“I’ve always wished I could go to Oz. I guess Dorothy got there around 1900 or 1901 or so, and hasn’t aged since. Even her Uncle Henry and Aunt Em have preserved their middle age forever, as well as Trot and Cap’n Bill and others.”

(Trot and Cap’n Bill appeared in their own L Frank Baum novels “The Sea Fairies” and “Sky Island”, before coming to Oz to live as residents of the kingdom in a subsequent Oz book.)

“I’d like to take you back with me, as long as you’re comfortable with leaving this land behind.”

“Nothing would make me happier,” said Gordon, “I don’t fit in here at all. I’m an oddball, an inachronism born too late in time for his own comfort. The only books I read are the ones written in times long ago. Going to Oz would be like stepping into one of those books and becoming one of the characters, or even better still.”

“The least I can do is show you the way, after you saved me. You’ll find that there’s more than enough living space for you in the many rooms of my castle too,” said Elma.

Gordon remembered something that he had been meaning to ask earlier in the conversation, before he’d been sidetracked.

“You said you sold a crown. Were …. Are you royalty in Oz?”

“Yes, I told you I was a princess, remember? I will be again.”

“So you did. I was so excited to learn that Oz was real, that I wasn’t fully taking in everything you’ve been saying.”

“It’s too late for us to leave today,” said Elma, “But you could come over for dinner, so that we could talk some more.”

He accepted her invitation to go to her house in Wahroonga. She had bought one of the older properties in 1978 and kept the house in its original condition, while other nearby houses had gone on to be demolished, and newer houses built on the sites. After they had eaten and talked for a while, she showed him her record collection. He noticed that the music of decades past had appealed to her more than 1980s and 1990s pop music, just as it had come to appeal more to him.

“If I put a record on, would you like to dance with me?” asked Elma.

“We both seem to like the same periods of music. It will be a pleasure,” said Gordon.

They slow danced for well over an hour, and then Elma arranged to meet Gordon at the Cliff Reserve rocks the following morning.

He went home to bed and took over an hour to fall asleep, as he thought of the excitement which awaited him the next day. Oz was real and he had met a beautiful princess who was going to take him there.

The next morning, after a hearty breakfast, he put fresh batteries into his penlight torch and slipped it into his pocket. The long cave (which somehow separated the bush beyond Wahroonga from the Land of Oz) would now be at least as easy to navigate as it had been for Elma with her lantern 14 years earlier.

He walked through the park at the end of Cliff Avenue, made his way along the short bush track and came to the rocks.

“I brought a torch to make it easy to see in the cave,” she said, and then opened her small carrybag, to put it back in. He saw that her wig was also in the bag, and began thinking about it again. Perhaps she had been worried about her hair going grey if she stayed on earth for many years longer, and had had the wig made up while she was still young. That still didn’t explain why she needed it in Oz. Perhaps it was a keepsake to remember her time on earth, one of the few things in her Wahroonga house which were light and small enough to carry with her on the long walk back to Oz.

“Great minds think alike,” he said, removing his own torch temporarily from his pocket, “This is where I used to sit and read the Oz books. I saw the 1939 Wizard of Oz movie in 1976, and an animated sequel called “Journey Back to Oz” in 1979, and then thought nothing more of Oz until a few months ago.

“ ‘Journey Back to Oz’is out on video cassette now,” said Elma, “It’s not very accurate. Tip doesn’t appear in the cartoon movie, and is replaced by Dorothy, who actually didn’t return to Oz until after Ozma became Princess of Oz. The Singing Signpost was a nice addition to the characters, but the Merry Go Round horse was a poor substitute for Tip’s Sawhorse. The artwork and voice casting and music would have made Dorothy and the others proud though.”

“So how do we get there?”

“We go back a bit along the track up here, then follow the side path down into the bush for a long way. Then we have to go off between the trees at the point where I first came to the path in 1978. Nobody from this district would think to do that. So they would never have discovered the cave, but I came from that cave in the first place when I left Oz. I hope I can find the correct spot after 14 years.”

On their first attempt, they went too far, and had to slowly back track until Elma recognised the correct position. Then they made their way through the trees until they came to the cave. They turned on their torches and walked for quite some time through the long dark cave, until they finally saw light at the end. Within minutes, Gordon was stepping out into Oz in wonder.

“It’s even better than John R Neill’s illustrations could ever have made it look, as fabulous an artist as he certainly was!” said Gordon.

“I’m glad you like it.”

“We have to pass through the Emerald City on the way to my town,” said Elma, “You’ll be able to meet the Scarecrow and the others in person.”

Gordon recalled the whisperings of her temporarily injured throat from when he’d first found her the day before: “Scarecrow in Oz …. Only in Oz.”

