Dorothy Gale Hitchhikes to Omaha

by Kathryn Kulpa

You’re off to see that balloon man. Tracking him through every county fair between Atchison and Omaha. Dust dulls your hair, dyes your eyes to match your gown, everything hazed with the same grey-brown dust. Even your shoes have lost their shine, their luster fainter every day. Take me home, you said, and now here you are, heels not so snappy, peeling and pocked from this Kansas washboard. No golden bricks to light your way, only rolling tumbleweeds that almost dance in the dust, that could, if you squint your eyes, be a friendly scarecrow, missing you most of all.

6S

Kathryn Kulpa is the author of Cooking Tips for the Demon-Haunted, forthcoming from New Rivers Press. Her work has appeared in Five South, 100 Word Story, Trampset, and Wigleaf and was selected for Best Microfiction and nominated for Best Small Fictions.