Plus, Ruthie doesn’t know anything about this place. Anything. Who would she approach to ask about reversing spells? And was that what it even was? A spell? Or was it something else? Who knows? Who knows!
The Gnome turning into a solid gold--it’s been her only true break thus far, her only real chance at money (and thus freedom). She might be wasting it by sticking around much longer.
Yes, opportunity is presenting itself.
But it feels so wrong. It feels so horrible. But what else can she do? If she doesn’t take advantage of this one and only chance…she might eventually become a gnome herself. Both her and Papa might be stuck here forever.
How terrible! How horrible!
But what else can she do?
RUTHIE. Oh, Papa! We’ll do it. We’ll sell The Gnome….
PAPA. Of course we will! I’ll stay here and keep guard over it. You go and find out how much it costs to get us home.
And from here, dear friend, there’s no need to go on anymore. Or, well, there’s no need to go on for much longer. We only need to go on long enough to say that Ruthie stood still for quite some time, and that she seemed wracked with indecision. Had she come out of those crushing, soul-searching minutes saying, “No, no. We’ll find another way. This is not the right thing to do,” we might have followed her a bit further down an extremely uncertain and dangerous path. And who knows? We might have gone on for a lot longer. This might have been but the prologue to a HUGE epic. We might have gotten to know each other very well, you and I. And after thousands of pages, I might have been forced to relate poor Ruthie’s brave and moral death.
But alas, things didn’t happen that way.
Once she takes the first step towards the ticket office--well, that’s all we need, isn’t it? It says it all. It speaks for itself. Papa and Ruthie get to go home.
And though that first step might not be in the right direction, we know she’ll get to the airship eventually. That first step is the most important one. It shows all of Ruthie’s intentions. It shows us who she is and who she’s become.
Prisoners usually don’t make for very good friends, but when they do--oh! They’re heroes.
Too bad that Ruthie’s not. Yes, too bad for The Gnome.
How wonderful for Papa, though. How wonderful.
THE END
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