He figured that she must have been thinking of her plan to return there, still concentrating her thoughts on that longing, even during the trauma of being attacked and robbed.

“I’m looking forward that,” said Gordon.

They came to a lunch pail tree, and picked their pails and sat down to eat. With such assortments of food growing ready packed in Oz, it made takeaway meals that much easier than looking for the nearest fish and chips shop or fast food outlet.

“So what made you stay in Wahroonga in Australia for 14 years?” asked Gordon.

“I suppose it was because things changed very little in Oz. I’d seen everything here just the way it was for 64 years, and something was missing.”

“It’s ironic, but I longed for Oz to be real, partly because it was like a fantasy land to me, but also partly because I felt that things had changed too much in Australia, all around the world in fact, from what I’d seen in movies and television shows.”

“I began to sense that too, to feel that way a year or so ago. Things were still nice in your land when I arrived in 1978, but they were changing rapidly after that. I finally began to feel as you did, that there had been too much change, and none of it for the better. The whole atmosphere of your country had become visually unattractive and culturally unpleasant… compared to Oz at least.”

When they had eaten their fill, they made their way to the Emerald City, where they were greeted by General Jinjur, leader of the all girl army, and Jellia Jamb, a pleasant young girl. Jinjur and Jellia showed them into Ozma’s presence, where the princess invited them to stay for dinner and offered them rooms for the night. Princess Elma told Ozma in great detail of her long stay in Australia, and of the cave which had been her means of walking there.

“I’m surprised to learn of yet another way that people can still come into Oz from the outside world,” said Ozma.

“Nobody would ever discover it on the Australian side of the cave,” said Elma, “The little travelled pathway I took doesn’t go anywhere near the cave.”

“I suppose there’s no harm in leaving the cave open at our end,” said Ozma, “Although I couldn’t make use of it like you did for 14 years. Your parents are still ruling in your town, but I have a responsibility to oversee all of Oz.”

Eureka the pink kitten ran into the room and darted under the table.

“I remember reading about that cat,” said Gordon, “L Frank Baum told of your third trip to Oz, Dorothy, in his fourth book ‘Dorothy & the Wizard in Oz’. Wasn’t Eureka on trial for eating one of the Wizard’s nine tiny piglets? She let the trial proceed, with tension mounting for everyone in the courtroom. Then she surprised everybody with the revelation that she had chased the piglet into a bottle and was then unable to eat him.”

“She wasn’t very popular after that, for quite some time,” said Dorothy, “Having tried her best to despatch the tiny piglet into her system, she made other animals feel either fearful or offended by her behaviour. Since then the Hungry Tiger has taught her his techiques for controlling and restraining the urges to consume living creatures, and she’s making good progress in gaining social acceptance in the kingdom. Eating someone else is all very well for the one doing the eating, but it can be an entirely different prospect for the one being eaten. Eureka has taken a while to appreciate the complexities of this matter.”

The two princesses spent some time nostalgically comparing their early lives. Ozma had been enchanted into the form of Mombi’s servant Tip for years since her birth, only to discover that she was the rightful ruler of Oz. Elma had no ruling responsibilities, and would be unlikely to, given that her parents had stopped ageing and could manage the kingdom forever.

“Your mother came to me very worried about your disappearance,” said Ozma, “It was soon after you left Oz. I used my all-seeing picture to show her that you were doing well in the Wahroonga of the outside world, and she went back to reassure your father that you had found a form of happiness that was working well for you.”

Gordon made friends with a boy known as Lucky Bucky, and was surprised to learn that he had come to Oz back in the mid 1940s. (See ‘Lucky Bucky in Oz’ by John R Neill.) Gordon told Bucky how much the outside world had changed in the nearly 5 decades since Bucky’s departure.

“The way you tell it, I’m glad I stayed here,” said Bucky.

“To me the 1940s are a bit of a fantasy of its own. Do you ever miss the America of that era?” asked Gordon.

“A little bit, but not as much as I’d miss Oz if I went back to the good old U.S. of A,” said Bucky, “When I got here, Jenny Jump had made a name for herself. The Mimics were soon to be met by some of the Emerald City regulars, and other great and marvelous things were due to happen here.”

“Be glad you stayed,” said Gordon, “I know I will.”

After considerably more conversation, the residents of the Emerald City and their visitors all turned into bed for the night.

The next morning, Gordon and Elma bade farewell to Ozma, Dorothy, and a few others, and then began the morning walk to Elma’s home town. When they reached the outskirts of the woods leading into the town, Gordon marvelled at the tall tall trees, while Elma lay down to rest. Gordon wandered a few meters out of sight of her, still feeling no less amazed by the beauty of the old fashioned looking fantasy of the Oz scenery than when he’d first arrived at the Oz end of the long cave.