without a witch at all.
He glimpsed poppies. They were about sleep and he could feel his own limbs go still and heavy. The movie turned into color and he seemed to sink down into it. He sank down and settled very gently, his feet touching solid ground and seeming to spark with life. He ran, into Oz.
He could hear his own running feet, and he could feel cobbles underfoot through the soles of his shoes. The bricks were bright yellow, so bright that it hurt his eyes.
“Wait for me!” he called. And they all turned, Judy Garland and the Scarecrow and the Lion. He caught up with them.
“Can I come too? Can I come too?” he asked them, panting. The fields were bright red, and the sky was full of a white smiling face, and it was snowing too, flowers and snow together, and there was music, grand and happy at the same time.
“Why, of course you can,” said Judy Garland.
Jonathan woke up in the morning in his own bed. The room was dim and gray, shadowed by a curtain. Except that at the foot of his bed, there was a flowering of color. He woke and imagined that the Lion and the Tin Man and the Scarecrow were with him. Jonathan could feel the weight of the Scarecrow, not too heavy, against his feet.
Wake up, Jonathan! Judy Garland seemed to say. We’re off to see the Wizard!
“Hurray!” cried Jonathan. He threw off his blankets and hurled himself into the cold air. “We’re off to see the Wizard!” He ran into the bathroom. His new friends crowded into the bathroom with him. Dorothy brushed her teeth too, and the Lion used dental floss on his fangs, just like Jonathan’s father.
It was November and cold, though it had not yet snowed, and Jonathan ran to sit in his morning place: in front of the ventilator duct by the kitchen door where hot air blasted out. He warmed his hands and feet. The Lion held the tip of his tail near it. The Scarecrow hung back in fear of the heat.
“Don’t worry,” Jonathan whispered to him. “It’s not fire. There’s no fire.”
It was Sunday, and his father was home. Normally, Jonathan and his father ate Sunday breakfast together. Afterward they would check the boiler in the basement and make sure the water around the sump pump had not frozen and killed Jonathan’s fish who lived there. This morning, however, Jonathan heard his father already hammering away in the attic. Jonathan was glad. He wanted to be with the people from Oz.
His mother walked in with a bowl of porridge. “You’ll have to hurry this morning, Jonathan,” she said. “It’s late and you’ve got Sunday School.”
He and his mother and the people from Oz all sat at the breakfast table by the front window. The people from Oz were going to have porridge as well. Jonathan’s mother sat down opposite him, smiling with love.
“You fell asleep,” she said, sympathetically.
“When?” Jonathan asked.
“Before the end of your movie.”
“I did not!” Jonathan had felt very adult, being allowed to stay up late. It was a sign of great childishness to have fallen asleep.
“You did,” said his mother, sweetly. She was utterly charmed. He had fought so hard to stay awake.
“I saw the whole movie,” he protested.
“Did you?” said his mother. “What happened at the end?”
Jonathan thought back and foun
d he couldn’t remember. This was a truly terrible thing; he was sure he had seen the film, but he found he had no memory of the Witch’s castle or of the inside of the Emerald City or of Dorothy’s going home.
He went very silent. He wished his mother would stop smiling. He hadn’t seen it, after all. He had slept through his movie. He would never see all of the story now.
“It will be on again,” said his mother.
“I did so see it,” he murmured.
He watched the brown sugar melt on his porridge. He liked that. He used it to help himself forget. Then he poured on the milk to cool it. Otherwise it was too hot. The aim was to get all the porridge floating on the milk, so that the sugar on top was not washed away. He blew on his porridge, and the friends from Oz blew with him.
He looked up at them, appraisingly. He must have fallen asleep and pulled them into his dream from out of the movie. So when he woke up they woke up with him and were still there, and that’s how they joined him. So maybe it was lucky he had slept.
After the porridge, his mother bundled him into the bathroom again and washed behind his ears, which made him squirm, and then she put him into his own gray suit, with his own red bow tie. Then she put him into his mud-colored coat and his cap with flaps that could come down over his ears. She pushed his galoshes over his feet and then sent him off to Sunday School.
There was already a Christmas wreath on the front door, though there was no snow. The house stood on high Canadian foundations, out of the mud. There was a bank of concrete steps leading down from the front door to the earth. Just in front of the steps, waiting like a trap for the unwary, was Jonathan’s wagon. His father had made it out of spare bits of wood. The rubber wheels had a suspension system his father had invented out of springs, too sophisticated for Jonathan to appreciate. He only knew that his wagon ran quietly and smoothly.