SUSAN J. ERICKSON
USA
SusanJEr@aol.com
THE SISTERHOOD OF
THE RUBY RED SLIPPERS
One moment I was skipping down a yellow brick road
wearing a decidedly juvenile getup and those classy red
slippers, then a menacing voice would scream, “Which
way you headed, Sister, in those sparkly slippers?” “Home,”
I’d whimper like a cowardly lion. “Home, schmome. Believe
me, Sister, red slippers alone won’t get you home in this dream,”
she’d scream in that same scary voice. “This is my dream,”
I’d counter weakly. Wrong thing to say. It pissed her off. She rode
off on her broomstick like an Olympic equestrian. “Let me be. Leave
me alone,” I yelled (boldly) as she swooped off in a trail of red
smoke. I was beginning to feel I should be committed to a home
for the subliminally challenged. The same dream, the same witch,
every night, lifted directly from the movie. I was bewitched,
bothered, bewildered as once more I told the dream
to my pro-active Jungian therapist. “We’ve got to get you off home
plate,” she observed. “Get to the bottom of this yellow brick road
block. Cut to the chase, so to speak. Your obsession with red
slippers and witches has archetypal significance. I believe
some kind of repressed envy may be involved,” she said. I believe
in and trust my therapist. She cured me of arachnophobia which
means I can now read Charlotte’s Web without breaking out in red
hives on my elbows and knees. So I was psyched to reenact the
dream
or whatever she suggested. I left her office and pulled over at a road-
side rest stop to rip open the sealed envelope with my home
work. The instructions read: “I KNEW YOU’D PEEK AT THIS. Go home
and sing ‘Over the Rainbow’ three times. Then dial 1-800-BEL-IEVE.”
A woman’s voice said: “Please join us tonight at the crossroads
of Power Drive and Ruby Ave. The meeting starts promptly which
means you must be seated at 11:59 p.m.” I was. Talk about a dream.
The room was filled with women (famous
and not so). Most wore red
slippers, from the outrageous to the classic. Every pair of ruby red
slippers (RRS) was unique. Eureka! Like She-lock Holmes
I deduced you can’t star in someone else’s dream
OR wear their red shoes. By the end of the evening I was a believer--
hot to create my own RRS and get on with believing in them. A witch
(my “old dream” one) did this bang-up red smoke finale. She wrote:
Sisters, follow your itches and dreams!
If on any road abroad or at home
your RRS lose power, call 1-900-BEL-IEVE
1 Last names like Clinton, Hepburn, Steinem,
Murray, Rich, Estes, Kersee-Joyner (her running shoes had red sequin wings),
Streep, Parks and others.
2 There is a charge of
$2.99 a minute--a money-making project of Sisters of the Ruby Red Slippers.