The door was kinda reddish. Can't really remember, actually. The Disney wiki notes that the whole Glinda thing was supposed to homage the White Witch and Narnia. With the wraith, Pan's shadow, and this random door, it seems like we are getting closer and closer to Kingdom Hearts territory, which would be EPIC.
And now, the continuation of our tale:
The walls of the hospital were cold white. Everything felt so sterile, with no life reverberating whatsoever. The elderly woman sighed.
A stocky orderly came up to her and shook her hand. “She won’t make much sense. She keeps going on about seeing shadows and hearing singing in the walls.”
The woman, dressed in a white blouse accented with a large diamond brooch, smiled. “That kind of thing doesn’t scare me, young man.” She shrugged. “Sometimes someone has to be the storm cellar when someone else is going through a storm.”
As the woman sat down on a small chair next to the somewhat older dark-skinned lady as the latter fidgeted in bed, the latter finally sprang up and started yelling. “Get back from here, witch!”
The woman stood. “Look into my eyes,” she said calmly.
For a few seconds, the elderly patient tried to stumble across the bed but paused just as she reached the opposite end. She turned, no longer visibly panting. “You look like a decrepit Judy Garland.”
The woman laughed and motioned the patient to rest in the bed. “Nice to see you too, Tiana.”
The year was 1930. Little Dorothy, a dark-haired girl with little pigtails, held a bright pink balloon as the parade went by. Dust had been swirling all over Kansas and farms were dying off left and right, but Dorothy couldn’t understand being “poor”, for everyone else was as well.
This parade was the grandest thing Dorothy had ever seen: there were dancers, loud music, snacks of all kinds, and bright colors all around. One person even had painted his team of horses all kinds of different colors.
“Dorothy!” barked her mother, whose dark hair curled loosely down her red tight dress, her red hat tilting sharply forward. The woman grabbed the girl’s hand and jerked her out of the enlivened crowd. “What did I say about running around without your father and I?” she asked sternly. “These heathens will carry you off and … and … do just awful things to you!”
Dorothy struggled, her eyes misting. “Momma … please! There was music!”
The woman scoffed. “There’s ALWAYS music playing, day and night, with women and men cavorting like bunnies. It’s disgusting and something PROPER ladies don’t do!”
The two walked down Canal Street to get back to Dorothy’s father, who had taken them to New Orleans for seasonal work. They passed some women riding on bicycles, wearing bloomers. Dorothy gasped in awe.
Dorothy’s mother tightened her grip. “PROPER ladies dress modestly, just as the Good Lord teaches us.”
They soon heard sounds of a scuffle. A group of white men in white robes were hitting a dark-skinned woman with sticks. Dorothy tore away from her mother before the latter could respond, and started throwing rocks at the attackers. “Get away from her!” Dorothy screamed.
Her mother grabbed her and swept her into an alley, trying to shush her by clamping her hand over the girl’s mouth. She hissed, “We don’t get involved in these things, Dorothy. We must remain civilized, even when harlots are being chased through the streets.”
Dorothy bit her mother’s hand and tore herself away. “They’re attacking her! You can just sit there if you want, but someone needs our help!” She dashed away as her mother tried to grab her.
Back in the present, Tiana sat in her wheelchair, staring out the window. “How’s Kansas?”
Dorothy sighed and placed her hand gently on her friend’s. “I haven’t been since I don’t know how long, Tiana. What brings you to New York?”
Tiana shrugged. “Just had to walk after what happened to Naveen.”
“What about his parents? Didn’t they help you at all?”
Tiana sniffled, using the collar of her hospital gown to wipe away a tear. “They kicked out their own son, Dot” Tiana replied, finally working to create a smile. “He couldn’t wipe his own rear-end and they let him go. What makes you think they’d take care of me?”
As the young Dorothy kept pelting the angry mob with rocks, one of them turned around and called her a bunch of words she never heard before, before letting fly with a few rocks of his own.
Dorothy was knocked to the ground, reeling in pain, sobbing.
Shrieks and whistles pierced the air.
The mob stopped as a small group of policemen surrounded them. “Put down your weapons NOW!” they ordered.
“Just teachin’ her a lesson, now get out of our way,” they said. “You know her kind’s gotta pay!”
A shot rang out, forcing everyone to flinch. Out of an alley, a thin blonde-haired woman came strolling calmly out of the darkness, glaring darkly at the crowd as they stood in awe of the woman garbed in a slinky red sparkling dress. “Big Daddy says this here lovely’s called a Colt, an’ Ah reckon it prob’ly kicks ya in the head ‘bout as good.” She tightened her grip on the trigger and nodded to the police. “Turns out law enforcement may be friends o’ yours, but they get paid thanks to the LaBouff family, an’ if they wanna CONTINUE gettin’ their hands on the next meal, they’ll pry your ugly little hands off mah best friend!”
Dorothy sat on the cobblestone road, sobbing quietly, cradling her leg, which was bleeding somewhat now. It was like a fairy had just appeared and scattered a bunch of monsters. She even sparkled in the daylight.
After the crowd dispersed, including the onlookers, Tiana nursed her bruises with some ointment her friend Charlotte had given her. “This has to stop,” Tiana told her, sobbing.
Charlotte hugged her. “It’ll be alright, hon.”
Tiana shoved her away. “No, it WON’T! I’m a PRINCESS! I have a good business and a strong family! When’s it evah gonna be good enough?”
“There is something I need to discuss,” Dorothy told her elderly friend.
“Well, I ain’t a-goin’ anywhere anytime soon, ‘specially since mah little Tamara ran off an’ left me too.”
Dorothy gasped. “You had children after all?”
Tiana shook her head. “It was me jus’ tryin’ to be nice to some kid, jus’ like Lottie’d been nice to me. Girl didn’t have nothin’. I didn’t have much of nothin’, but I figured we could work it out together.”
Charlotte had been silenced by her friend’s anger, until she spied out of the corner of her eye a little girl cringing in the street. She gasped and leapt over to her, checking out her wounds. “Did those little rat snakes take a bite outta you?”
Dorothy cried, but stared at Tiana. “Are you alright, Ma’am?”
Tiana stopped sulking and fuming long enough to glance over at the child. “Come to gawk, girl?”
Dorothy broke away from a protesting Charlotte to stand closer to Tiana, bowing. “No, ma’am, Miss Princess, ma’am. Ah’m just Dorothy Gale, from Kansas. I saw them an’ Ah tried to throw some rocks, but then they got me instead.”
Charlotte kissed her forehead. “Well, ain’t you just the little spitfire?” She smiled at Tiana. “Ain’t this little bit o’ sunshine jus’ brave as a mountain lion near a rabbit?”
Tiana wobbled and stood up, frowning. “Now, Ah’m saved by a little farmgirl,” she grumbled before limping away.
Charlotte hugged Dorothy close. “Don’t pay her no mind, Dottie, hon. She jus’ don’t like to feel like a possum under the tires of an automobile.”
Tiana sighed. “Ah’m gettin’ kinda sleepy, Dot.”
Dorothy nodded and started to help her friend towards the hospital bed. “You get some rest.”
“What is it you needed?”
Dorothy kissed Tiana on the forehead and silently walked out the door.
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