The Phantom of Oz, Installment #11
Good News! (and More Fictional Disagreeable Changes)
Hello! Welcome to Installment #11 of my weekly serialization of The Phantom of Oz. If you missed earlier chapters, you can read Installment #1 here, Installment #2 here, Installment #3 here, Installment #4 here, Installment #5 here , Installment #6 here, Installment # 7 here, Installment #8 here, Installment #9 here, or Installment #10 here.
2025 was a wild ride for me, as for many of us, but at the end of it, I’m happy to be right where I am. Things turned out okay. And it turns out 2025 was actually not a bad year for the rest of the world, either. Really. I subscribe to several online newsletters that focus on the good news we don’t hear from mainstream media. Things like:
The U.S will almost certainly record its lowest murder rate in history in 2025. Violent crime is at its lowest level since 1968. Property crime is at the lowest rate ever measured.
China’s carbon emissions, once a third of the world’s total emissions, have been flat or falling for 18 months, and are on target to fall over the full year of 2025, as the country transforms the structure of its energy system. In addition, emissions from the rest of the world have flatlined.
And in “smaller” good news: Over 120,000 “hedgehog highways” now connect about 240,000 gardens across the U.K.
You can read all of these news stories at Fix the News and Reasons to Be Cheerful. I hope you do. There’s also book-related good news at the end of this newsletter. I hope you read that, too.
Now, on to Chapter 8, Part Three. Happy New Year, and happy reading!
Chapter 8 (Part Three)
Undergone a Disagreeable Change
In the first two parts of this chapter, Ivy goes to Seamus McCaffrey’s Irish Pub to meet her much-changed friend Candy, who surprises Ivy with the news that Arrestadt, a famous Hollywood director, was joining them.
I pasted a smile on my face. Normally I would have been thrilled to meet Arrestadt, not just because he was famous, but because I thought his work was genius. Tonight, though, Arrestadt’s presence felt like one more way for Candy to avoid talking to me.
The director slid into the booth next to Candy. “Hi Ivy.” He extended a hand to me. “Great to finally meet you. I’ve heard so much about you.” He had? And yet Candy hadn’t told me she knew him at all. Hadn’t even told me she had this touring gig until a few days ago.
“Speak of the devil, you said.” Arrestadt leaned into Candy. “You were talking about me?”
“Sort of. About Normina. I know it’s awful for me to say, but I’m so glad to be rid of her for a while.” She drained the last of her drink.
Arrestadt’s brow furrowed, but it didn’t make him any less good-looking. He was fortyish with graying temples and blue-black hair swept off his face, tousled like it had dried in a sea breeze. This being the desert, I knew it was achieved by a blow dryer, but still, the effect was there. “I wish we could come up with a different roommate for you,” he said. “But there’s just Eden, and I don’t think—”
“Yeah.” Candy pouted again. Part of her new look, I guessed.
Dorothy and the Wicked Witch of the West had private rooms, the Wicked Witch of the East was Candy’s roommate, and Candy played Glinda. There was only one other female character I could think of. “Does Eden play Auntie Em?” I asked.
“Now she does,” said Arrestadt.
“She does?” said Candy.
“Eden is the tour’s wardrobe mistress, but she used to act,” Arrestadt said to me. “She’s agreed to fill in as Auntie Em and the Wicked Witch of the East. Normina played both roles. We’ll work Eden in at rehearsal tomorrow.”
“But … Eden. She’ll probably put a spell on me.” Pout number three from Candy. Where, oh where was the sunny girl I knew?
“Because she’s the Wicked Witch of the East?” I was having a hard time keeping up.
“Because she’s a real witch.”
“She is not.” Arrestadt turned to me. “She’s a Goddess worshipper, not a Wiccan. And she’s very nice.”
I was just about to ask how he knew so much about his wardrobe mistress when Candy nudged him. “’Scuse me. I need to use the ladies.”
They both slid out of the booth and Candy walked away and up the stairs to the bathroom with teeny tiny careful steps.
Arrestadt sat down again across from me, elbows on the table, completely relaxed. He was one of those people who made you feel like he wanted to hear whatever you were going to say. I took a leap of faith. “I’m worried about Candy.”
“The weight loss?”
“Yeah.” It wasn’t the only thing, but it was a good beginning.
“Me too,” he said. “Damn Anita.”
“Yeah,” I said again, though I didn’t know why I wanted to damn Candy’s agent.
“I mean, Candy probably did look fat on camera.”
I swallowed the words I wanted to say. Sure, the camera added ten pounds or whatever, but I’d seen Candy on film. She looked luscious.
“But a size zero?” Arrestadt continued. “Candy doesn’t have the build for that.”
“Zero? That’s not really necessary for Hollywood, is it?”
“Well, Andre does like his stars skinny. And Anita is pretty sure she can get Candy that screen test for his next film.”
“Wait, Andre...you mean Andre?”
“Yeah. One-name Andre.”
A screen test with Andre was huge. Huge. The kind of huge where you’d call your best friend and tell her immediately. Or at least tell her sometime. I felt like I’d been sucker-punched. Still, this wasn’t about me. I was just about to ask Arrestadt if he thought maybe Candy was bulimic when he said, “Regardless, I think Candy’s going overboard. I’ve been worried about her too. She’s been ... I don’t know ... secretive. I thought you might know what was going on. After all, you’re her best friend.”
I was Candy’s best friend. It was what I’d wanted to hear, but now it just sounded like bad news.
Now for the other good news I mentioned:
My new book, Echoes of the Lost (coming May ‘26) , is starting to feel real - partly thanks to the fab cover reveal from Dru’s Book Musing:
Pre-orders for e-books will be available soon, and signed paperbacks are available to pre-order now from Annie Bloom's Books!
Watch next week for Installment #12, Chapter 9, “As For You, You Did Not Exist”
And if you haven’t read the first four books in the Agatha-nominated series:
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