Trying yet again in Emerald City

(Cont.)

Then the Volcano addressed the multitudes of his workforce, saying: “Now that we have toured Las Vegas, and Yeshua the Zealot has acquired his new breastplate, which gives off a low hum to indicate how powerful it is, let us proceed along yonder brick road that leads from this M.I. sector into Munchkinland, and visit Oz, to see the Royal Palace in Emerald City. I have been waiting a long time for this – you might recall, it was the first location that your caravan spied out; but the pilgrims of your parents’ generation were too frightened to enter, on account of the ivy leaguers, whose credentials intimidated them. Let me assure you, those students and staff from the ivy-league schools shall mostly be found in the lands beyond Oz, although some do spend spring break in the City of Emeralds. Now, when we arrive there, you shall notice that many of its landscapes and furnishings are green; especially the paper money that they exchange there: this currency is very different from our caesar coins. But have no fear; you shall treat the citizens and their Wizard with the same deference and amity that you extended to the Las Vegans. Use the gifts from the ark as much as you desire, and do not forget to mix and mingle.”

So all the shock-troops of the working class got up and followed the brick road into Oz.

And Yeshua the Zealot, having renewed confidence because of his awesome new breast-armor, chose out thirty thousand mighty men of valor to accompany him on a night mission. He commanded them, saying “Let us enter the city early, even before the sun awakes. For I am excited and feel very lucky.”

§

Now, when the Emerald Citizens first beheld the form of Yeshua the Zealot approaching in the darkness, at the head of these legions, having his breastplate ablaze with plumes of flame and being jagged with magnetite, they were terrified and began to flee. For they assumed that this army was here to plunder the city and burn it down.

So, seeing that the populace had hidden itself, the thirty thousand wayfarers stood puzzled, and they stopped and stood for a while, between the Royal Palace and the World Columbian Exposition, on the west size of Oz. And they wondered what to do; and Yeshua joined them to discuss their next steps. So they lodged there that night, before the people who were hiding.

Then Yeshua rose up early in the morning, and gathered his troops, and they went out into the green fog of the streets, and they addressed the citizens of Emerald City. Yeshua the Zealot spoke into a ram horn, to louden his voice. And he said soothing words.

Yeshua also sent forth five thousand shock-troops as liers in ambush, to seize the natives and attempt to befriend them, if they dared to come out.

Then it happened that, when the Wizard of Oz looked out from behind his curtain, and he saw the battalions infesting the streets of the city, he ducked back into his production booth and caused an enlarged image of himself to be projected on the sky, and with his voice electronically amplified, and noises of thunder on the soundtrack, he spoke threatening words to the invaders, and he warned them of the Judgment of GOD.

Thus, Yeshua and his forces all felt their hearts quiver like gelatin, and they rose up and escaped away from this Empire by way of the wilderness.

Then all the people of Oz were called together to chase these intruders: and they pursued after Yeshua’s legions. All the folks who had been hiding and cowering behind the walls of the Royal Palace and over at the World Columbian Exposition came out and gave chase.

Now, when Yeshua and his group were thus retreating, they happened to meet the rest of the touring multitudes, who were being led by the Volcano, with the robo-butlers Man and Satyajit guiding the ark before them. And Yeshua, who was looking back over his shoulder while running straight forward, bumped into the ark and knocked over its Liberty Statue. And, as Man and Satyajit set the lid right again, the Volcano said to Yeshua:

“Sheath your spear, and be still. Tell me what you have got yourself into. Why did your group set off ahead of the rest of the workforce? I thought it was agreed that we would all follow the ark, as one great team.”

And Yeshua the Zealot pointed toward the city with his spear and said: “The natives ambushed us. They all arose quickly out of their places, where they had been hiding. And they came after us, and tried to capture us to set us on fire.”

Then, at this juncture, the Emerald Citizens and the Columbians and the people from the Royal Palace of Oz came over the horizon and beheld the black smoke ascending up from the vortex of the Volcano, and from the breastplate of Yeshua, and they stopped in their tracks, seeing that they had no power to flee this way or that way.

Then the Volcano addressed the Midianites among his multitudes, and he said: “Go, and explain to these people from the city that we come in peace and friendship. Offer them also some gifts from the ark.”

And the Midianites did as the Volcano instructed them: they went out into the midst of the Emerald citizens and the Columbians and all the royal administrators, and they stood, some on this side, and some on that side, and they extended their arms for embrace, and they explained that their tour groups had come to mix and to mingle. And the people were pacified.

But the Wizard of Oz was still transmitting invectives from the sky, and he was threatening Yeshua personally. Yet the Volcano could not reason with this airy image, because its actor was elsewhere. So certain members of the royal staff were given gemstones and pieces of gold and silver from the ark, and they were told to use their power in the palace to help de-escalate the situation; thus they went to fetch the Wizard himself (or the man who played him) from his production booth.

So that is how twelve thousand private Emerald citizens chased Yeshua out of Oz. But then they welcomed him right back in, once affairs were smoothed over.

And when the multitudes of the Volcano finally entered the city officially, and toured around and went sightseeing, they noted that all the buildings were green and gilded, for everything was constructed from a material known as kryptonite.

And the Volcano, Yahweh Peor, made friends with the Wizard, the “Great and Powerful Oz,” whose birth name turned out to be Omega Zoroaster; and the two got along very well, for they discovered that they had much in common.

And to make amends with the zealot, whom he had insulted so terribly during their misunderstanding, Zoroaster caused an enlarged image of Yeshua to be projected upon the trunk of the world tree Yggdrasil. And it was shown there hanging until eventide. Then, before the sun had set, because they shared the tradition of the sabbath and desired to keep it a high, holy day (also because the Bible says, “if thou hang a man on a tree, his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; as it is written, ‘Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree’.” [Deuteronomy 21:22-23; Galatians 3:13]), the vast likeness of Yeshua was re-projected into an astral sepulcher, which had a mirror that bounced the image back to earth, and cast it at the entering of the gate of the city, to serve as an eternal remembrancer.

So Yeshua the Zealot’s enormous image sparkled there, towering over the city’s entrance, with limbs astride from land to land, like a new Colossus. And it was tinted green now, instead of the usual bluish glow of deceased spirits, on account of the redshift.